Bruce Barnard | Jul 08, 2011 8:35AM EDT
Air France-KLM’s cargo traffic fell 2.8 percent in June from a year ago as demand weakened amid political turmoil in Africa and the Middle East and the aftermath of Japan’s natural disasters.
The Franco-Dutch carrier increased capacity 1.6 percent from 12 months ago in response to an oversupply of cargo space from Asian destinations.
The load factor declined 2.9 percentage points to 64.7 percent.
Traffic, measured in revenue metric-ton kilometers, fell back 9.5 percent on Africa-Middle East routes, 2.7 percent on Asia-Pacific services and 1.1 percent on the Americas network.
Meantime, British Airways and Iberia, now together as the International Airline Group, boosted traffic 2.2 percent and cargo revenue 7.5 percent from a year ago.
The carriers, which merged their cargo operations in April, increased capacity 6.9 percent and improved load factor 6.9 percentage points to 74.9 percent.
The Spanish carrier outperformed BA, with cargo traffic up 5 percent against 1.5 percent growth at the UK airline. Iberia has grown traffic in the first half of 2011 by 8.4 percent from the same period in 2010 and BA’s volume is up 7.2 percent.
IAG opened two cargo routes in June – a twice-weekly service between Madrid and Brussels and a weekly service between Madrid and Nouakchott, Mauritania, via Gran Canarias.
