Trade wars: how is air cargo impacted?

© Maren Winter

Great piece from the normally reticent, publicity-shy Seabury, looking at the potential effect of Trump’s trade war on the air cargo industry. It’s not good news. Seabury has identified several affected commodities, including cherries, lobsters, time-sensitive industrial machinery and high-value medical equipment. It calculates that air freighted goods affected by tariffs amount to a rather large 75 B777 freighter flights a week – so far. While the outcome of this trade war is anyone’s guess, in the short-term, air cargo could be impacted just as the airlines were holding back some second half capacity, in the hope of a high peak season payout. They could, instead, find that there is too much capacity for that…