IATA is predicting a positive outlook for air cargo demand and believes it will continue to improve as the vaccine rollout progresses and bellyhold services pick up.
Kickstarting a press conference earlier today, Willie Walsh, director general of IATA, said airlines “deserve great credit” for pivoting their business focus away from passenger operations and towards airfreight in a short period of time.
Noting the use of preighters, Walsh said: “Airlines demonstrated great agility in responding to demand to ensure that there was sufficient supply to meet critical supply chain issues during the pandemic.”
He added that as passenger services pick up while the global vaccine rollout progresses, airlines will “shift from survival mode to rebuilding”.
“As that happens, we’ll continue to be very focused on the environmental issues that have not in any way bated since we’ve gone through this crisis,” he said.
“There is also an immediate focus on the development of sustainable aviation fuels.”
Data will also be essential in air cargo’s development.
Walsh said: “Better data enables us to improve our environmental performance. Better data enables us to assess the risk in a better way and that enables us to improve our safety performance”…
