Home- Stories -Boeing Sees Freighter Boom with Global Supply Chains, e-Commerce Expansion

Boeing Sees Freighter Boom with Global Supply Chains, e-Commerce Expansion

Freighter B747-8 Boeing's biennial World Air Cargo Forecast (WACF) is forecasting substantial long-term demand for freighters over the next two decades. : Nov 18, 2020 - : 2:28 pm

Boeing’s biennial World Air Cargo Forecast (WACF) is forecasting substantial long-term demand for freighters over the next two decades.

Growth will be enabled by rebound in global trade and long-term growth, the airframer says.

This growth will be influenced by trade and growing express shipments to support expanding e-commerce operations.

“Freighter operators have been in a unique position in 2020 to meet market requirements for speed, reliability and security, transporting medical supplies and other goods for people and communities around the world,” said Darren Hulst, vice president of Commercial Marketing. “Looking ahead, dedicated freighters will be even more critical to compete in air cargo markets; they carry more than half of air cargo traffic, and airlines operating them earn nearly 90% of air cargo industry revenue.”

A demand for 2,430 freighters over the next 20 years, is forecast for the WACF.

This will include 930 new production freighters and 1,500 freighters converted from passenger airplanes.

World air cargo traffic will grow at 4 percent per year over the next 20 years., according to the new forecast.

The global air cargo fleet is expected to grow by more than 60 percent through 2039, Boeing forecasts.

The growth will be driven by the need for dedicated freighter capacity to support the world’s transportation system.

Boeing’s WACF provides insights into air cargo performance during the pandemic, including the following:

  • E-commerce, which was growing at double-digit rates prior to the pandemic, has accelerated its impact on the air cargo market as more businesses shifted to online selling platforms. Year to date through September, express carriers increased traffic by 14 percent.
  • Passenger belly cargo, which in 2019 accounted for about half of the world air cargo capacity, was significantly reduced when airlines parked thousands of planes. Freighter operators responded by operating above normal utilization levels, and traffic for all-cargo carriers grew 6 percent.
  • So far in 2020, approximately 200 airlines used more than 2,000 passenger widebody aircraft for cargo-only operations to generate cash flow and support global supply chains. These passenger freighters have taken up some of the capacity shortfall and, in some cases, generated quarterly profits for carriers despite minimal passenger operations.

The full cargo market forecast can be found at www.boeing.com/wacf.

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