The predicted spike in airfreight trade between the US and China in September, ahead of October’s Golden Week celebrations, could be in peril because of mounting coronavirus fears.
Last year China managed to claw back about 80% of the revenue it used to yield during the week-long spending spree starting on October 1, the National Holiday marking the independence of the People’s Republic of China.
Given last year’s buoyant air cargo traffic between the two trading partners, expectations were that China could see a return to Golden Week yields, matching if not bettering pre-Covid profits.
That was until Beijing decided to cancel flights from the US by American Airlines, Delta and United as part of stringent Covid-zero curbing measures.
Washington’s retaliatory reaction, suspending flights by Xiamen Air, Air China, China Southern, and China Eastern, is now feared to be compromising the yields that agents had hoped for.
Several freight forwarding sources specialising in US-China airfreight are already reporting an uptick in rates on the back of projected diminished capacity.
Yesterday it was reported that Dutch air cargo data analyst WorldACD had found that China led the way in decreased chargeable weight volumes for year-on-year to-date figures.
Along with several other Northern Asia neighbours, volume has slipped 12% across the board (read this for context: https://tinyurl.com/mr3d9v73).
