Global air cargo demand surpasses pre-Covid levels in Feb: IATA

Global air cargo demand has surpassed pre-pandemic levels for the first time in eight months, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA released data for February 2023, which showed that air cargo demand rose above pre-pandemic levels by 2.9 per cent.
Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTKs), fell 7.5 per cent compared to February 2022, which was half the rate of decline seen in the previous two months. However, international operations saw an 8.3 per cent decline in demand. Available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTK) in February 2023 increased by 8.6 per cent compared to February 2022, reflecting the addition of belly capacity. International belly-capacity grew by 57 per cent in February year-over-year (YoY), reaching 75.1 per cent of the 2019 (pre-pandemic) capacity, as per the data by IATA. The operating environment had several factors to note, including the global new export orders component of the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which continued to increase in February, indicating that demand for manufactured goods is growing. Although global goods trade decreased by 1.5 per cent in January, it was a slower rate of decline than the previous month of -3.3 per cent. Additionally, the Consumer Price Index for G7 countries decreased from 6.7 per cent in January to 6.4 per cent in February, while inflation in producer (input) prices reduced by 2.2 percentage points to 9.6 per cent in December. In terms of regional performance, Asia-Pacific airlines saw their air cargo volumes decrease by 6.0 per cent in February 2023 compared to the same month in 2022. However, this was a significant improvement compared to January (-19.0 per cent). North American carriers posted a 3.2 per cent decrease in cargo volumes in February 2023 compared to the same month in 2022, but saw a significant increase in international demand in February, which boosted its market share in international cargo traffic to beyond pre-pandemic levels (21.7 per cent in Feb 2023 versus 18.2 per cent in Feb 2019).