Ageing freighter fleet set to tighten global market, says Atlas Air chief

The global supply of full-freighter aircraft is tightening, says Atlas Air Worldwide chief executive, Michael Steen. In an interview for Bloomberg TV’s Daybreak programme on 13 March, he pointed out that of the 650-strong global all-freighter fleet, around 125 are coming up for retirement.

“That is going to put pressure on supply,” he said.

However, Atlas Air itself, which currently holds around 10% of the world freighter fleet, was “really well positioned”, he argued.

Atlas Air had recently taken delivery of eight new wide body freighters, Stein said.

Overall, global demand for airfreight had bounced back after a turbulent 2023 and was now 20% up year on year, as well as 4% above 2019 levels, he said. The airfreight market was cyclical, the typical pattern being upturns that lasted for around three years, followed by downturns of some 12-18 months.

“We’re coming out of that now,” he asserted and indeed supply of airfreight capacity was currently not keeping up with demand, he said.

One shining light in the current market was e-commerce, Steen added. The sector now accounted for 18% of global retail sales and was growing at around 8-9% a year. Atlas Air had also seen a significant shift from business to business-to-business to business-to-consumer demand.

The Red Sea shipping crisis could also help boost demand for airfreight. With global shipping capacity reduced by around 30% because of the need to divert vessels from the Suez Canal to the southern tip of Africa, “inventories are being depleted” and this could in turn lead to increased demand for airfreight, Steen predicted.