A 3.7% increase in global airfreight growth in the first half has been posted with international traffic rising 4.5% and domestic volumes up 1.8%, according to the Airports Council International (ACI). Statistics from the Montreal-based world airport association show airports averaged year-on-year cargo growth of 2.8%- up 3.2% for international traffic and 1.7% for domestic. IATA’s freight tonne kilometres (FTK) figures estimate global air freight in the first half of 2014 at 4.1 per cent, while Amsterdam-based research house WorldACD reports a slightly higher tonnage this year. Taking 50 airlines’ transactions with 15,000 forwarders showed 4.8% year on year growth in the first half, according to the WorldACD database, reported Lloyd’s Loading List. ACI data shows Asia-Pacific airport cargo volume grew five per cent in the first half with the world’s busiest airport - Hong Kong - growing 6.3% to 2.1 million tonnes after 2.4 % growth in 2013. Japan’s air freight recovery also appears to be gaining strength as its economy shows signs of growth, with Tokyo Narita Airport achieving a traffic increase of nine per cent in the first half to 997,000 tonnes. But Singapore’s Changi airport only posted a 0.6 per cent first half increase to 910,000 tonnes, continuing last year’s flat performance when volumes grew 0.8 per cent. ACI data indicates growth averaging 4.5% at Europe’s airports with the busiest, Frankfurt, up 2.2% to 1.1 million tonnes in the first half, though Schiphol grew 8.8% to 801,000 tonnes. London Heathrow was up 4.1% to 726,000 tonnes in the first half, but Italy’s Malpensa topped the table for European growth with a 12% increase. Luxembourg was up nine per cent to 345,000 tonnes. Leipzig, Cologne, Liege and Paris Charles de Gaulle achieved single-digit growth this year as the integrators have limited capacity in response to the switch in demand towards “deferred express” services. North American air cargo volume posted 2.3% first half growth, 5.1% of it international and 0.5 per cent, domestic traffic. LAX first half volumes were flat at 951,000 tonnes while O’Hare was up 8.5% to 738,000 tonnes; Dallas Fort Worth was up five per cent to 335,000 tonnes while Miami volumes increased 1.9% to 936,000 tonnes. ACI figures showed Latin America-Caribbean first half cargo growth averaging 0.4 per cent. Mideast carriers have continued to expand with volumes up 10 per cent with capacity rising 8.6% year on year. Africa was up 3.1% in the first half, affected by a slowdown in some African economies, notably South Africa, though ACI’s FreightFlash snapshot indicates African airports declined 2.3% in the first half.