General cargo takes the lead in 2024
The growth of ‘general cargo’ airfreight tonnages is outpacing that of ‘special cargo’ products so far in 2024, new analysis from World ACD Market Data has revealed. This reverses a trend in recent years, in which demand from air cargo shipments requiring special handling and shipping broadly outperformed general cargo.
World ACD’s analysis of the first five months of 2024, based on the more than 2 million monthly transactions recorded via its database, indicates that total worldwide chargeable weight from January to May 2024 was up +12% compared with the equivalent period last year, with general cargo demand up by +13%, year on year (YoY), and special cargo growth trailing at +10%.
One factor for this is the strong growth in cross-border e-commerce traffic since last autumn; this cargo often flies in bulk as general cargo rather than within a special product category. Another reason is the conversion of sea freight to air cargo and sea-air since last November, when the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea began to disrupt container shipping traffic. (cj)