To measure the impact of the war in the Middle East on the air cargo industry, we have compiled the chart below. The figures are derived from WorldACD’s air cargo database and illustrate the Year-on-Year change in chargeable weight – across different origin regions. The different bars compare the period before the conflict (January and February) to the period since the start of the war (1 March to mid-April), and the period from January to mid-April (=Year-to-Date).
A few observations:
- Worldwide tonnage saw a robust increase of +8% in January and February. This momentum reversed with a -3% decline from March onwards. This resulted in an understandably modest overall growth of +3% from January to mid-April.
- Notably, Central & South America and North America were the only regions to experience an increase in tonnage in the period March to mid-April.
- The Middle East stood out in the first two months of the year with a significant +19% surge in air cargo demand. This was followed by a dramatic double-digit decline of -37% from the beginning of March to mid-April.
- South Asia dropped with -8% since March, while air cargo volume from Africa experienced a decline of -11%.
- Asia Pacific showed the strongest growth until mid-April, reaching +7%. Tonnage from this region saw a slight decrease of -1% since March (-7% from China), in stark contrast with the +13% increase in January and February.
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