Wednesday World Routes Special - Freight "Through The Roof" - Fedex

Fedex has seen international freight volumes go "through the roof" this year in a further sign of the recovery taking place in the global air cargo industry and the wider economy, according to one of its logistics specialists who was speaking yesterday at the Aviation - The Catalyst for Economic Development Conference (ACED) co-located event at this year's World Routes in Vancouver.

Richard Smith, Fedex's managing director of Life Sciences and Specialty Services in Global Trade Services, said Asian markets in particular were seeing dramatic increases in traffic, which was helping drive the recovery.

"International volumes are through the roof, we are seeing high volumes of exports from Asia coming into the US," he said.

Despite the sluggish US economy and unemployment in that country, the manufacturing and service sectors were improving and would "set the stage for economic recovery" there, he said.

He also revealed Fedex was continuing its strategy of diversifying its hubs with its Asia-Pacific hub in Guangzhou in performing well and a new base in Cologne recently opened.