Air freight demand among ME airlines improve 'significantly' between April and May

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said air freight demand among Middle East airlines improved ‘significantly’ between April and May.

Middle Eastern carriers reported a decline in demand of 25% year-on-year in May compared to a 36.2% drop in April.

New data from IATA shows a slight improvement in the global air cargo market but indicates that capacity remains unable to meet demand as a result of the loss of belly cargo operations on passenger aircraft that have been parked.

Global demand fell by 20.3% in May compared to the previous year. That is an improvement from the 25.6% year-on-year drop recorded in April.

“The gap between demand and capacity shows the challenge in finding the space on the aircraft still flying to get goods to market,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s CEO.

“For that the prospects for air cargo remain stronger than for the passenger business but the future is very uncertain. Economic activity is picking up from April lows as some economies unlock. But predicting the length and depth of the recession remains difficult.”