Asia-Europe Airfreight Impacted By Red Sea Crisis

As a result of the ongoing attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and the subsequent longer journeys being incurred around Africa, demand for Asia-Europe air cargo has been on the increase.

Ocean transit times have increased by 10-14 days, which has led to some exporters and importers switching their sea freight orders to air freight during recent weeks. This has squeezed air freight capacity, which has resulted in higher freight rates on several Asia origin routes.

Operational hubs have been impacted along the route, with both Dubai and Bangkok putting a stop to import flows for 48 hours this week caused by 'unprecedented volumes of cargo due to the Red Sea crisis’. Dubai is a major gateway for transhipment services between Asia and Northern Europe.

While air freight rates have risen of late, this has not been as sharply as demand on most routes. However, if the Red Sea crisis continues to disrupt ocean freight, we could see further air freight rate spikes in the coming weeks.

Your Croft Cargo team are watching the situation closely.

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