AIRBUS, Global Market Forecast, Future Payloads, 2013.
Air freight essential to world trade
There is no disguising the diffi culties faced by freight carriers in recent years. On a worldwide basis, freight traffi c growth has been impacted in the years following the global fi nancial crisis that struck in 2008. This had a direct impact on people's willingness to spend and hence on international trade growth, which grew at just two per cent from 2008, with much of this coming from the emerging markets.
The more mature markets, especially Europe, have been the most negatively impacted by on-going sovereign debt issues and resulting austerity measures. This has very clearly affected air freight, as these are the markets with the large numbers of consumers of high value products, which tend to use air freight. However, air transportation is, and will continue to be hugely important to world trade, carrying over 30% of all world trade by value. These recent diffi culties, combined with pressure from other modes of transport have caused some to question whether there has been a longer-term shift away from air freight. However, from an economic perspective, there are positive signs, with the world economy showing signs of improvement, and the risk from many of the previously identifi ed potential economic risks having diminished somewhat. Therefore, it is expected more robust growth will return to the air freight industry over the coming 12 months.
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