Global air cargo grows 9.4% in May 2021: IATA

May was another month of strong air cargo performance, but there was a moderate slowdown in the pace of growth, IATA reported.

In fact, industry-wide freight ton-kilometers (CTK) increased 9.4% in May 2021 compared to pre-crisis levels in May 2019.

This was less than 11.3% in April 2021 compared to 2019.

Additionally, seasonally adjusted CTKs, which smooth the season of volume changes, increased 0.4% month-on-month in May.

This is the thirteenth consecutive month of rising levels, but it marks a slowdown from the 3.2% rise seen in April.

Air cargo

Airlines from all regions except Latin America contributed positively to the overall growth rate of 9.4 percent.

Once again, North American airlines supplied the most, with 4.6 percentage points.

But IATA noted that the slowdown in growth was reflected in all regions except Latin America, where growth performance improved significantly in May.

The most recent data shows that world trade in goods grew by 5.2% in April 2021 compared to April 2019.

This is a solid pace, but slower than the CTKs (11.3 percent).

In fact, this is the fifth month in a row that CTKs outperformed general trade.

The last such cycle ended in early 2018, and another period of air cargo over-performance during the post-global financial crisis rebound in 2009-2010 lasted for about 18 months.

Periods during which CTKs grow faster than other modes of transport are typical at the beginning of economic rebounds.

They are often explained by restocking cycles, and both cycles usually cover the same periods.

In fact, air cargo becomes attractive when companies have low inventories and are facing increased demand as the economy restarts.

In that case, the speed of air cargo provides a strong competitive advantage.

Today, air cargo also benefits from exceptionally congested container supply chains.

Delays in the global shipping schedule increased significantly, equivalent to an implicit loss of capacity of 8.6% in the available fleet in April 2021, according to Sea-Intelligence.