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Air cargo volumes increased by 53% in April 2021 year-on-year but were just 3% higher than pre-Covid levels in April 2019
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Average rates are still on the rise, but are down by 12% from the April 2020 levels
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In April 2021, cargo capacity on widebody passenger aircraft almost tripled year-over-year
Air cargo volumes increased by 53% in April 2021 over April last year but were just 3% higher than the pre-Covid levels of April 2019, indicating a return to some kind of normality, according to new data from WorldACD.
However, rates continued to be far from normal as the average rate per kilogram rose to US$3.30 in April, up from the already high of $3.12 recorded in March. Still, this is down by 12% from April 2020 levels, said the report.
Aside from cargo volumes returning to more normal pre-Covid levels, another notable development is the growing role of widebody passenger aircraft in cargo. The report noted that capacity grew by 51% in April year-over-year, but much of the growth was in widebody passenger aircraft.
Widebody passenger aircraft produced one-fifth of total cargo capacity in April 2020, when many passenger flights were cancelled. A year later, in April 2021, cargo capacity on widebody passenger aircraft almost tripled year-over-year, and comes very close to the total capacity produced on widebody freighters.
In terms of product categories, general cargo (+61%), live animals (+78%) and flowers (+67%) did better than average in April year-on-year, with the latter two categories also managing to further increase their rates compared to April 2020.
The usual drivers of special cargo did not fulfill their role in April: vulnerable/high-tech (+30%) and pharma (-3%) were lagging far behind the average growth of 53% realized this month, but they increased most when compared with April 2019.
Photo by Daniel Klein on Unsplash
