International air freight growth, a prime indicator of the health of world trade, looks set to have slowed sharply this year after a huge surge last year, the airline industry body IATA reported.
But passenger traffic performed better during the year and cargo was likely to pick up next year, it said.
IATA, the Geneva-and Montreal-based International Air Transport Association, said cargo carried by its 265 member airlines by the end of November was only 2.8 percent up on the first 11 months of 2004.
This figure, which industry analysts said could be boosted slightly by December traffic as companies rushed to meet holiday period orders, contrasted with the 15.8 per cent freight growth for the whole of last year compared to 2003.
IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani blamed the 2005 drop on a decline in trade in information technology products - for the past decade a major component of air cargo business.
"Next year we expect freight growth to return to more normal levels in the 6 per cent range as the business sectors driving air freight recover - particularly the IT and semiconductor industries," Mr Bisignani said.
In October, the World Trade Organisation said that by the end of this year global goods trade would have grown by only 6.5 per cent year on year, down from the 9 per cent growth of 2004. It also recorded a slowdown in the IT sector.
IATA said that in January-November 2005, passenger traffic on international routes grew by 7.7 per cent over the same period last year. With December traffic likely to provide a small boost, the full-year figure was expected to be 7.8 per cent.
This would be well down on the 2004 growth of 15.6 per cent, a high figure reflecting a sharp recovery after global economic stagnation, the 2001 airliner hijack attacks in the United States and the SARS health scare at the start of the decade.