The air cargo space between China and North America is in short supply due to strong e-commerce demand, surpassing the impact of the slow return of passenger flights and the important abdominal cargo capacity they have added to the eastbound route.

According to the Baltic Air Freight Index (BAI), due to tight space, the freight rates between China and North America increased by 15% in the first three weeks of October, reaching the current level of $5.42 per kilogram. Air freight analysts from the benchmark platform Xeneta stated that in the first two weeks of October, the passenger capacity of the Trans Pacific route departing from China was 89%, which means that the available space on the route is basically full.

Air cargo industry executives emphasized the shortage of space outside of China, with e-commerce currently occupying 60% to 70% of the available air cargo space from China to North America. Due to the majority of the lower cabin cargo network being occupied by these e-commerce companies, this has caused a shortage, which will continue until the complete passenger transport network is restored.

Although passenger airlines have pinned their profits on the recovery of international travel, the cargo carrier market on trade routes outside of Asia is receiving increasing attention.

Tmall Global, a subsidiary of Alibaba, is the largest B2C cross-border e-commerce platform in China, while JD.com is the largest online retailer in China. The online shopping promotion in November is imminent, and most of the available air cargo space will be used to transfer sales from Singles' Day in China, Black Friday in the United States, and Cyber Monday.

On the other hand, the available passenger flights are already full, so most of the belly space is full of luggage, which means loading 14 pallets on the Boeing 777, while the freight forwarder can only load 11 pallets, which will lead to an increase in rates. Airlines need some kind of buffer to operate, so they are reducing flights to rationalize their network.