Yields in the air cargo sector have not returned to levels pre-dating the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the relaxation of lockdown regulations across the globe.
And yet yields dropped by a global average of no more than 2.4% from the last week of June through the first weeks of July (from Asia Pacific and Middle East South Asia by 4% and 3% respectively, World Air Cargo Data (ACD) has found.
However, in its most recent market data assessment the airfreight aggregator also found that weekly volumes were lower by mid-July than two weeks before.
World ACD stressed though that a word of caution was called for when looking at data from the most recent weeks.
“Understandably - given the high market volatility - we have recently seen a flurry of weekly air cargo figures being reported.”
It emphasised, however, that from past experience it had learned that part of the data on air cargo transactions were subject to some degree of correction when data for the full month were assembled and finalised.
“Data may also be based on too small a sample to be truly representative, or may be just anecdotal evidence.”
World ACD commercial director Ken de Witt said: “Every data provider should be careful with weekly data. They are potentially interesting indications of market movements - but they are only more than that if based on a robust body of final transactional data.
“Of course, it is up to data consumers to assess their value, to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.”
