Xeneta’s latest weekly market analysis shows that air cargo demand experienced a second consecutive month of surprising growth in February.
Global air cargo traffic rose over 10% month-over-month, the report added.
February’s double-digit growth comes as IATA reported an 18.4 increase in air cargo demand in January.
“It’s a surprising start to the year from a volume perspective, and not something people would have expected, ourselves included, with demand much higher than it was a year ago. Generally, we wouldn’t expect to see a rate uptick at this time of year. This is likely related to the Red Sea disruption, but this is not the only factor,” said Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer at Xeneta
Traditionally, air cargo spot rates tend to decline following the year-end peak season in the previous year, and in the period immediately after the Lunar New Year, before rebounding towards the year-end holiday seasons this year.