In July, CLIVE reports that volumes were down 9% year-on-year and is down 9% compared to 2019.
Capacity was 4% above 2021 but still 11% below 2019, causing the dynamic load factor to drop 8 percentage points to 58%.
Rates continues to fall month-on-month but remained 121% higher than July 2019 and 11% compared to 2021.
The slowdown continues the trend seen since March due to the uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine to the escalating cost of living crisis hitting household budgets and business performance.
Airlines and airports continue to suffer from severe operational challenges due to shortages of ground staff.
“There are many dark clouds hanging over the air cargo industry given the state of the world right now,” says Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer of Xeneta, which acquired CLIVE earlier this year, adding that volumes are subdued and though rates remain elevated, they are heading back to pre-pandemic levels and have not bottomed out.
He says, “It’s clear that airlines are following the market very closely to ensure they are deploying their assets in the best possible way because the market is moving quickly. We have already seen freighters moving away from transatlantic routes.”
Rates are coming down, in January they were 156% higher than 2019 but reduced to 121% in July, a reduction of 35 percentage points.
Van de Wouw says, “On the Atlantic, the decline in general airfreight rates we reported for the previous three months of 2022 continued in July. While this will be partly seasonal, the slight increase in load factor across the Atlantic relative to June – from 58% to 61% - might be a result of carriers and forwarders redirecting their freighter operations to other lanes, hence pushing up the load factor for the remaining flights on these routes.”