February, traditionally the slowest month for international traffic, brought both good news and solid growth. The recovery in freight has stretched to three months with growth of over 5 percent resulting from strength in international trade.
The story for January was freight which is starting to show a definite strengthening trend following the disappointing 3.2% growth of 2005. This is the first time in a year we have seen two consecutive months of freight traffic growth above 5% which points to a resurgent world economy.
This is the first time in a year we have seen two consecutive months of freight traffic growth above 5% which points to a resurgent world economy.
The growth is there, the issue is how we can make this growth into a profitable industry. The solution is increasing efficiency of airlines, increasing the load factor and handling better capacity.
The industry is returning to a more normal growth pattern after the shocks that began in 2001.
The industry is on track with 2006 growth expectations of 5-6 percent for both freight and passenger traffic.