According Airbus’ new Cargo Global Market Forecast, world-wide air freight traffic will grow by an average of 4.8% annually over the next 20 years, almost doubling the required global freighter fleet to nearly 3,000 aircraft. This projected growth is driven by numerous positive global trends in economic activity, including world trade, private consumption, and industrial production.
The forecast shows that the overall worldwide air cargo demand by the year 2032 will require around 2,700 new and converted aircraft. Over half of these will be needed for fleet replacement – driven by current old aircraft retirements – with the remainder being for growth. Of these 2,700 aircraft, 870 will be factory-built freighters worth approximately US$234 billion, while around 1,860 will be converted from passenger aircraft. A further 175 in 2032 will be aircraft which are already in service as freighters today. Belly freight usage in passenger aircraft is taken into account – which will remain largely unchanged at around half of commercial air freight on international traffic.
Andreas Hermann, Airbus’ Vice President, Head of Freighters says: “Looking forward after a difficult few years, world trade is showing improvements and diverse emerging markets will call for increased flexibility in air cargo transportation – for which mid-size freighters will be the primary means to achieve this.” He adds: “This is why Airbus forecasts that the core of future freighter requirements will be in the mid-size category, where modern-technology freighters will play a large part in future fleet replacement and long term growth.”
Illustrating the rise of the emerging economies as the fastest growing markets for air cargo, Asia-Pacific (including India and the PRC) currently represents 36 per cent of the world freight traffic, increasing to 42% by 2032. Overall, China is the single largest individual nation driving air cargo growth: Today China’s share represents 15%, and by 2032 this will rise to around 22% of the global air freight market. By comparison, the combined developed nations’ share in Europe/CIS and North America accounted for 51% of the total traffic in 2012, and although traffic will continue to grow, by 2032 their combined share of total world freight traffic will reduce slightly, to around 45%. Airbus has receives no orders for freighter aircraft this year "We will see a pick-up in buying behaviour once the surplus in freighter aircraft is absorbed," Andreas Hermann, vice-president freighters for Airbus, told reporters at a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday. Airbus sold five freighters in 2012 after selling seven in 2011.