Air Freight

Since the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Outbreak emanated in the Far East, it should come as no surprise that its disruptive impact on global logistics struck there first. Analysts agree that the one transport mode most facing the greatest challenges now and in the foreseeable future is the air cargo industry.

January shipments—at 1,026,714—fell 3.6% annually. And containerized freight shipments were off 2.8% annually, with Panjiva saying that it was notable there was a decline even with the earlier timing of the 2019 Lunar New Year. Looking back, for calendar year 2019, total shipments—at 12,243,739—slipped 1.0% compared to 2018, marking its worst annual output going back to 2009.

Earlier this week, the White House issued its proposed fiscal year 2021 budget, entitled “A Budget for America’s Future.”

With a 5.4-cent decrease, this week’s average price per gallon came in at $2.956, following last week’s 2.7-cent decrease to $3.010.

While it was not a huge surprise that 2019 was unable to maintain the economic and freight volume momentum seen in 2018, the outlook for 2020 is shaping up to be closer to the former. That was the word from speakers at this week’s SMC3 JumpStart 2020 conference in Atlanta.

Quarterly revenue, at $20.5 billion, headed up 3.6% annually, and adjusted earnings per share, at $2.11, was up 8.8% matched Wall Street estimates in the $2.10-$2.11 range. Full-year 2018 revenue rose 3.1% annually to $74.1 billion, which UPS said was paced by strong volume growth in its U.S. domestic segment and the impact of successful execution from all segments.

There’s a lot to think about before you can launch internationally, so, we’ve put together our three steps to international shipping for eCommerce retailers to help you plan your strategy.

Airports Council International and The Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center have entered into a cooperative agreement

The Airforwarders Association (AfA), Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) and the Air Expedited Motor Carriers Association (AEMCA) will stage their annual AirCargo Conference to be held January 26 – 28, 2020, at the Omni Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.

The critical need for a strong global effort is demonstrated by the fact that the illegal wildlife trade is one of the most lucrative transnational crimes and estimated by the United Nations to be worth up to $23 billion annually.

Earlier this week, Atlanta-based Roadie, an on-the-way delivery service with the nation’s largest local same-day footprint, and Delta Cargo, the air cargo subsidiary of Delta Airlines, announced they have partnered up for a 24/7 pick-up and delivery service, from a business or home, originating in Atlanta to more than 55 United States-based cities, with plans to expand the service to several more cities by the end of 2019.

The report, entitled, “Logistics Activity Trending Toward Sustainable Growth, highlighted key findings from the Prologis IBI, which is a quarterly survey of customer sentiment. The IBI pointed to what Prologis called an environment of normalization away from the unsustainably high levels of activity recorded in 2018” (and came in at 60 for the third quarter; a reading of 50 or higher indicates growth is occurring) with:

Quarterly revenue-at $18.318 billion-saw a 5% annual gain with net income-at $1.750 billion-up 9.7%. Earnings per share-at $2.01-rose 9.5%, slightly topping Wall Street expectations.

September shipments, at 1.199, were up 0.8% compared to August and down 3.4% annually, and expenditures were off 4.5% annually and up 0.5% compared to August.

DHL Global Forwarding, an air and ocean subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL Group, said it has expanded its El Paso, Texas-based facility, with the addition of air freight, ocean freight, Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), and cross-border services.