Speaking at the IATA World Cargo Symposium, Xeneta chief airfreight officer Niall van de Wouw identified three factors that drive air cargo demand: container shipping performance, consumer demand and the need to de-risk supply chains.
On container shipping, van de Wouw said that shippers constantly assess whether they can “trust” ocean carriers enough to put goods on the water relative to moving by them by air.
“They will only use air if they must, and will use ocean if they can,” he explained. At the moment, ocean freight reliability is under pressure due to the Red Sea crisis, which benefits air cargo.
