Global air cargo decline could again be an unwelcome portent for passenger demand

On many occasions a decline in air cargo volume has foreshadowed one in the passenger segment.

With airlines trying desperately to provide capacity to fulfil the schedules they hastily put in place as the pandemic began to wane, any such further downturn would be disastrous, and there are many external factors in play which collectively, or even individually, could drive down demand.

The Apr-2022 statistics that show cargo volume falls in each of the six world regions, load factor falls in five, and capacity falls in four of them, will hopefully turn out to be a blip.

If they are not, then airlines might start to think seriously about further passenger flight capacity cuts for the remainder of the year and beyond.