Demand in the airfreight sector continues to track well across all regions, showing strong growth, especially in the Middle-East South Asia (Mesa) and Asia Pacific markets.
Latest cargo data from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) shows growth trajectories north of 19% in both regions.
Iata’s figures for Africa, Europe, Central South America (CSA) and North America confirmed across-the-board growth in the airfreight sector for the first half (H1) of 2024, respectively increasing by 8%, 7%, 5% and 2%.
Year-on-year (y-o-y) comparisons for the same H1 period point to tonnage increasing by 12%.
Airfreight aggregator service, WorldACD Market Data, has furthermore found that there has been an 11% increase in y-o-y airfreight for the second quarter (Q2) in 2024, although the Q1 figure for the same H1 period is 12%.
The initial estimate for June, showing a 9% y-o-y increase, was slightly below the average y-o-y full-month tonnage growth rate for the year thus far.
Robust y-o-y growth persisted from Asia-Pacific origins, while demand from Mesa origins declined somewhat from the exceptionally high growth levels in the first quarter.
Tonnages from Mesa origins in Q2 were still significantly higher at more than 13% compared to the same period last year.
However, Mesa’s Q1 y-o-y growth was 27% for 2024, a period heavily impacted by disruptions to container shipping because of vessel attacks in the Red Sea.
Tonnages from Asia-Pacific origins in Q2 increased by 18% y-o-y, similar to the 20% y-o-y growth in the first quarter.
Tonnages from all major global origin regions in Q2 this year were higher than the same period last year.
European volumes rose by 7%, African origins by 6%, and both North America and CSA saw a 5% y-o-y increase.
Regarding pricing, the average global air cargo rates of $2.39 per kilogram for the first half of 2024, based on a market-wide average of spot and contract rates, were down by 8% y-o-y.
This decline was partly due to a challenging comparison with the elevated average rates ($2.76/kg) present in the market in Q1 of last year.
However, the average rate of $2.46 per kilogram in Q2 this year was 2% higher than in the same period last year, driven by substantial y-o-y increases from Asia-Pacific (+10%) and Mesa (+47%) origins, particularly on key routes.
While global average rates in the first four months of 2024 were lower than last year, by May they had moved into positive territory (+2%), with the gap widening to 9% in June, when they averaged $2.52 per kilogram.
In the last full week of June (week 26, June 24-30), average global rates slightly decreased by $0.02 to $2.51 per kilogram, week-on-week, according to over 450 000 weekly transactions tracked by WorldACD's data.
However, this figure was up 9% year-on-year and significantly above pre-Covid levels, being 41% higher than in June 2019.
Meanwhile, total worldwide tonnages in week 26 rebounded by 3% after a cumulative 5% decline over the previous two weeks, a trend mainly linked to the Eid al-Adha festivals and holidays, which took place between June 16 and 20 this year, affecting predominantly Muslim countries.
