Air Cargo Between the U.S. and World Regions, including China, February 2020 (Preliminary)

 

 

 

Airlines carried 7.3% less cargo by weight between the U.S. and foreign points in February 2020 than in February 2019, according to data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by large air carriers.

 

February 2020 cargo numbers by world geographic regions (by weight):

• Total: 593 thousand tons, down 7.3% from February 2019 (640T tons)
• Atlantic: 99.0 thousand tons, down 0.3% from February 2019 (99.3T tons)
• Latin America: 50 thousand tons, unchanged from February 2019 (50T tons)
• Pacific (including China): 60 thousand tons, down 24% from February 2019 (79T tons)
• China: 44 thousand tons, down 22% from February 2019 (57T tons)

 

Air cargo reports are filed monthly with BTS. Final February data will be released on May 14.  Complete international data by origin and destination will be released on Aug. 13. Cargo data in this release consists of cargo carried between the U.S. and foreign points.

 

Total Cargo to and from the U.S.

February 2020 would be the 16th consecutive month that the weight of cargo carried on U.S. and foreign airlines between the U.S. and foreign points declined from the same month of the previous year. The year-to-year decline of 7.3% from February 2019 would be a larger decrease than the 6.1% decline from January 2019 to January 2020.

 

		Year-to-Year Percent Change
	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
January	7.4	13.3	-2.1	-6.1
February	6.3	14.2	-4.5	-7.3*
March	10.0	11.7	-1.9
April	6.3	13.0	-10.0
May	10.9	12.3	-6.5
June	11.1	9.3	-7.7
July	11.9	4.4	-8.4
August	13.3	4.7	-5.3
September	9.5	5.8	-10.6
October	13.9	1.2	-11.8
November	20.2	-9.4	-4.0
December	14.5	-2.2	-8.6
Annual	11.5	5.9	-6.9

 

Atlantic Region Cargo

February 2020 would be the 17th consecutive month that the weight of cargo carried on U.S. and foreign airlines between the U.S. and the Atlantic region declined from the same month of the previous year. The year-to-year decline of 0.3% from February 2019 would be the smallest decrease in those 17 months.

 

 

		Year-to-Year Percent Change
	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
January	10.5	7.4	-3.3	-5.8
February	6.3	7.0	-1.2	-0.3*
March	15.2	7.5	-5.3
April	10.8	3.2	-7.3
May	18.3	0.9	-7.5
June	16.7	3.9	-13.6
July	15.1	-1.5	-9.9
August	14.6	1.0	-9.9
September	8.3	1.1	-15.3
October	12.0	-1.9	-12.5
November	12.4	-4.7	-7.5
December	5.3	-2.3	-10.1
Annual	12.1	1.6	-8.8

 

 

Latin America Region

Cargo by weight between the U.S. and Latin America was unchanged in February 2020 from February 2019 after three consecutive year-to-year declines. Previously, U.S.-Latin America cargo declined from the same month of the previous year in 15 of the 18 months through January 2020.

 

 

		Year-to-Year Percent Change
	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
January	0.6	12.3	-3.8	-5.0
February	8.3	11.5	-6.9	0.0*
March	14.3	5.8	-6.2
April	4.0	16.9	-29.6
May	2.6	-11.9	17.4
June	-0.1	0.3	-3.7
July	-20.9	24.8	-5.8
August	-1.8	-3.0	-3.1
September	-7.9	1.7	-6.1
October	40.8	-13.2	-10.5
November	7.3	-9.1	0.1
December	10.2	-4.0	-6.4
Annual	4.1	1.6	-5.8

  

Pacific Region (including China)

February 2020 would be the 13th consecutive month that the weight of cargo carried on U.S. and foreign airlines between the U.S. and the Pacific region declined from the same month of the previous year. The 24% decline from February 2019 would be the largest year-to-year decline during that time.

 

 

		Year-to-Year Percent Change
	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
January	17.1	6.5	0.7	-7.3
February	20.0	0.7	-7.3	-24.1*
March	10.3	-0.1	-2.5
April	8.1	-0.1	-4.1
May	10.8	0.5	-2.8
June	12.9	1.4	-4.8
July	11.3	3.6	-3.5
August	10.5	4.2	-5.3
September	11.4	2.0	-18.1
October	1.1	4.2	-18.8
November	7.0	-1.8	-20.7
December	7.8	-0.8	-5.9
Annual	10.2	1.6	-7.9

 

 

China

February 2020 would be the third consecutive month and the 15th out of 16 months that the weight of cargo carried on U.S. and foreign airlines between the U.S. and China declined from the same month of the previous year. The 22% decline from February 2019 would be the largest year-to-year decline during that time. During February 2020, 69% of the freight was flown from China to the U.S. while 31% was carried from the U.S. to China.

 

 

		Year-to-Year Percent Change
	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
January	6.2	30.1	-2.0	-11.8
February	20.8	20.0	-10.9	-22.0*
March	8.5	21.4	-1.6
April	15.7	14.4	-1.5
May	24.3	16.3	-4.7
June	19.9	17.9	-4.0
July	31.2	9.3	-9.2
August	18.8	21.2	-6.9
September	18.8	18.6	-10.0
October	19.1	6.2	-7.2
November	13.5	-6.8	7.9
December	20.1	2.4	-3.8
Annual	17.9	13.2	-4.4

 

 

China Air Cargo to U.S. Cities

Los Angeles was top city for air cargo shipments by weight from China in February 2019 but it would be surpassed by Chicago and Anchorage, Alaska, in February 2020.     

 

US Cities	February 2019	February 2020
Los Angeles, CA	22,604,244	14,618,032
Anchorage, AK	19,206,323	18,170,862
Chicago, IL	18,342,982	22,685,195
New York, NY	6,986,832	3,892,925
San Francisco, CA	3,386,287	268,109
Memphis, TN	3,155,447	*
Atlanta, GA	2,263,624	23,186
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX	1,758,327	*
Oakland, CA	1,426,440	*
Newark, NJ	1,210,869	*
Houston, TX	1,090,742	*
Washington, DC	978,192	*
Detroit, MI	900,431	*
Seattle, WA	784,261	62,131
Boston, MA	337,331	*
San Jose, CA	199,278	*
Honolulu, HI	107,967	*
Denver, CO	106,656	*

Note: February 2020 data is withheld due to confidentiality restrictions if fewer than three airlines provide service to the city

 

Reporting Notes

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial U.S. air carriers detailing operations, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. This release includes data received by BTS from 15 U.S. airlines as of April 17.

 

See the BTS Airlines and Airports page for additional U.S. airlines numbers through January for U.S. airlines. International data by origin and destination is available through October.

 

BTS has scheduled May 14 for the release of reported data through February.

 

None of the data are from samples. Measures of statistical significance do not apply to the complete air traffic data.