Air cargo forwarding

In addition to long-haul passenger aircraft with significant belly freight capacity coming back into service to capture growing travel business, several airlines are adding freighters to the major trade lanes.

Freight rate booking marketplace Freightos said its unprofitable business is seeing improving margins and that scale will help it past the breakeven point.

The post-pandemic recovery of China’s economy following the lifting of restrictions late last year is sparking increasingly optimistic expectations for the air cargo market in 2023 despite a challenging start to the year.

Denmark’s DSV collected record profits for 2022, but the forwarder says a return to a more “normal” market has begun.

The traditional air cargo market slowdown has been exaggerated by an early start to the Lunar New Year and an unfavorable comparison with last year’s robust peak season.

Freightos’ public listing on the NASDAQ will be the first test of how public investors value one of the more prominent logistics technology companies to emerge over the past decade.

The need for forwarders to tether quoting and tracking in international freight modes to US surface modes has been highlighted by new offerings from ECU Worldwide and Freightos.

Whereas a shortage of capacity in major trades was the chief issue for air cargo providers over the past two years, the greatest challenge in 2023 will be a lack of demand.

Dismal November air cargo data has all but assured a weak end to 2022 with no sign of a seasonal uplift in demand or rate levels from an oversupplied market.

Forwarder Kuehne + Nagel is receiving new freighter capacity as global demand wanes and rate levels tumble through a non-existent peak season.

Soaring online orders for electronics and mobility devices are flooding the US postal services with undeclared lithium-ion batteries, posing a growing threat to the transport supply chain.

The global air cargo industry is flying into bracing headwinds, but airline CEOs remain largely positive that demand will return early next year.

There is no sign of an air cargo peak season this year and few signals that 2023 will see any improvement as global economic conditions worsen.

The world’s long-haul airlines are celebrating a steady return of passenger traffic, but as planes fill with travelers, weakening freight demand means carriers are struggling to fill the surplus cargo capacity below their feet.

A proposal to significantly reduce annual flights at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is rattling air cargo operators at the airport.

Demand for air cargo declined through September, and analysts say there is nothing in their data to indicate a pickup in volume out of Asia through the balance of the year.

Spot rates on some air cargo routes out of Asia have fallen below long-term contract levels, mirroring the development in ocean shipping.

Average air cargo rates on east-west trade lanes have declined significantly since April as demand slows in line with the traditional slack summer season.

Peak season has begun for air travel between Europe and North America, but forwarders making use of belly cargo capacity on passenger planes do not expect the below-deck boon to last.

An ongoing shortage of capacity on the main trade lanes out of Asia and growing signs of declining demand are clouding the air cargo outlook for the remainder of the year.