Cargo grew strongly across Asia Pacific in November with freight tonne kilometres (FTK) up 5.3 per cent helped by strong exports, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).

In November FTKs rose by 5.3 per cent to 6.1 billion while capacity in available FTKs (AFTK) was up 3.2 per cent to 9.1 billion. Load factors across the region increased by 1.4 percentage points to 66.9 per cent.

Cargo volumes rose 1.2 per cent to 60.1 billion FTKs during the first 11 months of 2016 while AFTKs were up 3.3 per cent to 96.7 billion, pushing the load factor down 1.3 percentage points to 62.2 per cent.

AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman says: “The region’s carriers have seen a modest but progressive recovery in international air cargo demand this year, with volume growth of 1.2% for the first eleven months of 2016.”

He adds: “Air cargo markets picked up modestly during the course of the year, but rates remain highly competitive, reflecting soft global trade conditions.”