WorldACD reported that air cargo in the first half of the year showed mixed results for various market participants, although it said that worldwide air cargo volumes returned to the pre-pandemic levels of H1-2019 in the first six months of 2021.

In a statement, it said comparing in detail air cargo’s performance for the first six months of 2019, 2020 and 2021, "makes for fascinating reading, revealing how some market participants have done relatively well to extremely well, whilst others are not out of the doldrums yet."

The month of June 2021 confirmed the trend seen in the last few months, the air cargo data provider said — which is considerable volume growth over 2020 (this time 31%), coupled with an even larger YoY revenue growth (37% in USD).

"Worldwide air cargo volumes returned to the pre-pandemic levels of H1-2019 in the first six months of 2021. That is to say: in kilograms, for in revenues it outperformed H1-2019 by 79% (and H1-2020 by 47%)," WorldACD noted.

Airlines contributed to return to pre-pandemic levels

It said airlines, grouped by region, contributed very evenly to the return to 2019-levels with the two exceptions were the African airlines and the European carriers.

"All airlines, grouped by their home base, did better away from their home region than in the home region itself. Unsurpisingly, all groups did best in business growth from the origin Asia Pacific," it added.

WorldACD said the world's top 20 forwarders, meanwhile, consolidated their position as a group, but there were interesting differences depending on the origins of the forwarders in this group.

It said the top-forwarders from Europe did better than average comparing 2021 with 2020, but did not yet fully reach their 2019 market share.

The top-forwarders hailing from Asia Pacific improved considerably, registering volume growth of 47% compared to 2020, and of 18% compared to 2019.

"The regional top-20 forwarders did better than the market in the smaller regions (Africa, C&S America and MESA), but lost considerable ground in Europe, benefiting the smaller forwarders," it added.

For express air transport, the data provider noted that although this is normally used for smaller shipments, it "expanded considerably" over the past two years — expanding its total weight by 50% over 2019 and by 35% over 2020.

"Even more tellingly, the average size of express shipments went from 233 to 418 kgs in two years, thanks to the growth in e-commerce," it added. "The fact that the total air cargo weight worldwide is back at the 2019 levels, is completely thanks to the growth in the so-called weight break of >5,000 kgs per shipment."

Weight in this category increased by 27% over 2019, whilst all smaller weight breaks showed a considerable decline.

WorldACD said special cargo grew more than general cargo compared to 2019 (+2% vs. -1%), but less compared to 2020 (+16% vs. +25%). While general cargo scored the highest yield/rate increase (in USD) over 2019 (+86%), in special cargo, only pharma/temp and vulnerables/hightech came close (+75% resp. +80%).