Export and import volumes both decreased last month, showing a 11.6 percent drop and a 6.4 percent drop, respectively. Import growth from Japan dropped off completely in April, as the tsunami resulted in a 28.1 percent year-over-year decrease.

Nearly every statistic HACTL reports — year-over-year growth, both monthly and cumulatively, for export, import and transshipment — showed decreases ranging from 1 percent to 11 percent, except for transshipment. The cumulative year-over-year transshipment number showed a 7.6 percent growth.

During the CNS Partnership Conference in Phoenix, Lilian Chan, HACTL's executive director, pointed to growth in the interior of China as contributing to the transshipment figure. Due to the increase in Chinese manufacturing in new areas around the country, 45 new airports are expected to be built in the region during the next 5 years.

HACTL's sluggish first quarter may turn around soon, however. At the conference, James Woodrow of Cathay Pacific pointed to a rise in the Chinese middle class as a population sector that will drive airfreight growth.