High-value goods include obvious examples such as semiconductors and industrial diamonds. Cut flowers and fresh seafood are physically perishable and so have limited shelf lives. Other goods, such as fashion apparel, are economically perishable. Fickle consumer tastes can transform designer apparel from what's hot to what's not in the time it takes a container ship to make the voyage from Hong Kong to New York. Overall, MGI expects that as more shippers recognize the economic benefits of delivery time compression and time-definite arrival, air freight will capture disproportionate share of future trade growth.
Air freight is a subset of world trade, which is directly related to world economic growth.
Trade has grown explosively over the past three decades, and by our own estimates there is a 2 percent increase in the value of world trade for each 1 percent increase in the size of the world economy. It is worth remembering that air freight represents less than 1 percent of total intercontinental trade tonnage, so even minuscule market-share movements can translate into significant air freight growth. Each day, the world economy becomes more integrated and interdependent. More positive evidence can be found in the economic opening of China, which may eventually become the world's largest economy. Progressive economic integration, and steady reduction in protectionism, should boost overall trade flows, and with it air freight traffic.