African airlines have posted a fourth consecutive month of growth at or above 25% compared with the same month in 2019, according to the latest statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
In April, international cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs) in Africa rose by 30.6% compared to April 2019. This was mostly driven by CTKs flown on routes between Asia and Africa, which have not been significantly impacted by the pandemic.
North America was another region that posted positive growth of 25.6% in international CTKs in April 2021 in comparison to April 2019, following a 16.9% gain in March. However, Latin American carriers reported a decline of 32.7% in international cargo volumes in April compared to the 2019 period. This was the worst performance of all regions and a decline in performance compared to the previous month.
“Air cargo continues to be the good news story for the air transport sector. Demand is up 12% on pre-crisis levels and yields are solid. Some regions are outperforming the global trend, most notably carriers in North America, the Middle East and Africa. Strong air cargo performance, however, is not universal. The recovery for carriers in the Latin American region, for example, is stalled,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.
Figures have been compared to 2019 due to the disruption in performance and grounding of aircraft in 2020, caused by the pandemic.
