Air Cargo Carriers News

The long-term effects of US tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption have disrupted established air cargo flows and is clouding the industry outlook for the year.

From his hometown hub of Memphis, Fred Smith built FedEx from a $4 million inheritance to an $88 billion behemoth.

The US Court of International Trade on Wednesday stated that President Donald Trump’s tariffs exceed his authority.

Demand for goods traditionally shipped by air has been weakened by global economic issues, high inflation in destination markets and geopolitical issues that have impacted trade flows.

The Luxembourg-based carrier is the latest airline to sign a supply agreement for sustainable aviation fuel, but it comes as the industry makes slow progress toward decarbonization.

The trans-Pacific air cargo sector is trying to assess the demand implications of the preliminary trade deal between Washington and Beijing, which included a reduction in the tariff on parcels from China.

It is the second acquisition this week by a CMA CGM subsidiary following CEVA Logistics’ takeover of Turkish forwarder Borusan Tedarik, with both deals aimed at extending the carrier’s end-to-end supply chain control.

Chartered flights from China to the US have been canceled and air freight traffic has declined as Washington prepares to scrap the duty-free exemption for low-value goods shipped from China and Hong Kong.

The closure of freighter slots at the airport beginning in August is expected to last several months because of an estimated $1 billion investment plan launched by port operator Adani Airport Holding.

Qatar, IAG and MASkargo plan to get their trilateral partnership off the ground as soon as regulatory approval is secured.

An initial flurry of activity will be followed by a drop in demand after e-commerce from China and Hong Kong no longer enjoys duty-free treatment, the head of the air cargo group tells the Journal of Commerce.

But any shipper celebrations over potentially lower rates in a cooling market will be tempered by concerns about border congestion as US customs will now be tasked with processing millions of de minimis imports every day.

Price and volume increases are being seen across trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade lanes, but there is little clarity on whether underlying demand is enough to prop up spot rates once the tariffs have been implemented.

Air cargo operators out of Europe’s busiest airport will face at least a week of turmoil as airlines, forwarders and terminals start clearing the rapidly building backlog of freight when flight operations restart at midnight Friday.

The automotive sector is driving the unseasonably strong volumes as manufacturers expedite shipments from Europe to the US to avoid new duties coming in April.

The ability to shift capacity to alternative growth markets combined with a diversified cargo mix will insulate the airline from US moves to target e-commerce imports from China, according to its chairman.

While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.

The sector is off to a strong start to the year, but tariff-driven trade tensions and other concerns could have a negative impact on the global air freight market, according to industry groups.

While the US-based carrier experienced a strong 2024, growth this year is under threat due to tariffs and the unknowns involving when Red Sea transits will resume.

The first in a series of “development flights” loaded with packages from Hong Kong landed at the Scottish west coast airport this week with a view to launching scheduled weekly services in March.

The European Commission wants member states to exert greater control over low-value imports, while its consumer watchdog has launched an investigation into e-commerce giant Shein.

Average rates hit a 2024 high in early December but have declined steadily since, with not even an early Lunar New Year able to prevent the slide.

The Doha-based carrier will expand the digital connectivity of its containers to improve real-time visibility across the global cargo and passenger network.

Capacity will continue to be the greatest challenge facing cargo owners moving goods from Asia by air this year.

As the supply-demand imbalance drives air freight rates to levels not seen in two years, forwarders are trying to balance the contractual requirements of airlines while securing capacity at reasonable rates for customers.

Advent eModal, a three-decade landmark provider of fee collection and appointment scheduling at container terminals, has been sold by private equity group Blackstone to air cargo software specialist CargoSprint.

While cargo volume is expected to grow 5.8% next year, the airline association is warning that aircraft supply chain issues will raise costs, possibly limiting that growth.

Air cargo is seeing a greater volume of non-essential products to get around container shipping challenges, a move that comes at a substantial cost to shippers.

The first week of December is traditionally when demand for air cargo reaches its highest level, and this year a wide imbalance between demand and available space is pushing up already elevated prices.

By connecting to forwarder-customers of software vendor e2open, Freightos is continuing its push to develop electronic booking capability in the air freight industry.

Volume and rates on the Asian export corridors to the US and Europe have been high all year and online shopping promotions in November are further stoking the market.

The recent rise in volume to Europe contrasts sharply with China-to-US tonnage that in the second half has fallen far below year-over-year levels following greater scrutiny by US authorities on e-commerce imports.

A year of disruption has been on-the-job training for air freight shippers that are now battle-hardened and prepared for a tough end-of-year peak season.

Eight straight months of double-digit volume growth and a massive increase in trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe e-commerce volumes, mostly shipped from China by air, has left air cargo capacity in short supply.

Sustained demand for air cargo on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe trades and the promise of rising rates through the end-of-year peak are encouraging airlines to pull capacity from less-lucrative lanes.

Still, the buoyant mood of carriers contrasts with global forwarders that have low levels of exposure to e-commerce shipments and are under pressure to find capacity for traditional customers.

Eight straight months of double-digit volume growth in global air freight markets has kept freighters full and flying at peak utilization, and continued demand is expected to outstrip available capacity through Q4 and beyond.

The extent of the disruption to air freight schedules is not yet apparent, but the loss of the belly cargo space, even for a short period, comes at a particularly inconvenient time.

The service comes as air freight rates out of Hong Kong have stabilized but are still approximately 20% higher than this time last year, according to the Baltic Air Index.

Chinese online marketplaces have hit on a rich vein of business-to-customer volumes, with the current boom in international air freight driven by cross-border e-commerce rather than a recovery of traditional manufacturing.