STATISTICS from CLIME Data Services show that the air cargo industry continues to be buffeted by a range of issues that resulted in volume declines deepening in April.
The Xeneta-owned data provider's latest numbers show that air cargo volumes declined by 8 per cent year on year in April following on from a 4.5 per cent fall in March, reports London's Air Cargo News.
Meanwhile, capacity increased by one per cent year on year in April, resulting in a nine percentage point fall in the global dynamic load factor - taking into account both weight and space to 62 per cent. However, load factors were 'exceptionally high' in April last year at 71 per cent.
CLIVE said that the conflict in Ukraine and Covid restrictions, and the rising cost of living were all having an impact on air cargo.
The fall in demand is likely 'exacerbated by the staff shortages jolting airport handling services and manufacturing production'.
Despite the lower volumes and load factors, airfreight rates in April increased by 26 per cent on last year.
'The rationale behind lower load factors and higher rates is the bottleneck on the ground - which appears to be being caused now by not only the shortages of people handling cargo at airports around the world and the severe lack of truck drivers to move the goods, but also by a wider shortage of people for lower paid logistics jobs,' said Niall van de Wouw chief airfreight officer at Xeneta.
'We are now seeing this larger theme impacting the entire supply chain.'
Looking ahead, Mr van de Wouw said that the re-introduction of passenger services for the summer season would also begin to impact the market.
On the transatlantic, for example, load factors dropped by 12 percentage points in one month.
'This was caused by a big jump in North Atlantic passenger capacity as airlines stepped up their summer schedules,' CLIVE said.
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The Xeneta-owned data provider's latest numbers show that air cargo volumes declined by 8 per cent year on year in April following on from a 4.5 per cent fall in March, reports London's Air Cargo News.
Meanwhile, capacity increased by one per cent year on year in April, resulting in a nine percentage point fall in the global dynamic load factor - taking into account both weight and space to 62 per cent. However, load factors were 'exceptionally high' in April last year at 71 per cent.
CLIVE said that the conflict in Ukraine and Covid restrictions, and the rising cost of living were all having an impact on air cargo.
The fall in demand is likely 'exacerbated by the staff shortages jolting airport handling services and manufacturing production'.
Despite the lower volumes and load factors, airfreight rates in April increased by 26 per cent on last year.
'The rationale behind lower load factors and higher rates is the bottleneck on the ground - which appears to be being caused now by not only the shortages of people handling cargo at airports around the world and the severe lack of truck drivers to move the goods, but also by a wider shortage of people for lower paid logistics jobs,' said Niall van de Wouw chief airfreight officer at Xeneta.
'We are now seeing this larger theme impacting the entire supply chain.'
Looking ahead, Mr van de Wouw said that the re-introduction of passenger services for the summer season would also begin to impact the market.
On the transatlantic, for example, load factors dropped by 12 percentage points in one month.
'This was caused by a big jump in North Atlantic passenger capacity as airlines stepped up their summer schedules,' CLIVE said.
SeaNews Turkey