International air cargo demand during last year fell by 10.6% in comparison to 2019, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported. This was the biggest year-on-year fall in demand since the association (the representative body of the global airline industry) started keeping records of air cargo demand, in 1990. It also represented a deeper drop than that for the total global trade in goods, which went down 6% year-on-year.

However, global air cargo capacity in 2020 shrank by 23.3% in year-on-year terms, which was more than twice the fall in demand. This resulted in cargo load factors increasing by 7.7% over those in 2019. In turn, this increased cargo yields and revenues, helping some airlines afflicted by the collapse of their air passenger revenues, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

And the situation for air cargo improved late in the year. Demand in December last year was only 0.5% below that in December 2019. (The decline for international air cargo was 2.3%.) In terms of air cargo capacity, this was 17.7% down in December in year-on-year terms, an improvement over the average figure for the whole year. The fact that the figure for the year-on-year demand decline in air cargo capacity in December was far deeper than that for air cargo demand signalled, Iata noted, an ongoing and serious lack of capacity.

“Air cargo is surviving the crisis in better shape than the passenger side of the business,” observed Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre Juniac. “For many airlines, 2020 saw air cargo demand become a vital source of revenues, despite weakened demand. But with much of the passenger fleet grounded, meeting demand without belly capacity continues to be an enormous challenge. And, as countries strengthen travel restrictions in the face of new coronavirus variants, it is difficult to see improvements in passenger demand or the capacity crunch. 2021 will be another tough year.”

In terms of overall air cargo demand, Africa was the second-best performing Iata region, with a year-on-year increase of 1% in 2020. However, when it came to international demand only, Africa was the best performing region, with an increase of 1.9%. In December, the increase in international air cargo demand across the continent was 6.3% higher than in December 2019, again the highest in the world. African airlines have increased their share in the global air cargo market to 2.4%, which is the same share as that held by Latin American carriers. African total air cargo capacity last year was down 17.3% in comparison to 2019 (for international operations, it fell 15.8%).

Among Iata’s other regions, North America did the best, with a year-on-year increase in total air cargo demand last year of 1.1%, but a decline of 5.2% in international air cargo demand. The worst performing region was Latin America, hit by poor economic performances by Argentina, Mexico and Peru. Total air cargo demand last year fell 21.3% compared to 2019, with the decline in international demand being 20.3%.