Cargo updates: Asia Pacific - January 2025

15-01-2025 no-date

Air Cargo Market Analysis

IATA Economics has released the report for November 2024.   

Key highlights from the report:

  1. Global Cargo Tonne-Kilometers (CTK) grew by 8.2% year-on-year (YoY) in November, marking the 16th consecutive month of growth. However, month-on-month (MoM), demand dropped by 0.5 % after seasonal adjustments.
  2. Yearly growth rates have been decelerating since September to single digits, indicating a move back to pre-2021 values. Meanwhile, the latest CTK volumes were the highest of any November on record.
  3. International CTK expanded by 9.5% compared to last year with most regions, excluding Africa, and all major trade lanes seeing growth. North American carriers led with a 13.4% YoY increase. Among major trade lanes, Asia-North America trade led with a 13% annual rise in cargo demand.
  4. Global air cargo capacity, measured in Available Cargo Tonne-Kilometers (ACTK), grew by 4.6% YoY in November.
  5. Jet fuel prices rose in MoM terms for a second month, while global air cargo yield continued to increase in MoM terms, for its ninth consecutive month.

2025 Global Outlook for Air Transport

IATA Economics has released the semi-annual report for 2025 in December.

Key highlights from the report:

  1. The price of Brent crude oil has dropped by around 20% over the past 12 months. Lower oil prices will have several implications for the global economy and the airline industry, the most obvious one being lower headline inflation. This should allow further easing of monetary policy, and in turn potentially weaken the US dollar against most currencies. All these things are supportive of households’ spending power and of global growth.
  2. Airlines will benefit from lower crude oil prices as long as jet fuel prices decline in parallel. Fuel is airlines’ largest cost component, representing 30% of total costs.
  3. The cargo market has lent significant support to airline traffic in 2024. Demand surged thanks to effervescent cross-border e-commerce and capacity limitations in ocean shipping. The outlook for 2025 remains strong, given the ongoing challenges in maritime shipping. Global yields for air cargo stopped declining in 2023 and are now around 30% above pre-pandemic levels. We expect cargo yields to remain stable in 2025.

Supply Chain Issues Continue to Impact the Industry in 2025

Aircraft deliveries have fallen sharply from the peak of 1,813 aircraft in 2018. The estimate for deliveries in 2024 is 1,254 aircraft, 30% fewer than what was predicted at the start of the year. In 2025, deliveries are forecast to rise to 1,802, having been revised down from 2,293, and further cuts to this number are to be expected.

Find out more…

An assessment of risks in 2025: Heightened policy uncertainty

As 2025 is approaching fast, we assess the risks to the global economy that we are likely to face in the new year. Our assessment is purely qualitative, and perception based. It is not meant to be exhaustive nor in any way dogmatic. Our purpose is to scan the landscape, promote awareness, and stimulate conversations.

Many of the potential risks in our assessment are heavily impacted by the presidential election result in the US, the policy instability that can be expected of the incoming Trump administration, and its reverberations across the global economy.

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Air cargo boosts the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean

Luiz R. Vasconcelos, President, FedEx Latin America and the Caribbean, tells Graham Newton that the region is experiencing strong growth in air cargo.

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ONE Record Training

IATA has set January 1, 2026, as the deadline for all member airlines to adopt the ONE Record standard, aiming to fully digitalize air cargo through a unified data-sharing framework. This initiative will enhance visibility, transparency, and efficiency across the global supply chain.

To support the industry to begin preparation, IATA started the ONE Record classroom training and is now available in Singapore IATA office.

  1. ONE Record Standard (classroom) – 3 days (10 – 12 March 2025)