Drewry Airfreight Insight, a new online airfreight market intelligence service launched October 1 by Drewry’s Supply Chain Advisory division, confirms airfreight’s growing popularity among international shippers as cost and congestion issues continue to impede ocean transport.
2024 has been a year of continued supply chain disruption for ocean freight shippers and has forced many to think and act creatively to alleviate the pressures on their global transport networks. With unreliable transit times and a myriad of problems in ocean transport, airfreight has stepped-in and aided procurement teams at a time of need.
As congestion has plagued the ocean freight sector, Drewry has seen double digit growth in airfreight volumes, particularly out of Asia, but freighter capacity has remained buoyant enough to sustain this growth, and although rates have gone up, they have not matched the steep increases in ocean spot rates.
Despite the demand boom in airfreight, between December 2023 and September 2024, the cost ratio between airfreight and ocean freight spot rates has narrowed from 25.9x to 5.6x (see below).
Photo credit: iStock/ Pakorn_Khantiyaporn
