The revenue for the transport of goods should culminate at $ 175 billion in 2021, its highest historic, while volumes are expected to exceed 8% the 2019 level.
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For air market players, it is one of the few satisfactions of the crisis period that still crosses the sector. Since the beginning of the pandemic, in the spring of 2020, air cargo is spectacularly returned to the rise. An expansion pointed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which explains that the transport of goods could even break records this year.
According to its forecasts, freight sales should culminate at $ 175 billion (about 150.3 billion euros) in 2021, while air freight volumes should exceed 8% the level average of 2019, the last year before the crisis. In 2022, IATA expects growth of 5% of transported volumes.
“Since March 2020, says Marc Rochet, President of Air Caribbean, wholesale bunkers, including the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 777, have been completed at sympathetic price levels for airlines. We have made good business. “
According to him, there are “two main reasons” to these bargains. “First of all, as there were fewer passenger aircraft flying, there were therefore fewer available bunkers, so those that were marketed were well-filled,” he analyzes. Air Caribbean, its company, “did not fly in crisis that four flights to Guadeloupe instead of ten in normal times”. During this period, “passenger traffic has dropped by 40% compared to 2019, while the freight remained stable and even progressed”.
Thousands of small packets
The real – and structural – Cargo growth is closely related to the “development of e-commerce”. “An explosion either by weight but by volume”, which fills the cargo planes. Thousands of small packages ordered by consumers eager to receive them quickly. The airlines welcome the trend of Internet commerce. “He will continue to develop. The boats are saturated, so air freight will continue its development,” says Mr. Rochet.
“The maritime delays benefit the air,” says Christophe Boucher, Deputy CEO in charge of cargo at Air France. So much so that freight is becoming increasingly important in companies turnover. At Air France, it went from “8% before the crisis nearly 20% today on average,” said the officer. A global phenomenon that benefits all carriers. This is the case of Singapore Airlines, which saw its freight business jump by 54%; when she weighed 15% of its turnover before Covid-19, she now represents 25%.
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