As you know, 90% of passenger flights have been suspended or reduced due to the influence of COVID19, and it is still unclear whether to travel overseas and reopen passenger flights seriously.
Although the cargo forwarding of Airlines has stagnated due to lockdowns worldwide by the spread of COVID19 temporarily, the cargo volume is recovering from stagnation since the beginning of this year and has remained at a high level.
What are the factors behind the strong performance?
From September 2020, it has been increased export from Japan as demand for automobiles increases to China, Southeast Asia, and North America.
Moreover, the demand for air forwarding has increased rapidly due to the shortage of ocean containers and port congestion worldwide in November of the same year.
After the beginning of the year, it is thought that one of the factors that demand of automobile, semiconductor, chemical materials have been performing well and a large cargo shifted to air forwarding from the confusion of ocean forwarding continuing from last year.
In summary, the factors behind the strong demand for air cargo are as follows:
Rising air freight rates
Expanding need for emergency transportation of aid supplies, medicines, COVID19 vaccines, etc.
Significant fall in fuel prices
Shift to air forwarding due to the confusion of ocean forwarding
Increased demand for cargo charter flights, etc.
As in 2021, due to cargo movements will be more active toward the end of the year, the same as last year, it is estimated that demand for air forwarding is expected to increase. On the other hand, we think an urgent task is to take measures against issues such as a chronic short supply of cargo space, rising air freight rates, and shortage of labor due to a heavy workload.