Market Trends of Air Freight Forwarding Industry
The increase in E-Commerce is driving the Market
E-commerce is forecast to grow 14% globally over the next five years. It creates an excellent opportunity for the air cargo industry, which witnessed its worst year in a decade due to the US-China tariff war. The global e-commerce industry, which makes up 16% of the total air cargo business, is projected to increase from USD 3.5 trillion in goods in 2022 to USD 7 trillion by 2025.
Some global carriers are working to gain a more significant share of the door-to-door delivery market that online shopping giants such as Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com dominate. Dubai-based Emirates launched Emirates Delivers, Lufthansa includes Heyday, and British Airways parent IAG includes Zenda. However, IATA pointed out that despite this decline, November's performance was the best in eight months, with the slowest year-on-year rate of contraction recorded since March 2019.
The air cargo industry is well-positioned to capitalize on the growth in e-commerce. Air cargo is built to handle e-commerce, and approximately 80% of business-to-consumer cross-border e-commerce is transported by air. Air cargo is the preferred way of shipment for electronics due to the relatively small volume or tonnage compared to high value.
Thus, e-commerce is expected to fuel the air cargo industry, as online shopping boosts the demand for parcel delivery services across the globe. Air cargo can serve customers' needs and deliver goods with speed, efficiency, and reliability. The fast-growing cross-border e-commerce market and the rising domestic volumes sent by large and small e-retailers are driving growth in the global air cargo market.
APAC Largest Contributor to Air Freight
Irrespective of a downfall in the airline sector during the COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions imposed in many Asian-Pacific countries, air cargo demand held up relatively well. However, supply chain disruptions and weakening business and consumer confidence due to increased uncertainties and rising unemployment adversely affected the air cargo businesses.
The Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA) states that the air cargo sector is active in transporting essential medical equipment and supplies. Many Asian-Pacific countries encouraged several airlines to modify their passenger aircraft for air freight transport temporarily. While a standard passenger ATR72-600 can only carry 1.7 metric tons of cargo, its freighter-modified model can carry up to 8 metric tons, making it suitable for Pacific Island countries, given the region's demand and operating conditions.
South Korea accounted for the fourth-largest market share in the Asia-Pacific air cargo market share in 2022. South Korea includes one of the world's most significant air cargo carrier industries. It benefitted from strong demand when the collapse of passenger traffic reduced available transport space. Cargo sales were underpinned by the airline's strategy to increase the cargo plane operation rate and utilize idle passenger planes for transport, the airline said in a statement. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, South Korea's two largest airlines, increased their operational earnings significantly in 2021, harnessing surging demand for cargo transport to help offset low passenger traffic.
The need for COVID-19 diagnostic kits and auto parts increased, and the sea cargo demand transferred to air transport, driving air cargo sales. Therefore, this leads to significant air cargo market growth in South Korea. Further, in June 2022, as Korean Air continues to position itself for high cargo demand, it is considering a move for the new wide-body freighters released by Airbus and Boeing in recent months. Long-term strong cargo demand also prompted Airbus to launch its A350 freighter last year in 2021 and Boeing its 777X freighter in January 2022. Thus, increasing the number of aircraft in cargo service will boost the Asia-Pacific air cargo market during the forecast period.
