THE latest figures posted by Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed that the country's air cargo volume continued to fall in October while passenger volume grew steadily, Xinhua reports.

    China posted an air cargo throughput of 469,400 tonnes, 6.3 per cent less than in October last year. Domestic cargo volume remains on the same level as in last year. Freight volumes of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau cargo dropped 15.6 per cent while international cargo fell 17.3 per cent.

    Passenger volume continued to climb at a steady rate of 7.5 per cent to 26.38 million persons, but the growth is 2.2 per cent slower than in September. International passengers were 10.5 per cent more than in the same month in 2010.

    Seat utilisation rate reached 82.6 per cent, 0.5 per cent more than in September, while passenger load factor dropped 0.6 per cent over September to 72.3 per cent.

    From January to October, China's air cargo volume fell 1.5 per cent year on year to 4.54 million tonnes. Passenger volume grew 8.7 per cent to 245 million persons. Total turnover volume increased 6.6 per cent to 47.74 billion tonnes per kilometre.

    China's performance is in line with the world's. According to IATA's figures, the world air cargo market deteriorated in October with a 4.7 per cent year-on-year decrease, while passenger volume rose 3.6 per cent.

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