Air cargo traffic to and from the Middle East & South Asia (MESA) has fallen sharply in the last two weeks due to the effects of Eid Al Adha holidays and the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, which has slowed some of the post-Eid recovery of volumes, according to WorldACD Market Data.

 

As per its latest weekly figures and analysis, the tonnages flown from MESA origins declined by a further -9%, week on week (WoW), for the June 9 to 15 period after already falling by around -8% the previous week in response to Eid, especially intra-MESA traffic (-26%) and MESA to Africa flows (-17%).

 

The WoW declines continued, with South Asia impacted particularly strongly (-13%) – including WoW declines in traffic from Bangladesh (-43%) and Pakistan (-30%), it stated. 

 

WorldACD Market Data stated that tonnages from most Gulf countries were also negatively impacted in week 24, although traffic from the UAE more than compensated for the drop in volumes from other Gulf countries with a +15% WoW increase, bringing total Gulf tonnages into overall growth (+8%), WoW. 

 

Those traffic increases from the UAE were mainly to destinations in Africa (+36%, WoW) and other parts of the MESA region (+31%, WoW), with especially big increases to West Africa (+76%) – notably to Nigeria, Chad and Senegal – and to East Africa (+25%), especially to Kenya (+83%). 

 

Within MESA, traffic from the UAE rebounded especially strongly in week 24 on intra-Gulf routes (+51%), particularly to Saudi Arabia (+107%), after falling the previous week due to Eid. 

 

Combining the figures for weeks 23 and 24, total tonnages from MESA origins were still -13% below their level in the previous two weeks (a two-week-on-two-week comparison – 2Wo2W), including a -14% decline to Asia Pacific destinations and a -11% drop to Europe, based on the more than 500,000 weekly transactions covered by WorldACD’s data.

 

Elsewhere, air cargo tonnages from Asia Pacific origins rose by +2%, WoW – the only global origin region to record a WoW increase in week 24 – although the combined volumes ex-Asia Pacific for weeks 23 and 24 were negative (-4%) compared with the previous two weeks, it added.