Healthy outlook for the sector

The rapid rise of e-commerce will drive continued growth in the demand for airfreight in the years to come, according to Niall van de Wouw, chief airfreight officer at Xeneta.Delivering the latest Xeneta State of the Air Market report, Van de Wouw said e-commerce continued to take up much of the airfreight capacity available.“E-commerce is significantly impacting freighter capacity, tightening the rest of the available capacity and consequently driving up rates. This trend is also affecting dynamic load factors, indicating a healthy outlook for the airfreight sector overall.”He said e-commerce currently accounted for approximately 20% of global volumes, with even higher proportions seen on transpacific trade lanes from China to the US, where they reached up to 60% at times. “The scale of these markets is immense, and we are only at the starting point of this growth trajectory. The demand from e-commerce platforms for capacity throughout the rest of the year is already increasing, with forecasts indicating higher needs in the third quarter,” he said. “New online platforms such as Temu are opening up and seeing significant growth. This is all happening alongside traditional players. Volumes are increasing, further driving demand. As we move into the second half of the year, the demand for e-commerce out of Hong Kong and Southeast China will be a significant factor in overall demand, especially considering that rates in these regions are considerably higher than others. We could expect to see more redeployments of freighters to meet this growing market demand,” he said.He noted that another trend impacting airfreight was the expansion of global manufacturing, particularly in many developing economies. "New export orders from countries like China and India are growing after two years of contraction," he said.