China's airfreight industry has been suffering since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, although the industry showed some signs of improvement in demand during the first eight months of the year.

Global demand began increasing slowly in April, in line with strengthening business confidence, according to a report from the International Air Transport Association.

But airlines in the Asia Pacific region "have not seen any improvement in demand, and in fact have experienced a 1.9 percent contraction in freight ton-kilometers during the first eight months of 2013", IATA said.