Our global freight forwarding network keeps our customers freight moving across the world.

Putzger perspective: Frothy skies for AI air cargo volumes?

The EU's customs duty on low-value imported parcels has seen e-commerce air cargo volumes dip, but likely not for long, while artificial intelligence (AI) shipments are rising, although opinions differ on the stability of this market. It didn't take long for the European Union's hit on e-commerce imports to show up in airfreight volumes. Following the implementation of a €3 customs duty on incoming parcels on 1 July, airfreight tonnage from Hong Kong to Europe slumped 12% week-on-week in the week ending 5 July, according to WorldACD. Industry observers expect the curve to reverse itself before long. Washington's end of de minimis exemption last year triggered a massive slump in parcel imports, but volumes climbed again to account for 13% of all US airborne imports in the first quarter of this year, down from 16% a year earlier. While e-commerce continues to generate substantial volumes, in terms of driving airfreight growth the baton has clearly passed to AI-related traffic, which fills freighters to the rafters, first and foremost across the Pacific. US high-tech imports by air surged 70% in the first quarter, which pushed the nation's overall airborne imports in the period 11% higher year-on-year. The ripple effect from this tsunami of servers and semiconductors and assorted equipment, notably the insatiable need for electricity, is powering a surge in project logistics manifesting itself in full order books and long wait times for some equipment. How long is this bonanza going to drive airfreight growth? According to a report by the UN Council for Trade and Economic Development published in April, the global AI market will soar to $4.8trn by 2033, a 25-fold increase over $189bn in 2023. It has to be noted that many predictions and valuations of AI firms are decidedly frothy, including numbers put out by Wall Street. In the run-up to the SpaceX IPO (which was re-branded as an AI company), major banks published eye-watering numbers, setting target prices for shares from $205 to $800, implying market caps up to $10.4trn, which would have SpaceX trading at a price-to-sales multiple between 139 and 542. Clearly these numbers were driven by banks' desire to get a chunk of the IPO, but they indicate that projections have soared wildly, suggesting that the party will have an encounter with reality at some point down the road. For the near future, AI looks set to drive airfreight growth further, widening the gap with capacity growth hobbled by supply chain issues. Adding to this the volatility and uncertainty that have come to define global trade conditions, rates seem unlikely to move down for some time.

ACS revenues boom as cargo charter demand rises

Charter broker Air Charter Service (ACS) has seen its revenues significantly increase in the first half of the year, led by rising demand in its charter division. The company, which operates out of 43 offices worldwide, saw revenues increase by 38% year on year in the first half of the year to more than $845m. The improvements were led by ACS' cargo division, which saw charter numbers increase by 49% compared with last year and revenues grow 38% in part as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. ACS chairman and founder Chris Leach said: "In part, these increases were due to supply chain disruptions caused by the conflict in Iran, the repercussions of Storm Marta with the port closures that it caused in Morocco, as well as Venezuelan relief efforts, but events such as these individually make up a small proportion of what we do, indicating strong underlying growth." Leach added that regionally, the company saw particular growth in its offices across the US, Europe and Greater China. The results were also boosted by the opening of six new offices last year, while the company is hoping that the three offices that it has opened this year - in Brussels, Monaco, and Stuttgart - will also support performance. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the first half of 2026 were up between 35-40% year on year across its three divisions - cargo, group charter and private jets. "Every year we talk about how exceptional events inflate our numbers; however, we are finding that we are being called upon when there are spikes in demand with increasing regularity, from sporting events to natural disasters to political unrest," added Leach. "We are increasingly becoming the 'go-to' for large organisations and governments, as we are often one of the only companies able to deliver such complex projects. "We can't foresee what we will face in the next six months, but we are confident that we are in a strong position to tackle whatever happens in the second half." The strong start to the year, follows on from improved performance in the 2025/26 fiscal year.

AI boom keeping air cargo demand flying may be just 'a bubble'

The rapid build-out of AI data centres has become the latest driver of air cargo demand, filling much of the gap left by the decline in China-US ecommerce shipments following the end of US de minimis exemptions. According to Trade and Transport Group MD Frederic Horst, air cargo traffic from Asia to the US is stronger than at any point since the pandemic, with volumes now exceeding the peak seen in 2022. "Most of this growth has come from Taiwan and, to a lesser extent, Thailand," he said. While servers and related technology have long been part of the air cargo mix, their importance has surged. Data centre-related commodities - including servers, memory, power supply equipment, cooling systems, and fibre optic components - now account for around 17% of the Asia-US airfreight market, compared with just 6% before 2025. Between February and May this year, the share reached almost 21%, before easing slightly in June. The change reflects the extraordinary pace of investment in AI infrastructure. Around 20% of all global greenfield investment last year was in data centres, with industry estimates put spending on AI-driven facilities at roughly $400bn. Investment is expected to increase by another 75% this year. For air freight, the impact has been dramatic. In mid-2024, data centre-related commodities represented around 7% of US air imports from Asia. Today they account for roughly 20%. Monthly volumes have climbed from about 14,000 tonnes to around 60,000 tonnes, driven primarily by high-value servers and solid-state memory. Heavier infrastructure, such as cooling equipment, transformers, and electrical converters is mostly moved by container shipping. Taiwan remains the dominant origin market, with Thailand and Vietnam also benefiting from growing electronics manufacturing capacity. "The party never ends," Mr Horst said. "Just as cross-border ecommerce volumes were slowing down, the air cargo business received a major boost from data centre-related shipments." The AI boom has also helped offset the collapse in low-value Chinese exports to the US. Before May 2025, de minimis shipments from China to the US averaged around 110,000 tonnes a month. That figure has fallen to about 35,000 tonnes. Some higher-value consignments are more prominent: air exports of apparel and footwear from Asia increased by around 27,000 tonnes during the first six months of this year, with retailers such as Shein increasingly relying on local inventory, particularly in Europe, where warehouse capacity significantly exceeds that which it has in the US. However, the AI-driven boom remains concentrated on transpacific routes. Despite Europe housing nearly one-third of the world's data centres, imports of servers and related equipment have remained broadly flat. The UK has seen some growth in server imports from China, Thailand, and Vietnam, but nowhere near the scale of the US market. Smaller AI investment destinations, including Australia and Brazil, have also recorded increases in server imports, although the additional volumes remain modest. Mr Horst cautioned that the sustainability of today's demand remained uncertain. "Servers and memory really seem to have filled the gap after the end of de minimis," he told The Loadstar. "But whether this is a long-term growth market depends on how much of the AI Kool-Aid you're drinking. "I think it's a bubble, and a lot of the expected long-term investment may not materialise."