News / Bangkok, Colombo and Dubai see major shift in cargo from sea to air

Suvarnabhumi Airport. Photo: © Tomgigabite | Dreamstime.com

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport has seen spikes in modal shift from sea to air this year, as the Red Sea crisis continues to put global supply chains under strain.

A source at the Thai international gateway said airfreight exports had shot up 58% in January, with air imports surging 29% year on year, and that the shift had continued into February.

They told The Loadstar: “February airfreight volumes were up 30% year on year,” noting that the airport was not “traditionally a sea-air hub”.

That was in reference to the latest WorldACD update, which lists Bangkok as one of three gateways to have witnessed a “strong sea-air surge” in the closing weeks of February, with Colombo and Dubai also listed as beneficiaries of the trend.

Dubai saw an explosion in airfreight, up 146% year on year during weeks 7 and 8; Colombo’s climbing 80%.

WorldACD said the “exceptionally high demand” was being driven by “cargo owners whose supply chains have been disrupted by attacks on container shipping in the Red Sea” seeking “fast but affordable alternatives to deliver to Europe from Asia Pacific”.

The update noted that volume growth at Bangkok dipped to 15% during week 8, suggesting a “moderating of demand on that lane”.

However, it may also have been tied to Bangkok Flight Services (BFS) having announced a 24-hour embargo on imports between the 13 and 14 February, as it struggled to contend with what it described as a “surprise surge” in demand. This mirrored a similar decision at Dubai’s dnata handling group a day before, an embargo which, unlike BFS’s, lasted 48 hours.

BFS said: “Due to unprecedented volumes, due to the Red Sea crisis resulting in a modal shift from sea to air, and a higher-than-expected surge prior to Chinese New Year, we have built up a backlog of cargo for processing and have had to suspend processing of imports.”

Such was the impact of the collective spikes at Bangkok, Colombo and Dubai, that worldwide airfreight volumes grew a record 9% week on week in the seven days to 25 February.

During the wider two-week period covered by WorldACD though, global tonnages were down 11% against the preceding two weeks, and it cited big drops in exports out of Asia-Pacific (down 24%) and Central and South-America (down 25%).

Only European exports (up 3% ) and the Middle East and South Asia (up 11%) saw any real growth over the two weeks, with Africa down 8% and North America down 1%.