Every two years, Boeing Freight publishes its World Air Cargo Forecast. The publication of the latest edition is timely, because although passenger air transport has not yet recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, air cargo saw a sharp increase in revenues in 2020 and 2021 — from US$100 billion in 2019 to US$170 billion in 2021 — even though the volume transported is only now returning to pre-pandemic levels.
The initial increase was partly due to the additional need to transport medical supplies during the pandemic and the various lockdowns. While passenger transport was at a standstill, a large part of the goods that are usually carried with passengers, accounting for about half of all air freight, were transferred onto cargo planes instead. In 2021, the continuing increase was instead the result of the growth in the price of maritime container transport, which was linked to the congestion of Chinese ports and the effects of the “zero-Covid” policy in that country. Despite a considerable drop in the relative price of air transport compared to sea transport since 2020, air transport remains between four and eight times more expensive than sea transport.
