Air cargo volume increased by 6.2% year over year in October, on top of a 5% increase posted in September, according to data reported Friday by WorldACD Market Data. While volume growth has been steady and steadily improving, revenues and yields have been dropping, although there is now a gradual flattening of revenue and yield declines.

Yields, which are equal to the average price paid by customers to transport one ton a distance of one mile, rose 3% year over year in October. In January, yield fell by 16%. Volume growth from American and European carries contributed most to a month-over-month gain in yield.

WorldACD reported that the undisputed driver of October results was the Asia-Pacific region, particularly from goods leaving China and Taiwan. Year over year, volume growth from China came in at 12%, while Taiwanese volume growth was 9%.

The WorldACD divides the world into 36 geographical markets, and among those markets exactly half are contracting and half are expanding, but the size of the expanding markets is not split evenly: “Expanding markets accounted for 77% of total business. Simply put, the ‘haves’ outperformed the ‘have nots’.”

Among freight forwarders the top 20 grew less than the rest by a small margin. The Europe-to-Asia market grew by 11% year over year. Worldwide, European carriers performed best with volumes up 6.4% over the past three months. Asia-Pacific carriers ranked second with growth of 4.8%.

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