Much like the chicken and egg dilemma that has given philosophers and scientists something to talk about for centuries, airline bosses are facing the question of which comes first – passengers or cargo. Conventional wisdom would have it that cargo is a nice add-on to passenger volumes. But, according to estimates by the International Air Transport Association (Iata), airfreight is worth more than six times to the global economy than passengers. It forecasts that the value of international trade shipped by air next year will be US$6.7 trillion. In contrast, tourists travelling by air in 2019 are forecast to spend US$909 billion. While we are not comparing apples with apples, the numbers do point to the importance of airports investing in freight facilities. Air cargo, according to Iata, represents more than 35% of global trade by value. When it comes to combined passenger and cargo airlines, the cargo business generates 9% of airline revenues on average, representing more than double the revenues from the first-class segment. Airlines are potentially missing out on additional volumes by giving the wrong message to cargo owners, according to Iata. “Whilst speed is the number one reason why shippers choose air, they are not necessarily expecting faster times, but greater reliability and predictability. “This is why Cargo iQ has called on the air cargo industry to stop focusing on speeding up transport times and to instead concentrate on differentiating products based on the level of reliability on offer,” according to the Iata Cargo Strategy document. Cargo iQ is an Iata interest group with the mission of creating and implementing quality standards for the worldwide air cargo industry.
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