In the twenty-fourth week of 2024, from June 10 to June 16, a balance emerges in air cargo transportation: global traffic shows a slight decline of two percent, while spot rates remain steady at $2.51 per kilogram. According to WorldACD Market Data, the global average of these rates has stayed unchanged due to increased tariffs for shipments departing from Asia and the Middle East.
Analyzing specific routes reveals interesting changes in recent weeks on the Asia Pacific-US and China-US routes. For instance, there have been significant increases in average spot rates over the past five weeks to the US from the Asia Pacific (rising from $4.80 in week 19 to $5.34 in week 24) and from China (from $4.91 in week 19 to $5.25 in week 24), reflecting increases of 52% and 38% respectively compared to the same period in 2023.
Particularly at Los Angeles Airport—where there have been some cargo flight cancellations due to intensified customs checks on e-commerce shipments from China—rates have increased over the past five weeks from both the Asia Pacific region (from $4.27 in week 19 to $4.79 in week 24) and from China (from $4.52 in week 19 to $4.87 in week 24), pushing those prices up by 38% and 30% respectively compared to last year's levels.
On the demand side, the picture is slightly different. While Asia Pacific-Los Angeles volumes have increased year-over-year (+18% in week 24), China-Los Angeles volumes have decreased year-over-year for most of the past seven weeks. For China-US overall, volumes have increased year-over-year in each of the past five weeks, although they have flattened over time, registering only a 2% increase in week 24 compared to last year's levels.