Dubai-Europe air cargo tonnages continue surge: WorldACD

Air cargo tonnages from Dubai to Europe are continuing to boom while overall global demand has broadly stabilised following a strong return of Asia Pacific volumes since the Lunar New Year (LNY) dip in early February, according to the latest weekly figures from WorldACD Market Data.

"Analysis of week 10 (March 4-10) reveals that Dubai-Europe tonnages were at three times their level (+205 percent) this time last year, and around seven percent up compared with the previous week. As WorldACD has highlighted in recent weeks, certain key Asia-Europe sea-air hubs such as Dubai, Colombo and Bangkok have experienced exceptionally high air cargo demand to Europe since the start of this year, in large part linked to the disruptions to Asia-Europe container shipping caused by the attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Dubai-Europe tonnages have been particularly strong at more than double their level in recent weeks compared with this time last year. And the continuing surge in week 10 indicates this trend is showing no signs of weakening four weeks on from LNY."

Bangkok-Europe demand also remains up by more than 30 percent year on year in week 10, similar to +32 percent in week nine, the update added. "Air cargo sources in Thailand indicated this week that this traffic is being boosted by road-air volumes trucked down from Vietnam and other origin points in the region where ocean freight traffic has also been impacted by the disruptions to Asia-Europe container shipping.

"The surge in Colombo-Europe demand appears to be softening. Although Colombo-Europe tonnages were still up 20 percent YoY in week 10, it is down from +35 percent in week nine and around +80 percent in the previous three weeks."

Global pictureTotal worldwide tonnages in week 10 were broadly flat compared with the previous week after recovering by three percent in week nine and by 14 percent the previous week, following a 11 percent drop around the LNY holiday week, the update added.

Expanding the comparison period to two weeks, tonnages in weeks nine and 10 are up by nine percent compared with the previous two weeks (2Wo2W), driven mainly by a post-LNY rebound in demand from Asia Pacific where tonnages were up by 28 percent from Asia Pacific origin points. That included a 38 percent rise from Asia Pacific to Middle East & South Asia (MESA) along with rises to Europe (29 percent), North America (26 percent) and other Asia Pacific destinations (23 percent).

Average rates of $2.32 per kilo in week 10 are 14 percent below their levels this time last year but remain significantly above pre-Covid levels (29 percent compared to March 2019).

Overall worldwide air cargo capacity remains significantly up on last year’s levels (nine percent) with double-digit percentage increases ex-Asia Pacific (18 percent) and ex-Central & South America (14 percent) YoY, the update added.