An unprecedented increase in international non-scheduled cargo transportation was recorded in January in Moscow

Rosaviatsia has calculated the impact of the pandemic on the international cargo transportation of the Moscow aviation hub. It turned out that on an annualized basis they decreased by 10% and amounted to 21,038.79 tons.

At the same time, in the largest air hub of the Russian capital, Sheremetyevo, there was practically no fall in January. The January volume of 2021 through the main airport of Moscow was 23,204 tons, while in 2020 it was 23,251 tons.

That is, the volume became less by only 0.2%. Cargo transportation at two other airports in the Russian capital has dropped significantly. In Domodedovo, freight traffic over the past year fell by almost 21%, and in Vnukovo by more than 8%.

The Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia has recorded an unprecedented increase in international non-scheduled cargo transportation. During the year of the pandemic, four times more irregular flights were carried out through the Moscow aviation hub than in the previous year. In percentage terms, the growth was 276.7%. This is a fantastic indicator of growth! At the same time, international scheduled transportation fell by almost 27%.

It is definitely worth noting that the Federal Air Transport Agency in its statistics compares 2021 with 2020. Whereas IATA estimates the performance of January 2021 from January 2019 and reports on the return, for example, of the demand for cargo transportation to the pre-crisis level. The International Air Transport Association states that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the comparison of indicators has been distorted and in order to obtain objective data, it is necessary to compare January 2021 to January 2019. It follows from the IATA data that the most significant growth in the indicator was noted in Africa (21.1%), North America (11.7%) and the Middle East (6%).

In the short term, the volume of international air cargo transportation is likely to remain limited, but what the balance of supply and demand in the market will be in the future is not clear. In a regime of uncertainty, it is obvious that airlines operating specialized cargo aircraft will be in a better position. Such as, for example, ZetAvia with its transport aircraft Il-76T and Il-76TD.

Oleg Sergeev