FedEx Express has retained its top spot as the world’s busiest air cargo carrier in the 2019 IATA World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) which have been released by the association.
The US express freight operator came top for the amount of freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) in 2018 with 17,499 million ahead of Emirates in second with 12,731 million FTKs. FedEx’s figures were up 3.9 per cent on 2017, while Emirates was flat.
Only just behind and moving up to third this year was Qatar Airways with 12,695 million FTKs as it grew by 15.4 per cent last year, ahead of UPS which fell to fourth with 12,459 million FTKs. Fifth again was Cathay Pacific with 11,284 million FTKs, and sixth again was Korean Air with 7,839 million FTKs.
Rounding out the top 10 cargo carriers were Lufthansa Cargo in seventh, up from eighth with 7,394 million FTKs, and falling to eighth was Cargolux with 7,394 million FTKs, ninth again was Air China with 7,051 million FTKs but it saw srong growth of 5.2 per cent and moving into the top 10 was China Southern Airlines with 6,597 million FTKs as it grew by 6.9 per cent in 2018.
The 2019 IATA WATS World Air Transport Statistics found that the average load factor in 2018 for air cargo carriers was 49.3 per cent while freight and mail tonne kilometres reached 262,333 million and available freight tonne kilometres reached 532,000 million.
