Worldwide cargo volumes are expected to grow by 1.4% and passenger traffic by 4.5% during 2013, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported. Iata’s November 2012 air traffic volume statistics, released this month, showed an improvement in both passenger and air freight demand.

Air travel was 4.6% higher, compared with November 2011, while air freight volumes edged up 1.6% over the same period.

Passenger capacity rose 3.2% and the load factor improved one percentage point to 77.3%, compared with November 2011.

While Iata’s director-general and CEO, Tony Tyler, conceded that November brought some positive signs for air transport demand – particularly for air cargo – he added that it would be premature to consider the results a turning point for air cargo markets.

However, he added that, when coupled with positive economic developments in the US and an improvement in business confidence in recent months, conditions were aligning to see a return to growth this year.

“Passenger markets have held up better than cargo in the face of adverse economic conditions. But the current level of air travel is just 2% higher than at the start of 2012. “This is considerably weaker than the long-term average growth rate,” said Tyler.

November international passenger demand grew 5.6%, compared with November 2011; however, the month-on-month increase was only 0.2%, indicating that year-on-year growth was more likely, owing to depressed demand a year ago.

Nevertheless, emerging markets, in particular, continued to perform well and capacity increased by 3.1%, compared with a year ago.

Asia-Pacific carriers experienced the strongest growth among the major regions, with demand up 6.2% year-on-year on a capacity increase of 2.5%.

African airlines saw demand expand 5% year-on-year, but capacity growth was held in check at 4.4%, while the load factor rose 0.4 percentage points to 64.7% but remained the lowest of the regions.

Compared with October, African traffic was up just 0.1%.

African carriers grew freight volumes by 4.4%, compared with November 2011 and, although they kept the capacity increase to 3.6%, the load factor of 26.2% was still the weakest of all regions by a wide margin.

Tyler added that governments should resolve to bring down the barriers to connectivity growth by dealing with excessive taxation, high infrastructure costs and onerous regulation, and improving the capacity and efficiency of airports and air navigation services.