Cargo aircraft market forecast

Airbus decided in 2011 to publish its freighter forecast separately from the passenger Global Market Forecast, primarily to take a dedicated look at this important market. The latest freighter Global Market Forecast – covering the period from 2011 to 2030 – provides an industry outlook with an emphasis on growth drivers, replacement needs, emerging markets, aircraft size and new-build freighter market share evolution.

During this period, Airbus foresees the need for more than 2,700 jet freighter aircraft with cargo capacity of 10 tonnes and above. Based on the observed market share of new-built freighters over the last 10 years, their demand should account for more than 800 aircraft.  In the same timeframe, the world’s overall freighter aircraft inventory will nearly double from today’s 1,600 to over 3,000 by 2030.

While air freight currently faces a number of challenges, this sector has shown to be resilient to such difficulties – as is the passenger air transport market.  Therefore, Airbus believes the fundamentals for air freight traffic growth have not changed, resulting in a solid 5.1 per cent average annual growth rate forecast for the next 20 years.