Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Jun 07, 2012 9:01AM EDT
Air France-KLM’s cargo traffic slumped 8.8 percent in May from a year ago, driven by a double digit decline in the Americas network and sharply lower volumes on previously resilient Middle East and Africa routes.
The Franco-Dutch carrier cut capacity by 3.9 percent from May 2011, trimming the load factor by 3.4 percentage points to 64.3 percent.
Traffic in the first five months of the year is down 7.3 percent from the same period in 2011.
Cargo revenue in the Americas market shrank 13.4 percent in May on 4.3 percent less capacity and the load factor dropped 6.5 points to 62.1 percent.
Asia-Pacific revenue was down 5.1 percent, on a 5.2 percent cut in capacity which pushed up the load factor by 0.1 point to 77.6 percent.
The Middle East-Africa network declined 9.9 percent while capacity was reduced by 2.9 percent from a year ago.
The lower May figure, following an 8.3 percent year-on-year decline in April, coincides with Air France Cargo’s decision to trim its freighter capacity by 20 percent by disposing of one of its five all-cargo aircraft.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.