Chargeable weight nears pre-holiday levels as Middle East South Asia region leads with 15% growth, though comparisons remain complicated by timing shifts
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Air cargo volumes have continued their strong start to the year, with improvements being registered out of most regions, according to the latest weekly report from data provider WorldACD.
The analytics firm said that worldwide air cargo volumes increased by 5% year on year in the second full week of January, running to 18 January, with tonnages recovering after the post-Christmas slowdown from all the main world origin regions.
WorldACD said that chargeable weight is now close to pre-holiday levels and is around 10% down on the mid-December peak season.
Tonnages were up year on year from most of the main origin regions, including gains from Middle East South Asia (MESA) of 15%, Africa 9%, Asia Pacific 6%, Central & South America 5%, and North America 2%, with only Europe down slightly by 1%.
“Chargeable weight patterns of the past five weeks from each of those six origin regions are remarkably similar to their equivalent periods a year earlier, with the only significant difference being the relatively elevated tonnages of the past five weeks, compared with a year earlier.”
WorldACD has previously said that 2025 had got off to a slow start, which may explain some of the improvements registered this year. Comparisons are also complicated by the timing of the Chinese New Year holiday, which takes place on 17 February this year, compared with 29 January in 2025.
The figures also revealed that of the two main east-west tradelanes, demand is improving faster from Asia Pacific to Europe than it is from Asia Pacific to North America.
“Tonnages in week three from Asia Pacific to Europe were up 19% year on year, with strong growth from all the region’s major origin countries except for Japan (-3%) and South Korea (+1%),” WorldACD said.
Demand from China to Europe was up 17%, from Hong Kong 30% and Taiwan, along with "strong double-digit percentage rises" from Southeast Asia origins, especially Thailand (32%) and Malaysia (26%).
Meanwhile, tonnages in week three from Asia Pacific to the US were up by a "healthy" 6% year on year, but "there were huge disparities" between the performances of volumes from China and Hong Kong (-12%), compared with the "very strong" year-on-year growth from South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, with "volumes to the US from Vietnam and Thailand, for example, up by around 50%, YoY – as they have been for several months".
