Quest for Quality 2023: Air Freight Carriers/ Air Freight Forwarders

As Logistics Management readers are well aware, demand for air cargo became quite volatile over the past few years due to the pandemic and geopolitical events. As a result, carriers had to adjust capacity levels and buckle up for a long, bumpy ride.

And as we’ve reported over the first half of 2023, the air market continued to hit some turbulence as it attempted to fly out of the spring and into summer.

“According to our top analysts, the current situation is simply the result of ongoing factors pressing on the global economy and the lingering supply chain problems including those linked to the war in Ukraine,” says contributing editor Karen Thuermer, who’s been covering the air cargo market for LM over the past 15 years.

Despite a list of ongoing challenges, there are a number of positive factors driving today’s air cargo markets, including the increase of airfreight fleets across different regions as well as returning passenger flights—which has only increased cargo capacity and market reach.

In fact, the latest Boeing World Air Cargo Forecast reports that the world’s airfreight fleet is expected to double in size over the next 20 years on the back of average annual cargo traffic growth of 4.1%.

Another positive is the ongoing technology investment being done by some of the world’s biggest airfreight forwarders. “Today, airfreight forwarders are reassessing their supply chain operations and strategies and going all in on technology to stay competitive,” says Thuermer. “The benefit to air cargo shippers will be faster, more reliable bookings, better visibility, smooth integrations, and last but not least, more accurate information on their freight.”

And yet another good sign for the overall market is that the readers of LM believe that this collection of 21 carriers and service providers are worthy of 2023 Quest for Quality gold.

Of the 12 winners in the Air Cargo Carrier category, Air France-KLM (52.03), Cargolux, (51.91), and Emirates SkyCargo (51.03) lead the way this year with notable weighted scores. And in this year’s Airfreight Forwarders category, Lynden Logistics posted an impressive 57.33 weighted score, leading the way for the seven Quest for Quality winners in this hotly-contested category.