Pictured: Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA
Measured in cargo tonne kilometres (CTK), demand increased by 11.3% in 2024 and by 12.2% for international operations, ending with a strong month in December.
In December, CTK rose by 6.1% with capacity in available CTK (ACTK) up 3.7%, increasing the cargo load factor by 1.1 percentage points to 47.3%.
ACTK for the year was up 7.4% with the load factor up 1.6 percentage points to 45.9%.
Full year yields were 1.6% lower than 2023 but 39% higher than 2019.
Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA says that 2024 was a year of profitable growth helped by e-commerce demand and ocean shipping restrictions.
He says, “This combined with airspace restrictions which limited capacity on some key long-haul routes to Asia helped to keep yields at exceptionally high levels. While average yields continued to soften from peaks in 2021-2022 they averaged 39% higher than 2019.”
IATA predicts that air cargo demand will grow by 5.8% in 2025, which is nearer to historic performance, and the economic fundamentals point to a good year.
Walsh says, “There is no doubt, however, that the air cargo industry will be challenged to adapt to unfolding geopolitical shifts. The first week of the Trump administration demonstrated its strong interest in using tariffs as a policy tool that could bring a double whammy for air cargo—boosting inflation and deflating trade.”
IATA says that the global trade in goods grew by 3.6% in 2024 and that the manufacturing output Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) and new export orders PMI were both below the critical 50 mark in December at 49.2 and 48.2 respectively, indicating a decline in global manufacturing production and exports.
US headline inflation based on the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.2 percentage points to 2.9% and the European Union also saw a 0.2 percentage point increase to 2.7%.
China’s consumer inflation fell by 0.1 percentage points to 0.1%, the fourth consecutive year-on-year decline, reinforcing concerns about an economic slowdown.