Tonnages in the Asia Pacific region rebound strongly after Japan typhoon dip
Air cargo tonnages from Asia Pacific have rebounded strongly in the last full week of August after dipping sharply the previous week due to flight cancellations resulting from a typhoon in Northeast Asia, although tonnages from Europe have yet to bounce back from the mid-August ‘Assumption’ holiday.
According to the latest figures and analysis from WorldACD Market Data, worldwide air cargo tonnages in week 34 (19-25 August) rebounded by +5%, compared with the previous week, mainly driven by a week-on-week (WoW) increase of +11% from Asia Pacific origins. That follows a -7% drop in worldwide flown cargo the previous week, most of which was linked to the impact of Typhoon Ampil on air cargo to and from Japan – and to a lesser extent South Korea – and to the 15 August holiday in various European countries. The impact of this week’s further typhoon to affect Japan, Typhoon Shanshan, are expected to be visible in next week’s report (week 35).
The patterns in weeks 33 and 34 are similar to last year, where in addition to the annual ‘Assumption’ holiday, flights in Asia Pacific were disrupted by last year’s Typhoon Lan. One difference is that tonnages from Europe bounced back more quickly in week 34 last year, whereas this year the recovery from the European holiday is quite limited (+1%, WoW).
Meanwhile, further analysis by WorldACD indicates that only around half of this week’s rebound in traffic from Asia Pacific is related to the recovery from the effects of the typhoon on Japanese and South Korean markets, with the other 50% resulting from renewed growth from China and Hong Kong.
Combining the totals from weeks 33 and 34, overall worldwide tonnages are up, year on year (YoY), by +9%, driven by double-digit percentage increases from Asia Pacific (+11%) and Middle East & South Asia (MESA, +10%) origins, with increases of +8% from both Europe and Central & South America (CSA) origins, in addition to increases of +6% from North America and +4% from Africa.
