World Air Freighter Fleet to Grow

The trend that will continue through the period is to wide body freighters, says the study, which will then represent fully 90% of all freighter capacity and these planes will represent 60% of the world’s total fleet – they are 44% of the fleet today.

As the Boeing chart indicates, there is a continuing rebound in air cargo that began in the second half of 2003 and continued in the first half of 2004. As noted in the study, world gross domestic product (GDP) is the major factor driving air cargo growth. While World GDP grew at a 2% rate during 2002 and 2003, risks to today’s economy come from rising interest rates and increasing oil prices.

The Boeing report presents airfreight growth percentages for 2003. Overall, the world market grew 3.9%. Other major market air freight growth figures were North America (0.7%), Europe – North America (2.5%), Asia – North America (1.2%), North America – Latin America (0.9%), Europe – Asia (6.1%), Intra-Asia (6.7%) and Domestic China (9.4%).