Air Cargo
Air cargo is the fast lane of global trade: it carries only a sliver of goods by weight, yet roughly a third of all trade by value. In 2024 demand grew 11.3% to a record high, lifted by booming e-commerce and disrupted ocean shipping. These charts track demand, the busiest freight hubs, and how value and volume diverge.
Key Air Cargo Insights
A record year for air freight
Full-year 2024 cargo demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTK), rose 11.3% over 2023 (12.2% for international routes), exceeding the previous record set in 2021. Capacity grew more slowly, up 7.4%.
Tiny by weight, huge by value
Airlines move less than 1% of world trade by volume but around 35% by value, equal to roughly $8 trillion of goods a year. Air is reserved for high-value, time-sensitive, or perishable cargo.
Hong Kong leads the world
Hong Kong (HKG) handled about 4.9 million tonnes in 2024, ahead of Shanghai Pudong (3.78M), Memphis (3.75M), Anchorage (3.69M), Louisville (3.15M) and Incheon (2.95M). The top 20 airports handle around 42% of all cargo.
E-commerce is the engine
IATA attributes much of the 2024 surge to strong cross-border e-commerce and to shippers shifting from disrupted ocean lanes to air, keeping demand growing for 17 straight months on international routes.
Air Cargo Demand Growth, 2019-2024
Year-on-year change in global air cargo demand measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTK). 2024 marked a record year after the pandemic-era swings.
Key Finding: Demand grew 11.3% in 2024, the strongest full-year result on record, surpassing the 2021 peak.
Busiest Cargo Airports, 2024
Total freight handled in million tonnes at the world's leading cargo gateways, including integrator hubs (Memphis, Louisville, Anchorage) and trade hubs (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Incheon).
Key Finding: Hong Kong handled about 4.9 million tonnes, holding its place as the world's busiest cargo airport.
Share of World Trade Carried by Air (by Value)
Air moves only a tiny fraction of trade by weight but a large share by value, because it carries high-value goods such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and luxury items.
Key Finding: Around 35% of world trade by value travels by air, versus under 1% by volume.
2024 Cargo Growth at Major Hubs
Year-on-year change in tonnage at leading cargo airports in 2024. Most hubs grew strongly while Memphis, a FedEx integrator base, dipped.
Key Finding: Louisville (+15.6%) and Hong Kong (+14.1%) led, while Memphis slipped 3.3% and ceded second place to Shanghai.
Air Cargo by the Numbers
Key annual indicators: air's share of world trade by value and by volume, total cargo handled at airports worldwide, and total freight lifted by airlines.
Key Finding: World airports handled a record ~127 million tonnes of cargo in 2024, up 9.9% year on year.
Understanding Air Cargo Data
CTK vs tonnes
Cargo tonne-kilometres (CTK) multiply the weight of freight by the distance flown, so they measure transport work rather than raw tonnage. IATA reports demand in CTK and capacity in available cargo tonne-kilometres (ACTK). Tonnes simply count weight handled and are how ACI ranks airports; a hub can rank high on tonnes while shorter hauls keep its CTK lower.
Value versus volume
Air carries only a small slice of trade by weight (under 1% of volume) but a far larger slice by value (about 35%, near $8 trillion a year). This gap exists because air is reserved for high-value, urgent or perishable goods, while bulk commodities move by sea. Reading only one figure can badly mislead.
Belly vs freighter capacity
Cargo flies in two ways: in the belly holds of passenger aircraft and on dedicated freighters. Belly capacity collapsed when passenger flights were grounded in 2020 and has since recovered, while freighters and integrators (FedEx, UPS, DHL) provide schedule-driven capacity. The mix shapes how quickly capacity responds to demand.
Caveats
Figures combine sources: IATA for global demand, capacity and trade share, and ACI for airport tonnage. Definitions, reporting periods and whether mail or transit cargo is included can vary, so cross-source comparisons are approximate. The latest full-year data shown here is for 2024; preliminary figures are sometimes revised.