IATA publishes gloomy air freight market analysis for July

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Everywhere you look, the story seems to be the same. ‘Troubled air freight sector slows’, ‘airports report low air cargo volumes’ are typical headlines. As many airline executives had predicted near the start of the year, the summer was always going to be tough. And it has been. IATA today published its monthly stats for July, which showed that volumes fell 0.6% in July year-on-year, with Asia Pacific carriers seeing a 1.9% fall in FTKs, reflecting a decline in world trade. North Americans carriers were down 3.7% in July, while overall there has been no growth in FTKs since the end of 2014. IATA is predicting, of course, a better second half, but notes it would need to be significant for “prior growth expectations to be met”.