How much freight goes by air, and who carries it?

These charts track air freight, mostly in the United States: how much moves, how it divides between all-cargo airlines and airlines that also carry passengers, and how it moves with the wider economy. Some of the national US series count freight on all-cargo flights only, so freight in passenger holds is outside them. The charts that compare airlines count each airline's whole freight.

6 featured of 18 charts

Air freight swings far harder than the economy it rides on

Quarterly year-over-year growth of ton-miles of freight and mail on all-cargo flights (aircraft with no seats) vs GDP over 139 quarters. It is not an elasticity, and growth in the four quarters from 2002 Q4 includes wider data coverage

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Growth in freight on all-cargo flights swings about five times wider than the economy's. This compares how much each moves; it is not an estimate of how freight responds to the economy.

descriptive A pattern in the data, not a causal estimate.

Details

Window: 1991 Q1 to 2025 Q3

Data through: 2025 Q3

Vertical axis: Year-over-year growth (%)

Series: Freight ton-miles, year-over-year change (%); GDP, year-over-year change (%)

Latest: Freight ton-miles, year-over-year change (%) -7.2; GDP, year-over-year change (%) 2.3

The freight series is ton-miles of freight and mail on all-cargo flights (aircraft with no seats). Freight carried in the holds of passenger aircraft is not in it, so the chart describes all-cargo flying and not air freight as a whole; a change in it can also reflect freight moving between all-cargo and passenger aircraft.

T-100 did not cover domestic all-cargo flying, FedEx included, before 2002 Q4.

How these numbers are made

Freight seasonality by decade

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The fourth quarter is the freight peak and the first quarter the trough in every decade shown. The series counts freight and mail on all-cargo flights only.

The economy used less air freight per dollar of GDP in 2024 than in 2003 or at its 2021 peak

Ton-miles of freight and mail on all-cargo flights (aircraft with no seats) per billion dollars of GDP, by quarter from 1990 Q1 to 2025 Q3. Levels before 2002 Q4 are understated, so the comparison uses whole years from 2003

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Since reporting coverage settled, freight on all-cargo flights per dollar of output has fallen below its level of two decades ago and well below its pandemic peak. Freight in passenger holds is not counted here.

Details

Window: 1990 Q1 to 2025 Q3

Data through: 2025 Q3

Vertical axis: Ton-Miles per $B GDP

Latest: 516,800

T-100 did not cover domestic all-cargo flying, FedEx included, before 2002 Q4.

How these numbers are made

China: air cargo volume by market (tonnes)

Domestic includes Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes from 2010 only (before that the Civil Aviation Administration of China reported them as a separate category), so the domestic line steps up at 2010 by construction

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China's air cargo has nearly tripled, with international shipments growing much faster than domestic. The domestic line steps up partway through, when Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes were moved into it.

Details

Window: 2006 Q2 to 2026 Q1

Vertical axis: 10,000 tonnes (quarterly)

Series: Total; International; Domestic

Latest: Total 245.2; International 110.5; Domestic 134.7

Volume is cargo and mail combined, not freight alone.

How these numbers are made

Brazil: air freight (indexed)

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Brazilian air freight has more than doubled since the turn of the century, ending close to its all-time peak.

Details

Window: 2000 Q1 to 2025 Q3

Data through: 2025 Q3

Vertical axis: Index (first quarter = 100)

Series: Freight (indexed)

Latest: 230.1

How these numbers are made

Every chart on this question

AU Australia: domestic vs international air freight
Australia's international air freight has grown nearly fivefold since the mid-eighties. Domestic freight has fallen by more than two-fifths since the start of the twenty-tens.
CA Canada: air freight tonne-kilometres (Level I, indexed)
Canadian air freight climbed to a peak in the late nineties, fell for a decade and had only partly recovered when the record stops, in the mid twenty-tens.
EU Air freight volumes: selected EU markets (indexed)
Polish air freight has grown roughly sevenfold over two decades, the fastest of the markets shown, while the Netherlands has grown the least. Each line starts from that country's first quarter in the data.
US Freight tons per passenger, airlines that also carry passengers (2024)
Freight per passenger runs highest at China Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air and lowest at the big US airlines. Each airline's own freighters are counted, so this does not measure what passenger holds carry.
US Mail fell to 0.2% of air cargo by 1999; its jump to 5.5% is the postal contract moving to UPS, which reports it as mail
Air mail never carried much cargo tonnage. Its share shrank to about a quarter of one percent by the late nineties and sat a little above one percent through the twenty-tens, before the jump at the end.
US US air freight ton-miles
Since coverage widened in the early two-thousands, US freight on all-cargo flights has grown by nearly half, peaking in the pandemic and easing since; the steeper earlier climb is partly carriers entering the data.
US Top 20 freight carriers (2024)
FedEx and UPS together haul about as much freight tonnage as the next eighteen carriers combined.
IN India: domestic air freight by carrier (2025)
Passenger airlines carry most of India's domestic air freight; Blue Dart is the only large all-cargo airline. The split is by airline, so it does not show how much rides in passenger holds.
IN India: top international freight markets (2025)
India's air-freight map differs from its passenger map: Germany and Hong Kong rank high for freight but are not among the top passenger markets, while the UAE leads both.
IN India: air freight, domestic vs international
India ships far more air freight internationally than domestically, though domestic cargo has been catching up; both hit records in the latest year.
IN India: seasonal rhythm of passengers vs freight (2023–2025)
Indian passengers and air freight follow different calendars: people peak in December while cargo runs strongest through the autumn.
US International passengers vs freight indexed
Over the past decade and a half, international passenger traffic has grown substantially faster than international freight tonnage.

How much freight goes by air, and who carries it?

Air freight swings far harder than the economy it rides on

US air freight: ton-mile share of all-cargo airlines vs airlines that also carry passengers

Freight seasonality by decade

The economy used less air freight per dollar of GDP in 2024 than in 2003 or at its 2021 peak

China: air cargo volume by market (tonnes)

Brazil: air freight (indexed)

Every chart on this question