b"AUGUST 23 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2021NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS NEWSPAPER 9Airfreight: A bright spotAIR CARGO QUARTERLYfor carriersWith ocean shipping in turmoil, the COVID-19 econ-omyhasallowedcargotobecomeasignificantly larger part of airline revenues.By Peter Buxbaum, AJOTLastyearwasdisastrousMarch2020,AirCanada for the worlds airlinesrev- hasoperatedover10,000 enues dropped by half a tril- scheduledandon-demand lion dollars, according to theall-cargoflightsusingits InternationalAirTransportBoeing 777 and Airbus A330 Association (IATA). But thosepassenger aircraft.numbers came as a result of the falloff of passenger traffic.p andEmici mpactCargoperformanceactuallyThepandemicchanged advancedremarkablyduringour business at unprecedented the pandemic.speed, said Jason Berry, vice The COVID-19 economypresidentforcargoatAir hasallowedcargotobecomeCanada. The airline is in the asignificantlylargerpartofprocess of converting several airlinerevenues,aspassen- of its Boeing 767 aircraft into gertravellargelyshutdowndedicatedfreighters,and,inOperations begin at the Amazon Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The facility, a $1.5 while cargo revenues increased(BRIGHTcontinued onbillion investment in Northern Kentucky, serves as the central U.S. hub for Amazon's air cargo network and will create thanks to capacity shortfalls andpage 10) thousands of jobs over time .See story on page 10.(Photo: Business Wire)rateincreases.Withthepan-demicalsowreakinghavoc onoceancontainership-ping,leadingtoconstrained capacityandspikingrates, airfreighthasalsobenefitted from a modal shift from ocean to air, as the rate differential between the two compressed. Companiesracingtoreplen-ish depleted pandemic inven-tories are reporting increased reliance on airfreight. Cargohasbecomea financial bright spot for air-linesandthebackboneof globalsupplychains,said Willie Walsh,IATAsDirec-tor General and CEO. B oom ina iRf REigHtGlobal air cargo demand wasup9.9%duringthe firsthalfoftheyearcom-paredto2019,accordingto IATA,withNorth American carrierscontributing60% ofthatgrowth.Butcapac-ityremained10.8%below June2019levels,andbelly capacitywasdown38.9% comparedtoJune2019due totheongoinggrounding ofpassengeraircraft.With capacityconstrained,the industry-widecargoload factor was up 7.0%, reaching an all-time high of 53.8%.UPS has responded to the latestconditionsbyadding capacity,especiallyoutof Asia.Inthefirstquarterof 2021, the carrier added 25% moreflightsandevenmore in terms of capacity to sup-port outbound Asia demand, which was up 43% year-over- 10,000 CARGO-ONLY FLIGHTS AND COUNTING!year,saidBrianNewman, UPSschieffinancialoffi-cer.Inthesecondquarter,Proudly keeping your business moving.UPSs international volumes were up 14% year-over-yearSince March 2020, Air Canada Cargo has successfully operated more than 10,000 cargo-only flights. These flights have andinternationalrevenuesensured medical supplies, vaccines and consumer goods continue to flow through the supply chain despite capacity were up 30%, with all majorchallenges at a critical time. We celebrate this milestone along with our employees, customers and supply chain regions showing double-digitpartners, whom we thank for their resilience and dedication. growth. The carrier plans on adding six new aircraft to itsVisit aircanadacargo.comfleet by the end of this year.AirCanadahasben-efitted from enhanced cargo operations,evenaspassen-geraircraftsatidle.Since"