IATA: July seasonally adjusted airfreight volumes reach highest monthly improvement since March

July global air cargo traffic increased 8.6% compared to the pre-pandemic month of July 2019, according to today’s July analysis from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). While a slowdown in airfreight traffic seems unlikely as supply chain conditions remain favorable, the spread of the Delta variant might put pressure on operations and economic activity, potentially impacting cargo traffic levels in August. COVID-19 outbreaks and the spread of the Delta variant have impacted global supply chains and operations in Southeast Asia and China, leading to restrictions and a slowdown of operations, according to IATA. However, the impact of these challenges will be more clearly reflected in August’s CTKs figures. [caption id="attachment_93518" align="alignright" width="373"] Photo: United Airlines[/caption] Meanwhile, businesses and shippers are expected to face strong demand for airfreight in Q4 considering the low inventory-to-sales ratio and congested supply chain, according to IATA. In turn, the IATA report further notes that businesses and shippers may turn to airfreight in August and September. July 2021 global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometers (ACTKs), was down 10.3% compared to the same month in 2019, while seasonally adjusted volumes rose by 2.3% month over month, which has been the highest improvement since March, according to IATA. However, the Delta variant might disrupt this trend due to the impact of the spread on airport operations in China , Southeast Asia and Europe . Belly capacity remained 37.7% below the same month in 2019, which is a slight improvement from June . As a result, industry-wide cargo load factors saw a record-high value in July compared to the same month in any past year, reaching 54.4%, up 9.5 percentage points compared to the same month in 2019. Meanwhile, the international load factor was at 62.8% in July 2021. North America Airlines based in North America continued to exhibit the strongest performance with international CTKs up 20.5% compared to the same month in 2019, according to IATA. In addition to capacity being less limited in North America due to freighter fleets of operators like UPS and FedEx, the strong performance is attributed to export orders and supplier delivery times, according to the IATA report. Africa, Middle East, Europe Meanwhile, carriers based in the Middle East reported a slight decrease in international CTKs to 11.3% in July compared to the same month in 2019, according to IATA. However, certain routes are seeing strong performances, such as cargo traffic on the Middle East-Asia trade lane, which improved by 15.5% in July compared to July 2019. Carriers headquartered in Europe reported a 6% growth in international CTKs compared to the same month pre-pandemic. While the increase is attributed to manufacturing activity, order and supplier delivery times are also favorable. July traffic data for Africa was not available at the time of IATA’s publishing and will be included in its August traffic report. Asia Air cargo growth within Asia reported a 4.4% increase in international CTKs in July compared to the same month in 2019. However, due to the recent slowdown in the strong economic activity and congested supply chains, key indicators in Asia are easing, according to the report. Latin America International CTKs for Latin American carriers were down 10.2% in July 2021 versus the same month pre-pandemic, according to IATA. However, airfreight demand in the region is slowly recovering as several routes to and from Latin America are experiencing demand, including North America-Central America, North America-South America and Europe-South America trade lanes

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