Cargo tonne kilometres (CTK) were up 13.6% in July while capacity measured in available CTK (ACTK) increased 8.3%.
Belly space on passenger flights was behind the increase in ACTK, up 12.8% combined with a 6.9% rise in international freighter capacity.
IATA says the increase in belly capacity was the lowest in 40 months while freighter capacity had the largest jump since January.
Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA says growth was strong across all regions with air cargo benefiting from the growth in global trade, booming e-commerce and maritime freight constraints.
He said: “With the peak season still to come, it is shaping to be a very strong year for air cargo. And airlines have proven adept at navigating political and economic uncertainties to flexibly meet emerging demand trends.”
Factors affecting the operating environment include the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for global manufacturing output indicated expansion at 50.2 while the global new export orders PMI was 49.4, indicating contraction.
Industrial production stayed level in July and global cross-border trade increased 0.7%.
Inflation remained stable in the US, Japan and the EU at around 3% while China’s inflation rate increased 0.3 percentage points to 0.6%, the highest level in five months.
By region, Asia Pacific airlines had the strongest growth at 17.6% with intra-Asian trade up 19.8% while Europe-Asia, Middle East-Asia and Asia-Africa trade lanes were up by 17.9%, 15.9% and 15.4% respectively.
North American airlines grew by 8.7% with growth being hampered by flight cancellations and airport closures due to Hurricane Beryl.
The Asia-North America trade lane had the highest growth at 10.8% while North America-Europe was more modest at 5.3%.
Europe was up 13.7% with the Middle East-Europe trade lane maintaining its double-digit streak that started in September by growing 32.2%.
Europe-Asia grew 17.9% and air cargo within Europe increased by 15.5%.
The Middle East was up by 14.7% helped by the Middle East-Europe and Middle East-Asia trade lanes.
Latin American airlines grew by 11.1% and like North America they were hampered by flight cancellations and airport closures due to Hurricane Beryl.
African airlines had the lowest growth at 6.2% with the Africa-Asia trade lane posting the strongest growth at 15.4%.
