The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its global air cargo market data for January 2025, reporting an increase in demand from 2024 but noting areas in the operating environment to watch for changes.

Compared to the same month in 2024, the total demand, measured by cargo tonne-kilometres (CTK) rose by 3.2 per cent, 3.6 per cent for international operations, marking the 18^th consist of month of growth. In capacity, the available CTK increased by 6.8 per cent.

Walsh, director general of IATA, said: “While external factors such as trade growth, declining fuel costs and expanding e-commerce remain positive for air cargo, it is important to closely watch the evolution of market conditions at this time.”

While January’s numbers signaled an improvement of 2024, the yields were 9.9 per cent lower than in December, and cargo loads declined by an average of 1.5 per cent as well.

Other areas to watch for change, according to the report, include year on year industrial production. In the global goods trade sector, January rose 2.6%, increasing for the ninth consecutive month.

Internationally, as a result of capacity limits in ocean shipping, many air cargo carriers have benefitted from the rising e-commerce demand.

The report also highlighted the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for global manufacturing output, which indicates economic growth above a threshold of 50 and a decline for anything below. In January, the rate was above the 50-mark, but new export orders were just shy of this, at 49.37.

Overall, January’s air cargo performance has shown growth from the previous year, but the industry is constantly changing, globally, as well as regionally.

“In particular, the wild card is the potential for tariff-driven trade policies from the US Trump Administration. Fortunately, the air cargo industry is well practiced at dealing with shifts in the operating environment,” said Walsh.

IATA’s full January 2025 Air Cargo Market Analysis is available online.