Freightos warns of airfreight rate jump as Europe reaches capacity

After airfreight in Europe reached its capacity last week for the first time in at least 10 years, online freight pricing platform Freightos cautioned that some shippers that don’t already have agreements in place will have to pay “sky-high air rates” to get their shipments loaded.

Freightos WebCargo’s CEO, Manel Galindo, added that the capacity crunch in Europe “triggered holiday-season auctions, with bookings bumped by the highest bidder.” In one case, the price reaching as high as US$13 per kilogram for a trans-Atlantic route.

While current prices have stabilized this week, Galindo warned that “this frenzy may happen again in the run-up to Christmas.”

Typically, post-Christmas rates have fallen slightly before rising again for the Chinese New Year, which will occur in mid-February in 2018, but e-commerce is set to change that. Freightos expects rates to remain high until tapering off in January.