AIR CARGO DEMAND CONTINUES GROWING
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air cargo markets for May 2021, showing that demand continued its strong growth trend.
According to IATA, the global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs*), was up 9.4% compared to May 2019. The pace of growth slowed slightly in May compared to April, which saw demand increase 11.3% against pre-COVID-19 levels (April 2019). Notwithstanding, air cargo outperformed global goods trade for the fifth consecutive month.
Simultaneously, capacity remains constrained at 9.7% below pre-COVID-19 levels (May 2019) due to the ongoing grounding of passenger aircraft. Seasonally adjusted capacity rose 0.8% month-on-month in May, the fourth consecutive month of improvement indicating that the capacity crunch is slowly unwinding.
Concerning regional performance, European carriers posted an 5.7% increase in demand in May 2021 compared to the same month in 2019. This was a decrease in performance compared to the previous month (11.5%) due to a slight slowdown in growth on key trade routes including Europe – Asia and within Europe. International capacity decreased by 17.3% in May 2021 versus May 2019, remaining unchanged from the previous month.
Source: IATA