IATA says air cargo at West Asian carriers grew 5.6 percent in June as the passenger decline narrowed from 28.8 to 13.9 percent

The International Air Transport Association, in data published on Thursday 30 July 2026 (8 Mordad 1405), said carriers in the region showed signs of recovery in June. Their international cargo traffic rose 5.6 percent compared with June last year, a 14.5 percentage point turnaround from May, which IATA attributed to the gradual restoration of transfer traffic through the region's hub airports.

On the passenger side, traffic at these carriers fell 13.9 percent year on year in June, a marked improvement on the 28.8 percent decline recorded a month earlier. In June IATA had estimated that the region's airlines would swing from a 7.2 billion dollar profit in 2025 to a 4.3 billion dollar loss in 2026, warning that the region was especially exposed to the loss of transfer flows through its hub airports.

Globally, air cargo demand strengthened further in June, with industry wide cargo tonne kilometres up 8.5 percent year on year and international cargo traffic up 9.6 percent. Capacity in the region grew more cautiously, with available cargo tonne kilometres up just 2.5 percent. The load factor reached 46.5 percent at the region's carriers and 40.7 percent at North American carriers. Cargo traffic between the region and Asia narrowed its decline to 4.1 percent, but the Europe to West Asia corridor remained the weakest major trade lane, contracting 41.1 percent.