AIR CARGO UP 9.1% IN SEPTEMBER, CAPACITY REMAINS CONSTRAINED
On 3 November, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air cargo markets in September 2021, showing that demand continued to be well above pre-crisis levels and that capacity constraints persist.
According to the figures, global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs), was up 9.1% compared to September 2019. Capacity remains constrained at 8.9% below pre-COVID-19 levels (September 2019). Considering regional performance, the Middle East and Asia Pacific were the only contributors to the small month-on-month improvement. Seasonally adjusted CTKs in Europe were unchanged from August, and other regions posted month-on-month falls.
IATA notes that there have been several factors influencing the demand, including supply chain disruptions and the resulting delivery delays, which led to long supplier delivery times. As a result, manufacturers use air transport, which is quicker, to recover time lost during the production process. Moreover, the inventory-to-sales ratio remains low ahead of the peak year-end retail events such as Single’s Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Whilst this is positive for air cargo, further capacity constraints put this at risk. Lastly, the cost-competitiveness of air cargo relative to that of container shipping remains favourable. Pre-crisis, the average price to move air cargo was 12.5 times more expensive than sea shipping. In September 2021 it was only three times more expensive.
Source: IATA