Europe's air export up, imports down in September

AMSTERDAM - December 23rd, 2008 - Seabury Cargo Advisory reports that with a growth of 1.5 percent in September, Europes air exports slightly improved from this years low of -4.6 percent in August. Although air exports increased to mainly China, India and the U.A.E., air exports to the USA experienced negative growth of 9.2 percent, mainly attributable to lower exports of vehicle parts. Septembers air export growth was at par with the increase of cargo capacity out of Europe which grew by 1.7 percent caused by increased cargo capacity on passenger aircraft.

Europes air imports decreased by 4.3 percent in September. Commodity groups experiencing the largest decrease were computer & television parts, iron & steel products, and fashion goods. Air imports from Europes second largest sourcing country, the US, were hard hit: -9.3 percent. In particular imports from the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles areas declined: -13.9, -16.5 and -15.4% respectively.