The airports council International (ACI) predicts air freight will triple by 2025, fueled by growth in Asia.

In its recently released Global Traffic Forecast, the ACI said global air freight volumes will grow from 76 million tons in 2005 to 214 tons by 2025.

The growth will be driven primarily by the Asian market's 6.5% annual increase to ship exports out of China and India. North American air freight will grow at a more modest 4.5%, ACI says. Asian freight volume in 2005 was 26 million tons, just 5 million behind North America, and Asia is expected to be the world's largest freight market by 2025, ACI said.

In the shorter-term, the International Air Transport Association is predicting 4.9% growth in overall cargo traffic worldwide for 2007 to 41.5 million metric tons of freight shipped.

Domestically, some U.S. airports are currently benefitting from Asia-bound air cargo. For example, the smaller Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas, reported record volumes in 2006, thanks in part to its offering a one-stop route to Asia which FedEx started in September.

According to a story in the Star-Telegram newspaper, the airport shipped 250,479 metric tons of cargo, far outpacing its previous high of 242,210 tons in 2000.

Passenger traffic will double in the same timeframe to more than 9 billion travelers per year.

A lawsuit claims seven airlines led by Australian carrier Qantas conspired to fix air freight cargo surcharges over several years.

According to an Associated Press report, the lawsuit was filed in Melbourne on Jan. 11 and was served Thursday to Australian flagship carrier Qantas Airways. The other airlines named in the action were Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines and British Airways.

In a recent Australian television interview, Kim Parker, principal of the law firm which brought the case to court, said, "There were three types of surcharges that were fixed as part of a secret price fixing arrangement including a fuel surcharge as a result of increased fuel costs, or they were attributed to increased fuel costs, a security surcharge after the September 11 attacks and a war risk surcharge attributed to increased insurance costs associated with the war in Iraq."