IATA reveals air cargo demand back to near pre-pandemic levels for July

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released figures for global air cargo demand for July, indicating a return to near pre-pandemic levels. As a consequence, the figures provided are predominantly a year-on-year comparison as opposed to previous comparisons with the 2019 period.

Demand continued to track at near pre-pandemic levels in July (-3.5%), but below July 2021 performance (-9.7%) while global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs), fell 9.7% compared to July 2021 (-10.2% for international operations). Demand stood at -3.5% compared to July 2019. Capacity was 3.6% above July 2021 (+6.8% for international operations) but still 7.8% below July 2019 levels.

The Association also pointed out that new export orders decreased in all markets, except China which began a sharp upward trend in June. As several key cargo players were based in Russia and Ukraine, so the war between the two has negatively affected cargo capacity used to serve Europe.

Asia-Pacific airlines saw their air cargo volumes decrease by 9.0% in July 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, which was a significant decrease over the 2.1% decline in June. North American carriers posted a 5.7% decrease in cargo volumes in July 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. This was an improvement over the 13.5% decline in June. European carriers saw a 17% decrease in cargo volumes in July 2022 compared to the same month in 2021. This was the worst performance of all regions for the third month in a row and attributable to the war in Ukraine. Middle Eastern carriers experienced a 10.9% year-on-year decrease in cargo volumes in July 2022. Latin American carriers reported an increase of 9.2% in cargo volumes in July 2022 compared to July 2021. This was the strongest performance of all regions.