Europe’s Air Cargo Dives 21 Percent

Freight traffic for Europe’s airlines plunged a record 21.1 percent in the first two months of 2009 as the business “has all but collapsed,” the Association of European Airlines said.

The decline included double-digit drops across all the carriers’ major markets in February, although there were some halting signs of improvement.

Freight traffic connected to the Far East and Australasia fell 24.9 percent in February compared to the year before, but the business actually advanced from January, when it was down 29.9 percent year over year.

Reporting January and February together, the AEA said traffic fell 21.1 percent in January and slightly less, 21 percent, in February.

Although most airlines across the continent were hit hard, second-tier cargo carriers such as Virgin Atlantic, Austrian and SAS suffered drops of greater than 30 percent.

Only Turkish Airlines defied the downturn among airlines with significant freight traffic, reporting a 13 percent increase in February over the same month a year ago.