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Carriers' wings clipped on LatAm-North America airfreight trades

Airfreight forwarders and their clients in Argentina are bracing themselves for a challenging three-weeks when the nation's premier air cargo gateway, Buenos Aires' Ezeiza Airport, faces a severe restriction of international capacity. From 25 October to 11 November, as part of a $100m infrastructure project, Ezeiza is upgrading its secondary runway, 17-35, working on the intersection with the airport's chief runway. This will cut the length of the main runway from 3,300 metres to 1,850, which one forwarder executive said was "a problem", adding: "It's mainly narrowbodies that will keep flying, but for widebodies it will be a challenge." Indeed, a number of international carriers have decided to pause operations during the period. Lufthansa cancelled flights between the Argentine capital and Frankfurt, and Swiss is suspending its Zurich-Buenos Aires service. Others are not selling Buenos Aires service for that period include the three large US airlines, American, Delta, and United, along with Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Air France KLM, British Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, and China Eastern, as the shortened runway will not allow their widebodies to take off at maximum weight. Other carriers have inserted fuelling stops into their routes: Aerolineas Argentines is planning tech stops in Rio for its services to Rome and Madrid; while Iberia routes its return flight to the Spanish capital over Montevideo. The cancellations of the big-three US carriers mean another drop in capacity to Latin America's biggest market - just after the start of the winter schedule, which ushers-in a switch from their transatlantic to Latin America networks. This summer the sector has seen a more pronounced reduction in passenger capacity to North America (down 7.4% year on year), whereas seat capacity to Europe rose 3.8%. "We're working on a couple of alternatives," one forwarder said. When operations at Ezeiza were hit by fog, flights were diverted to Rosario, Cordoba, and Montevideo, he recalled, but expressed misgivings about the alternatives. Rosario has seen airfreight grow, thanks to e-commerce traffic, but is too small and lacks equipment, he said, adding that going via Montevideo is hamstrung by the fact that the ferry connecting the Uruguayan capital with Buenos Aires does not carry trucks. Further concerns emerged in mid-August - two weeks after the start of the airport upgrade - when the national civil aviation administration announced it still had not received funding for communications equipment, vehicles, and work tools for its staff to perform control, oversight and support work for the construction companies, warning this posed risks for those employed on the project. Besides the runway, the project includes the establishment of an apron for narrowbody aircraft, paving taxiways, completion of a 12,000 sq metre courier terminal, and expansion of the airport's export facility for perishables, which will raise temperature-controlled space from 4,500 sq metres to almost 7,000. According to Peter Cerdá, IATA's VP for the Americas, cargo infrastructure development has lagged growth in cargo throughput at the majority of airports in the region, and he accused the operators of the gateways serving Lima, Bogota, and Santiago of having concentrated on passenger-related projects to the detriment of cargo. He emphasised one positive aspect, noting the airports had the space for cargo development, and stressed that in addition to building infrastructure, the competitive position of these airports needed to be strengthened by reducing obstacles and optimising operating conditions. Meanwhile, on the maritime side, Maersk has launched a cold chain service from Chile to the US, for grapes and other perishables that require fumigation. This grape season it ran a pilot, moving the fruit to the mid-Atlantic and south-east regions of the US via the port of Wilmington, featuring fumigation at the port and subsequent inland delivery. According to the carrier, it gives importers faster access to their freight and reduced transport costs in comparison with other routes. Overall, ocean transport service from South America to North America deteriorated after months of improvement, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis. Its Global Liner Performance report for August shows schedule reliability down 8.3 percentage points in June/July, month on month, to 75.4%, and 11.3% lower than a year ago. The average delay for all vessels extended by 0.79 days from the past month, to 1.3 days, while the average delay of late vessels increased 1.11 days, to 5.22 days. It was the first month of decline this year. Schedule reliability had been improving, albeit at a sinking improvement rate since March/April. Four of the box carriers in the sector showed improved punctuality, while the other four registered declines. Southbound schedule reliability slipped 2.5 percentage points from May/June, to 84.5%, but was still up 3.2% year on year.

