Am idst ongoing economic uncertainty, airfreight has remained relatively stable – although demand has dropped in recent months. The sector, however, remains resilient and the outlook is relatively positive.According to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), there’s been a significant improvement in capacity, while global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs), has been on the decline.“Market signals remain mixed,” said Willie Walsh, Iata’s director general. “Air cargo, however, continues to demonstrate resilience. Cargo volumes, while tracking below the exceptional performance of 2021, have been relatively stable in the face of economic uncertainties and geopolitical conf licts.”According to the latest figures, global demand fell 8.3% in August compared to August 2021, a slight improvement on the year-on-year decline of 9.7% seen in July.In its latest results, DSV noted that airfreight volumes were down by 3% in the third quarter of the year. “Adjusted for the addition of Agility Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) business, we estimate that DSV volumes declined approximately 10% (year-to-date minus 5%),” according to the Q3 interim financial report.The company said it estimated that DSV’s performance was better than the general air market. “While demand for airfreight has been declining, the available capacity has increased as belly-space capacity on passenger planes has gradually returned on some routes. As a result, airfreight rates have declined, but the continued high fuel costs mean that rates have remained at relatively high levels.”According to DSV, increasing global economic uncertainty has dampened consumer demand during 2022, and this development accelerated in the third quarter, leading to the lower demand for freight services and falling spot rates.Kuehne+Nagel ’s air log istics division has reported slower growth in the third quarter of 2022, saying it has also noted that airfreight market capacity has grown but demand has dropped.In a statement, the company said higher energy prices, broad-based inf lation, as well as geopolitical tensions continued to drive additional volatility in supply chains.In its interim financial report, the company said a positive was that air logistics had maintained relatively high average yields in the third quarter, marking a significant increase on the previous quarter.“Commercial airline operations were volatile in the first nine months of 2022 due to the overall geopolitical situation and level of uncertainty. Even so, demand for cargo capacity on most trade routes was positive.”Another reason why demand is believed to have dipped is that supply chain congestion is starting to ease and sea freight is returning to some sense of normality, meaning business that had moved to airfreight has started to return to the ocean.While most experts believe the golden period as experienced by the airfreight sector over the past few years may have ended, markets remain volatile and uncertain and it is anyone’s guess when demand will pick up again.According to Iata, cargo volumes continue to show increases in Africa where carriers recorded 1% growth in August this year compared to August 2021. This was a significant improvement in growth recorded the previous month (-3.5%). Capacity was 1.4% below the August 2021 levels.
