Air freight on the Pacific gets a welcome boost due to a combination of the US port and car crisis

For the first time in many years, timing is on the side of the air cargo industry. The sector has grappled with a bad combination of weak consumer sentiment translating to lower demand, high fuel prices impacting the many inefficient cargo aircraft operated, and growing competition adding to over capacity. But now US ports are congested and Japanese manufacturers need to transport goods to the US urgently, leaving the slack to air freight just as fuel is at low prices and the start of the year is a slow season.

This is a silver lining but unlikely to be a major contributor to many carriers, in part because this is expected to be a temporary demand scenario. ANA and JAL do not operate trans-pacific freighter aircraft, so cargo operators like Atlas Air and Nippon Cargo Airlines are likely to benefit, as well as other Asian combination carriers like Korean Air and Cathay Pacific that could, depending on availability, route Japanese cargo over their respective hubs.