Purdue prof: Air cargo seeing slump despite holidays
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An assistant professor in the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University says the air cargo logistics industry is seeing a slump despite the normally busy holiday shopping season. Fercri Karanki says lockdowns from COVID-19 led to an increase in fast delivery through e-commerce, which led to air cargo businesses seeing an increase in revenue. However, he says the script has been flipped this year with a decline in demand for products due to high inflation.
Karanki talked about the issue in an interview with the Associated Press.
“The problem is on the demand side because of high inflation rates,” he said. “According to a Bankrate survey, two in five holiday shoppers spent less this holiday season. Therefore, the performance of global trade flows is low this holiday season, and this reflects air cargo volume.”
Karanki cites statistics from the International Air Transport Association, air cargo volume contracted year-over-year by 8.6% in October. But, he says there is still a positive outlook.
“Nevertheless, it is still 8.8% higher than the volumes in October 2019 before COVID-19. Although the growth has flattened this year, I think demand for air cargo logistics will keep rising in the long run.”