Air cargo demand jumped 9.4% in October, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
At the same time, capacity constraints eased slightly but remain 7.2% below pre-Covid-19 levels.
“October data reflected an overall positive outlook for air cargo as supply chain congestion continued to push manufacturers towards the speed of air cargo,” said Iata Director-General Willie Walsh. “The impact of government reactions to the Omicron variant is a concern. If it dampens travel demand, capacity issues will become more acute. After almost two years of Covid-19, governments have the experience and tools to make better data-driven decisions than the mostly knee-jerk reactions to restrict travel that we have seen to date. Restrictions will not stop the spread of Omicron. Along with urgently reversing these policy mistakes, the focus of governments should be squarely on ensuring the integrity of supply chains and increasing the distribution of vaccines.”
Walsh said economic conditions continued to support air cargo growth but it was slightly weaker than in the previous months. Several factors have contributed to this, including supply chain disruptions, while resulting delivery delays have led to long supplier delivery times.
“This typically results in manufacturers using air transport, which is quicker, to recover time lost during the production process. The global Supplier Delivery Time Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) reached an all-time low of 34.8 in October; values below 50 are favourable for air cargo.”
Furthermore, relevant components of the October PMIs (new export orders and manufacturing output) have been in a gradual slowdown since May but remain in favourable territory, while the inventory-to-sales ratio remains low ahead of the peak year-end retail events such as Christmas. This, said Walsh, was a positive for air cargo as manufacturers turned to air cargo to rapidly meet demand.
He said African airlines had seen international cargo volumes increase by 26.7% in October, a deterioration from the previous month (35%) but still the largest increase of all regions. International capacity was 9.4% higher than pre-crisis levels, the only region in positive territory, albeit on small volumes.
