Global air cargo market surges as e-commerce booms

The boom in cross-border e-commerce has unprecedentedly lifted the global air cargo market, with China leading the way, boosted by the Air Silk Road that connects economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Ethiopian Airlines, the largest African carrier and the largest air carrier between China and Africa, operates cargo routes connecting Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and nine Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou in Henan province and Guangzhou in Guangdong province. Aman Wole Gurmu, Ethiopian Airlines’ country director for China, said that particularly in Guangzhou, in the first seven months of this year, cross-border e-commerce transportation volume between China and Africa exceeded 13,000 metric tons, achieving a leapfrog growth over the same period of 2019, or before Covid-19. This year, the annual air cargo transportation volumes between China and Africa are expected to jump by 46% over the pre-pandemic levels, Gurmu said, as per a report.