Airfreight spot market price enquiries improve compared with ocean

Interest in using airfreight instead of ocean freight improved as last year progressed, according to price enquiry data from booking portal Freightos.
The online booking portal said that it saw a spike in price enquiries for using airfreight services in September last year, with airfreight’s percentage of overall spot quotes requested reaching almost 65% compared with 55% for the same month in 2015.
Freightos said it was likely that the bankruptcy of shipping line Hanjin in August caused the rise in the number of enquiries for airfreight prices.
The ocean shipping industry has also been through a period of consolidation resulting in a shake-up of alliances and in turn changes to their scheduled services.
The marketshare of airfreight spot price enquires continued ahead of the 2015 level for the rest of the year, finishing 2016 with a share of just below 60% compared with 2015’s level of just above 55%.
Freightos said the relatively high airfreight percentage may persist based on strong demand figures from IATA.