Congestion and ship delays take 2.3m teu capacity off the market

Container shipping's deteriorating schedule reliability has effectively taken 2.3m teu of vessel capacity out of the market. According to Sea-Intelligence's latest Global Liner Performance data, schedule reliability fell to 56.4% in July, its lowest level since February 2025 and the weakest performance since the current alliance structure was introduced. The average delay for vessels arriving late extended to more than six days - excluding the immediate aftermath of the Red Sea crisis in January 2024, delays of this length have only occurred during the worst of the pandemic disruption. According to the analyst, all this means 6.6% of the global container fleet is unavailable to the market, equivalent to around 2.3m teu, the capacity of the world's sixth-largest carrier, Sea-Intelligence said. It noted that pre-pandemic, vessel delays typically absorbed about 2.2% of global capacity, so the current figure represents more than four percentage points above the structural baseline. The immediate cause is largely seasonal, a succession of typhoons disrupting major Asian ports. And Sea-Intelligence estimates that, based on the experience of the pandemic and Red Sea crisis, it could take between 4.5 and six months to bring congestion back to the low point recorded in June 2025. Returning to end-2025 levels could take two to 3.5 months. And consultancy Braemar suggested the current congestion issue was largely localised, and not global. It noted that Shanghai and Ningbo were under pressure, with Santos another hotspot, but northern European gateways were generally seeing vessel waiting times measured in hours, or a few days, rather than pandemic-style queues. Further, Braemar noted that congestion did not automatically equal lost capacity, as cargo could be shifted to another sailing, service, or carrier, particularly across the six major east-west trades, which together deploy around 1,378 vessels, with 15.7m teu of capacity. For now, it said, the evidence pointed to pockets of congestion, rather than a global capacity squeeze. But as newbuilds from the growing orderbook enter service, Braemar warned, the relationship between ship size and port infrastructure could become increasingly important. The global container fleet represents roughly 1,500 km of vessel length, while the orderbook adds 419 km - almost 28% of the existing fleet length, as much of the new capacity is on larger ships. Braemar warned that the industry was, therefore, adding not only capacity but vessel length, increasing demand for berths, cranes, and yard capacity. Sea Intelligence summarised: "Normalisation of the Red Sea will create a sharp drop in demand, when distance is taken into account. A gigantic orderbook is about to be delivered as well. The numbers essentially show that this does not add up. "Not that the market might crash, but we will get a downturn, even as the carriers will attempt to stem the tide. "At the top of every market cycle, we always hear arguments from carriers as to why the orderbook is not a problem. How they have become more disciplined, such that they will not allow rates to go below cost. How - this is the new pitch - port congestion will be permanent. How 'this time is different'. Yet, in every previous cycle, for the past decades, it was never different. "Of course, this time might be different indeed. But when we look at the numbers, we get a distinct feeling of déjà vu," the analyst concluded.

MSC Air Cargo formalises partnership with Neutral Air Partner

Neutral Air Partner (NAP) and MSC Air Cargo have formalised a strategic partnership that will see the carrier engage with NAP's community of vetted freight forwarders, consolidators and specialised logistics providers across more than 150 countries. The partnership, which builds on an established relationship, will support closer industry dialogue, commercial engagement and the development of opportunities across regular airfreight, specialised cargo, charter and project-driven movements. The addition of MSC Air Cargo further strengthens NAP's airline partner portfolio and its ability to connect independent air cargo professionals with leading carriers, relevant capacity and specialised solutions across key global markets. Jannie Davel, chief executive of MSC Air Cargo, said: "Our relationship with Neutral Air Partner has developed through direct engagement with its members and a shared understanding of the value of strong, dependable partnerships. "Formalizing this collaboration gives us an important platform to stay close to a highly experienced global forwarding community, better understand its evolving requirements and explore new opportunities together." MSC Air Cargo participated in OPENAP25 Khao Lak, Thailand, which it supported as a major sponsor, with Davel and Alexander Padmore, global managing director, joining NAP's executive panel and conference stage, addressing the market challenges facing independent freight forwarders and consolidators. "MSC Air Cargo's involvement at OPENAP 2025 allowed our members to engage directly with its leadership and better understand its ambitions, capabilities and approach to collaboration," said Christos Spyrou, founder and chief executive of Neutral Air Partner. "That experience created genuine trust between our organizations. This strategic partnership is the natural next step, connecting our members more closely with MSC Air Cargo's growing capacity, specialist products and global network." Launched in 2022 as the dedicated airfreight carrier of the MSC Group, MSC Air Cargo operates a fleet of seven Boeing 777 freighters. Its scheduled and ad hoc services currently provide more than 50 connections across the Americas, Europe and Africa, supported by wider connectivity across the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA.