News / Global airfreight volumes blooming as flower shipments take off

Photo: © Volodymyr Maksymchuk

Global air cargo tonnages have taken off again after three consecutive weeks of subdued volumes, but some countries in the Middle East are still experiencing a post-Ramadan downturn.  

WorldACD reported today that worldwide tonnage rose 3% from 15 to 21 April. 

The air cargo data company previously recorded week-on-week (WoW) volume declines of 2%, 4% and 6% over the past three weeks, which it attributed to the effects of various holidays, such as Easter and Eid, resulting in “subdued cargo booking levels”.   

Despite the growth in volume, however, the average worldwide rates remained stable from the previous week, at $2.50 per kg, according to WorldACD. 

It found that the volume uptick recorded this week was largely thanks to a surge of flower exports from Central and South America ahead of Mother’s Day events on 12 May, with 63% of exports from CSA and Africa headed for North America. 

Indeed, chief officer of cargo at Qatar Airways Mark Drusch told The Loadstar yesterday there was “continued global movement of produce and flowers – it’s amazing to me how that is always big and bigger”.

 The rise in flower shipments “made up for stalling demand from Middle East & South Asia”, which are “not yet recovering post-Ramadan”, added WorldACD.  

The decline in volumes could also partly be explained by the heavy rainfall that mainly impacted Dubai last week, where flooding led to some flight cancellations. 

“Dubai recorded a WoW volume drop of 18%, whereas nearby fellow emirates Abu Dhabi and Sharjah recorded volume increases of 20% and 103%, respectively – boosted by cargo and flights diverted from Dubai.” 

Elevated tonnage levels have been seen from that region over the past few months, largely linked to disruptions to container shipping, bringing volumes to sea-air hubs such as Dubai, Columbo and Bangkok. 

So, despite the recent downturn, volumes from Dubai are still up 107% on this time last year. And disruptions to ocean shipping, paired with an unprecedented ecommerce boom, has meant overall, the air cargo market has been in good shape so far this year.  

Mr Drusch said: “March was very strong for us. And April, when historically you would come off a peak, has been remarkably strong too.” 

And board advisor at Flexport Neel Jones Shah told The Loadstar Podcast that access to capacity might become more competitive as the ecommerce market continued to grow.  

“I would say across the board, international ecommerce fulfilment is probably 40-50% of every kg out of Asia this year, it’s a big number… So now,they are procuring a lot of capacity and are concerned about their own growth; their own growth depends on access to capacity,” he said.