World airline body reports air cargo demand sharply down last year, but revenues up

International air cargo demand during last year fell by 10.6% in comparison to 2019, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported. This was the biggest year-on-year fall in demand since the association (the representative body of the global airline industry) started keeping records of air cargo demand, in 1990. It also represented a deeper drop than that for the total global trade in goods, which went down 6% year-on-year. However, global air cargo capacity in 2020 shrank by 23.3% in year-on-year terms, which was more than twice the fall in demand. This resulted in cargo load factors increasing by 7.7% over those in 2019. In turn, this increased cargo yields and revenues, helping some airlines afflicted by the collapse of their air passenger revenues, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.