World Air Cargo Indicators 2024

A demand-led year: more freight, flown farther, in fuller aircraft

In 2024, airlines of ICAO Member States carried 60.8 million tonnes of freight on scheduled services, 8.4 per cent more than in 2023. That freight also travelled farther, 4,010 km on average, so the total volume of freight, measured in tonne-kilometres (FTK), grew 11 per cent to 243.7 billion.

Demand grew faster than capacity, so aircraft flew fuller: 48 of every 100 tonne-kilometres of cargo space offered were used, 1.7 points more than in 2023. International flights fly fuller and much farther than domestic ones, and their freight grew about four times faster than world trade.

Where cargo flies. Airlines of Asia/Pacific performed 37.6 per cent of world FTK, the largest share of any region, followed by Europe and the Middle East. The busiest corridors all touch Asia/Pacific: traffic within the region leads, ahead of the routes linking it to Europe and to North America. An average international cargo trip covers about 5,233 km, more than three times the 1,533 km of a domestic one.

Freighters punch above their weight. Only about 1 in 35 international flights is operated by a freighter, yet freighters perform 42 to 48 per cent of international FTK. They also fly much fuller: 61 per cent of their cargo capacity is used, compared with 34 per cent of the belly hold on passenger aircraft.

Behind the numbers: where air cargo and air mail travel

Totals tell us how much grew. To understand why, ICAO looked inside the detailed traffic reports that airlines file every year: which routes freight and mail travel on, in which direction, on what type of aircraft and with how many competing airlines. Two companion studies cover international services in 2024.

Air Cargo 2024	Air Mail 2024
Corridors, capacity and concentration Air freight grew far faster than trade. Three corridors linked to Asia-Pacific carry almost half of all tonnage, passenger aircraft absorbed most of the growth, and some routes depend on a single airline.	The air backbone of the post Mail grew slowly, peaked at year-end and flowed mostly towards Latin America. Nine-tenths of it travels in the holds of passenger aircraft, so postal services depend on passenger networks.