Los Angeles Air Freight Dives

The freight decline at Los Angeles International Airport leveled off in February but the 23.1 percent drop in tonnage still marked the seventh straight month of double-digit declines at the United States’ largest trans-Pacific air cargo gateway.

The slide in February was slightly better than the 24.5 percent drop in air freight at LAX in January.

But it was still the fourth month in a row of declines exceeding 20 percent as the airport’s freight operations suffered under collapsing exports out of Asia.

Postal traffic, which makes up only a small share of the cargo business at Los Angeles International, fell 43.5 percent in February from the same month a year ago.

Despite the grim report from Los Angeles, the February report from Seattle-Tacoma International suggested some life in the trans-Pacific air cargo market.

Sea-Tac saw cargo business fall 11.5 percent in February compared to February 2008. But international freight actually expanded 5.1 percent at the airport, pushed by a 41.5 percent jump in exports.

Sea-Tac’s cargo business is less than 15 percent the size of LAX, however, and the gains in Seattle were almost entirely because of expanded service from Taiwanese carriers EVA Air and China Airlines.