For the first time in 2.5 years November saw a decrease in year-on-year air freight volumes with a dip of 0.9 percent, according to data compiled by analyst WorldACD.

When viewing September, October and November together, there was year-on-year growth of one percent, "well below" the 2.6 percent increase recorded for the year until August, according to WorldACD, reported London's Air Cargo News.

However, there were some positives to be drawn from the November figures, as a result of growth in China and China Hong Kong.

"Their exports by air to Europe had been below previous year’s volumes for a good part of 2015, but over the past months this negative pattern was reversed," the analyst said.

"The destination North America had already performed well since the beginning of 2015 and continued that trend towards the year’s end," said then WorldACD report.

"We observe rather positive yield patterns for the origin Asia Pacific: between August and November, yields rose 17 percent to Europe, and 10 percent to North America," it said.

For other regions during the three months, demand from Africa and Europe were up 4.4 percent and Middle East South Asia grew two percent, while volumes from the Americas fell three percent compared to 2014.

Intra-Asia Pacific air cargo carriers witnessed a year-on-year decline of four percent in November, and a 1.3 percent drop in the last three months.

Carriers from North America contracted three percent year on year on average in terms of volumes over the past three months.

Competitors from Asia Pacific and Europe hardly grew. Carrier groups from Africa were up two percent and while the Middle East South Asia grew seven percent.