Aviation market intelligence and advisory company IBA indicates that that both air cargo demand and capacity will increase in 2024.
In comparison to last year’s figures, IBA forecasts that air cargo demand will grow by 5% to 258.1 billion cargo tonne kilometres. Similarly, air cargo capacity will see an increase by 8% to 600.3 billion air cargo tonne kilometres.
This year, average air cargo yields are expected to decline by approximately 18% year-over-year due to plentiful capacity but generally subdued demand. This projection is an improvement from earlier forecasts for the year, which had anticipated a 20% year-over-year decline in yields.
However, despite the overall increase in demand and capacity, the active freighter fleet stood at 75% in June 2024, down from 85% before the pandemic in May 2019. This is due to growing passenger aircraft belly hold capacity, leading to a greater number of freighters being parked or stored.
IBA: Air cargo capacity and demand set to increase in 2024
