ACI World has voiced its concerns about the health of the global air freight market, noting that while passenger growth “continues to weather the storm of economic uncertainty, global freight traffic appears to be less enduring”. ACI’s newly appointed Economics Director, Rafael Echevarne, commented, “as major economies wait for the outcome of sovereign debt issues to unravel particularly in the Euro zone area, international trade in air freight appears to be on the side-lines. If the uncertainty persists into the last quarter of 2011, we are likely to see growth rates in negative territory for freight traffic.”

The air freight performance in September showed overall declines for much of the developed world. Year-on-year freight growth remained in negative territory for the fifth consecutive month at -3.7%. ACI said, “With business confidence eroding in an uncertain economic climate, this sentiment is partly reflected in the freight data."