Air Cargo has been on an low due to the different global conditions which has affected the market a lot

 

IATA (International Air Transport Association) is the association for the world’s airlines, and it has around 290 airlines and controls around 83% of the air traffic. The air cargo market has been suffering a lot since the Covid-19 pandemic began. In one of the recent market updates, the demand for air cargo dropped by 11.2% in April in comparison to last year. This demand fall is the largest since August 2020 but the demand is still above the pre-covid levels. There are many factors behind the air cargo demand falling down, and one of the reasons according to the IATA is the war between Ukraine and Russia. Many Ukrainian airlines and Russian airlines were major cargo contributors to serve other countries in Europe but since the war the air cargo has declined rapidly in both the countries. Another major reason that the IATA are suggesting is the zero-covid policy in China that is hampering the air cargo demand. This led to capacity issues due to flight cancellations on account of labour shortage.

Air Cargo

According to reports, the airlines have sufffered a lot due to decrease in cargo demand

The IATA said that the war had a massive effect on the air cargo demand around the world as the countries at war were major contributors and account for a good percentage of the air cargo demand. China, on the other hand, has had a very low demand in the last month due to the world’s largest port being in Shanghai, China, being not operational at all. Even after facing backlash on the demand side of things, IATA director general Walsh is looking towards the bright side of things. He said that, “The operating environment is challenging for all businesses, including air cargo. But with China easing lockdown restrictions, there is cause for some optimism and the supply/demand imbalance is keeping yields high.”

Air Cargo

Asia Pacific airlines saw a massive decrease in demand of about 15.8% on comparing their demand during April 2021 and April 2022.

According to reports by the IATA , it has been confirmed that there has been a decrease in the demand for air cargo over the past year in almost all the continents. Asia Pacific airlines saw a massive decrease in demand of about 15.8% on comparing their demand during April 2021 and April 2022. North American carriers saw about a 6.9% decrease in demand over April 2022 when it was compared with the same month last year. European carriers registered a 14.4% drop in demand April as the Ukraine war and lower manufacturing activity in Asia affected volumes. Middle Eastern carriers experienced a 11.9% year-on-year decrease in cargo volumes in April. The only positive throughout the month of April came through the Latin American carriers as they recorded an excellent performance of 40.9% in comparison to last year. 

Even after a disappointing April, IATA are still hopeful that the demand can only go up from this point and it is time to be optimistic more than anything. Once things are a little bit back to normal, we can see a rapid rise in the air cargo demand in all the major areas. It remains to be seen how the air cargo demand will fluctuate throughout the year from here on in.