IN Brief:
- Worldwide chargeable weight fell 4% week on week during 3–9 August.
- Global traffic remained 1% above last year, while available capacity declined 1%.
- Average rates eased to $2.95 per kilogram but remained 22% above the equivalent 2025 level.
WorldACD Market Data recorded a 4% week-on-week fall in worldwide air cargo tonnage during 3–9 August, with chargeable weight declining from every major origin region while available capacity and average rates also edged lower.
Middle East and South Asia recorded the sharpest weekly contraction at 6%. Volumes originating in Europe and North America each fell 4%, Asia-Pacific declined 3%, and Africa and Central and South America were both 2% lower.
The weekly drop did not translate into an equivalent year-on-year decline. Global chargeable weight remained 1% above the corresponding week of 2025, with most origin regions recording annual growth of 1% or 2%. Europe was the exception, slipping 1% year on year.
A broader two-week comparison shows a market moving within a narrower range than the headline weekly figure suggests. Worldwide tonnage in the latest two weeks was 1% below the previous fortnight, including a 2% decline from Asia-Pacific and a 3% fall from North America, while Europe and Middle East and South Asia each recorded 1% growth.
Lane-level movements were more uneven. Asia-Pacific tonnage to both Europe and the US fell 4% week on week, although Japan moved against the regional trend with traffic to the US up 12% and Europe up 3%.
Shanghai recorded an 8% overall fall in chargeable weight as weather disruption from Typhoon Dolphin affected operations. Tonnage from the Chinese gateway fell 4% towards North America, 7% towards Europe, and 12% on intra-Asia-Pacific lanes.
Weekly air cargo data can move sharply when weather interrupts flight schedules because freight delayed at the end of one reporting period may simply reappear in the next. That makes short-term declines useful as an operating signal without automatically turning them into evidence of a lasting demand shift.
Other changes are more structural. European rules affecting lower-value imports have altered some China-Europe e-commerce flows, creating pressure on traffic patterns that had previously supported large quantities of dedicated freighter capacity from mainland China and Hong Kong.
That matters to the wider market because aircraft capacity can be repositioned. When yields weaken on one lane, freighters may be redeployed towards routes offering stronger demand or pricing, changing the amount of space available to industrial shippers even when global fleet capacity has barely moved.
WorldACD recorded a 1% weekly fall in available capacity globally. Capacity declined 1% from Asia-Pacific, Middle East and South Asia, and North America, remained flat from Europe and Central and South America, and increased 1% from Africa.
Average worldwide pricing moved only marginally, from $2.96 per kilo in week 31 to $2.95 in week 32. More strikingly, average rates remained 22% above the corresponding level of 2025, with year-on-year increases recorded across all major origin regions.
That gap between softer weekly tonnage and much stronger annual pricing shows why volume alone provides an incomplete picture. Fuel costs, disrupted routings, regional capacity shortages, premium products, and changes in the mix of freight can all support yields even when fewer tonnes are moving during a particular week.
Asia-Pacific pricing also diverged between destination markets. Spot rates towards Europe rose 1% during the week, supported by increases from China and Hong Kong, while spot pricing from Asia-Pacific to the US fell 3%.
For manufacturers and logistics teams buying airfreight, those differences are more useful than a single global average. A softer market on one lane can coexist with tight space or elevated pricing on another, while urgent, pharmaceutical, high-value, and oversized freight can behave differently from general cargo.
Procurement teams also need to distinguish contract rates from spot-market indicators. A weekly market average can move without immediately changing longer-term agreements, but sustained differences in regional demand and capacity eventually feed into negotiations, surcharges, and the willingness of carriers to commit space on particular lanes.
The latest dataset therefore describes a market adjusting to several overlapping factors: seasonal movement, weather disruption in China, regulatory changes affecting e-commerce, relatively stable capacity, and rates that remain well above last year’s level.
Air cargo softened during the first full week of August, but the fall was uneven and pricing has not followed tonnage down at the same speed. For shippers, the useful signal is in the gap between the two — fewer tonnes are moving this week, yet the market is still expensive enough to punish poor routing and late bookings.
