Air Cargo’s Gradual Takeoff

The gradual movement toward recovery to pre-COVID market conditions continues for the global air cargo industry (see chart), according to data from CLIVE Data Services and TAC Index.

Year-on-year growth for the full four weeks of August 2020 showed a further narrowing of the gap in international air cargo volumes to -17% versus August 2019. This compares to a -41% year-over-year disparity in April 2020, the report says. The receding gap in the decline between capacity and demand resulted in a global dynamic load factor drop from 70% in July 2020 to 68% in August. However, this is still exceptionally high, as August is traditionally air cargo’s slow season.

Observing traffic flow from China, concerns about capacity demand dropping once the personal protective equipment peak subsided have not occurred. Volumes in the last week of August 2020 were 4% lower than the same week in 2019, finds the report.