Driven by Europe and Asia, international cargo traffic is up 10,5% at the end of September. While freight rates remain firm, companies are taking advantage of this…

Ascending speed… In September, the volume of global air freight reached an all-time high! Year-on-year, this month of September saw a 9,4% increase in terms of tonne-kilometers (CTK), according to the latest statistical data published by IATA.

This is the fourteenth consecutive month of year-on-year growth, the air carriers association points out. Concerning international connections alone (excluding domestic flights), growth was even stronger at 10,5%.

Activity was up in all regions of the world, but was particularly driven by the Asia Pacific and Europe regions, which contributed 42% and 26% respectively to global activity growth.

Middle Eastern airlines contributed 15% to the increase, while North American airlines contributed 11%. In terms of volume growth per route, intra-European routes took first place worldwide.

Volumes there jumped 18%, marking the ninth consecutive month of double-digit growth. “Airlines are benefiting from growing e-commerce demand in the United States and Europe, amid persistent capacity constraints in shipping,” IATA said.

The market recovery is also partly explained by the increase in available supply. Global capacity, measured in available freight tonne-kilometres (ACTK), thus saw 6,4% year-on-year growth in September.

This situation is largely due to the dynamism of global passenger traffic which generates belly capacity. In terms of passenger-kilometers (RPK), September also saw a historical record with an increase of 7,1% on an annual basis. Overall, international air freight capacity reached its highest volumes ever recorded for a September, according to IATA.

Globally, the air cargo load factor, reflecting the balance between demand and supply, increased by 1,3 percentage points compared to September 2023 to reach 45,2%.

Despite the decline in average aviation fuel prices (-34,4% year-on-year and -4,4% in September compared to August), freight rates remain on an upward trend. They increased by 3,6% over one month and by 11,7% over one year. At the end of September, they were 50% higher than in 2019!

This situation is the result, according to IATA, of the dynamism of e-commerce and a certain transfer of maritime traffic due to limited maritime transport capacities and the increase in maritime freight, linked in particular to security disruptions in the Red Sea.

In this context, airlines are doing well. In the third quarter of 2024, Lufthansa recorded an 11% increase in its freight volumes in tonne-kilometres worldwide. Air Canada saw an 18% jump in its cargo turnover in the third quarter and IAG (British Airways, Iberia, etc.) a 15,6% increase.

As for Air France KLM, the company saw its cargo traffic increase in value by 7,3% to 471 million euros, still in this third quarter of 2024. The volume of freight transported by the Franco-Dutch company increased by 3,5% to 226 tonnes with a load factor of 000% (+45,5 points).

Like the market, a large part of the growth in Air France KLM cargo volumes is located in Asia-Pacific, due to the growth of e-commerce and disruptions to maritime links in the Red Sea.

As a result, the company is deploying additional capacity in this region. Its subsidiary Martinair has recently launched a new cargo flight with four weekly flights to Hong Kong from Schiphol.

In this generally favourable context, sector analysts are nevertheless pointing to the start of a slowdown in September (-0,4% compared to August in CTK) and advanced indicators on cargo traffic linked to the end-of-year holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year) being at fairly moderate levels.

Pierre Olivier ROUAUD