Europe’s Air Freight Falls 14 Percent

Cargo traffic for Europe’s air carriers fell at the slimmest rate in almost a year in September, the Association of European Airlines said in a mixed report that showed the downturn in expedited freight demand slowing down but not improving.

Overall freight traffic fell 14 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago, the AEA said, the smallest year-over-year decline since November 2008.

But the traffic also slipped 0.5 percent from August, the second straight month-to-month setback, which suggested the steady improvement in demand had peaked heading into the fall shipping season.

Traffic across all of the European carriers’ major trade lanes was essentially flat from August to September and air freight traffic to and from the Far East was down 21.2 percent compared to a year ago.

For the first nine months of 2009, the AEA said freight traffic was down 19.8 percent from the same period a year ago, with Far East and Australasia lanes off 26 percent in the period.