The air freight fairy tale continues, with general cargo on the rise

More positive news from air cargo data: this time it is WorldACD, showing that May enjoyed a year-on-year increase in chargeable weight of 12.8%, and was up 13.8% in direct tonne km, while yields were up 5% in US dollars, and 7% in euros. Why? While ecommerce could be “one factor explaining the surge”, in fact there haven’t been large increases in express air cargo – suggesting that ecommerce is happy to move at ‘normal’ air freight speeds. But WorldACD also notes increased consumer demand in general, which has fuelled a greater pace of growth in general cargo – with only pharmaceuticals growing more quickly.