January air freight results are in – but are they meaningful?

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IATA has had it in the neck from Cargo Facts. This article looks at the association’s air freight figures for January, and asks why there is so much doom and gloom for the month, when at no point was Chinese new year and its not inconsiderable affect on the market mentioned. IATA said January saw a 3.2% year-on-year increase – and concluded “air freight makes a slow start in 2015”. It continued its forecasts for the year in a fairly pessimistic way. As CF.com notes: “Since the [Chinese new year] holiday can fall almost any time in January or February, the only way to make a meaningful year-over-year comparison is to look at the two months as a single entity”. But it’s not just CF questioning IATA research at the moment – conversations The Loadstar has had indicate there are other doubts over the quality of the information. More on that at a later date.