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New UK cyber bill to force logistics operators to rip out their tech?

A piece of legislation working its way through the House of Lords right now could hand British ministers the authority to order transport and logistics operators to remove technology from vendors deemed a national security risk. Most of those operators, if pressed, probably could not tell you exactly whose kit is sitting inside their operational technology stack. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill completed its passage through the Commons on June 16 and entered Lords committee stage on September ...

Post-Apex probe: Smart freight, smarter regulators - logistics vs national security

For decades, freight forwarders have competed on a familiar set of metrics: rates, capacity, reliability, transit time and network reach. Technology has improved the tools, but the basic proposition has remained remarkably consistent - get the customer's cargo from A to B efficiently. That proposition is quietly changing. As artificial intelligence (AI), cloud infrastructure and advanced electronics reshape global trade, an increasingly attractive category of cargo has emerged. Semiconductors, servers and other high-value technology products offer forwarders exactly what ...

Top 25 cargo airlines 2025: A year of instability

2025 was a year of uncertainty for the air cargo industry with tariffs, the US' end of the de minimis exemption, ongoing geopolitical conflict and ultimate supply chain disruption that ensured airlines were kept on high alert. //Main copy// Despite these market challenges and subsequent supply chain disruption, airlines were on the whole quick to adapt their networks and capacity and full-year demand for the top 25 cargo airlines, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTK), increased by 5.5%. This was compared to 3.4% across the industry, highlighting the growth opportunities that carriers with major operations in Asia had. But not all the carriers in the top 25 saw gains. Federal Express (FedEx) kept its first-place position, but only just with a 9.9% drop in volume to 16.3bn CTK. The company said in its annual report analysis that the continued decline in US consumer goods imports and a slowdown in global industrial production had "contributed to continued weakened business conditions for the transportation industry, leading to lower freight and package volumes". The express carrier has been focusing on matching capacity to demand in recent years and as part of its "DRIVE" transformation and cost-reduction programme, it redesigned its Tricolor global air network. Tricolor is FedEx's strategy to make its international air network more efficient by utilising FedEx-owned aircraft for high-priority, high-margin volumes, retiming some flights, and using partner airlines for more flexible e-commerce and deferred shipments. "With the significant growth of e-commerce, and as our service mix continues to shift to deferred services, we are fundamentally redesigning our international air network to operate more efficiently. "The redesigned network continues to deploy FedEx-owned aircraft in the delivery of International Priority parcel shipments using our existing hub-and-spoke model. "Additionally, a portion of our owned aircraft fleet has been retimed to operate off-cycle, allowing us to build density, decongest hubs, and connect our global surface networks. "Finally, we are leveraging our global partner network as an adaptive capacity layer, particularly on imbalanced trade lanes, to move e-commerce and deferred volumes." AS part of these initiatives, the express carrier had made network changes that resulted in it flying less, while seeing a reduction in priority and postal volumes, although international economy shipment business increased due to e-commerce demand. "International economy package volume increased 40% in 2025 primarily due to continued growth in our deferred service offerings as a result of strengthening e-commerce. "U.S. ground home delivery/economy package volume increased 5% in 2025, also primarily due to strong growth in e-commerce. U.S. deferred package volume increased 4% in 2025 primarily due to mix shift toward our deferred service offerings." These deferred services are shipments where the customer pays for a slower, less time-critical delivery service than FedEx's Priority products. Supporting this change, FedEx said international priority average daily package volume fell from 667,000 to 584,000, a 12% decline. "International and U.S. priority package volumes decreased 12% and 2%, respectively, in 2025 primarily due to softness in the global industrial economy. US freight volumes also declined following the end of FedEx's primary air cargo provider contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS). "U.S. average daily freight pounds decreased 44% in 2025 primarily due to the expiration of our contract with the USPS on September 29, 2024," said FedEx. Though its network remains extensive, FedEx had been shifting capacity in line with demand - with more flights on in-demand routes, consolidating traffic through hubs, as well as reducing frequencies in some instances. FedEx did also fly less. "Fuel expense decreased 20% in 2025 due to decreases in fuel prices and usage from lower flight hours," it said. Due to trade lane uncertainty stemming from US tariffs, by September, FedEx had reduced own-controlled transpacific freighter capacity by 25% year on year, as well as cut down on capacity provision for third parties. FedEx did make some strategic, advantageous changes its network. In October, it added five additional weekly 777F flights between Asia Pacific and its European hub at Paris CDG Airport. It also expanded its intra-Asia network. Additionally, FedEx was actively engaged in its fleet reduction and modernisation strategy to "better align air network capacity with anticipated demand". As of 31 May 2025, Federal Express's global fleet totalled 698 freighters, 695 of which were owned and three of which were leased. This was unchanged from the same time the previous year, although it did retire 12 aircraft units amongst its larger capacity models. In November, the carrier's domestic capacity was constrained when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) that grounded all MD-11FS after the fatal crash of a UPS Boeing MD-11F during take off from Louisville, US on 4 November. FedEx said at the time it owned 34 MD-11s, 25 of which were operational and 18 of which were utilised on FedEx's domestic network. Although FedEx said it utilised its commercial airline relationships to partly compensate the capacity loss, these aircraft did not return until May 2026. The carrier had a total of 59 777Fs, up 2 from 7 June 2024. There were also 34 MD-11s, down 3; 145 767Fs, up 7; 58 Airbus A300-600s, down 7; and 90 757-200s, down 2. Amongst the aircraft with smaller levels of capacity there were 24 ATR-72 600Fs, up 4; 19 ATR-72s, unchanged; 16 ATR-42s, down 2; 27 Cessna 408s, up 8; as well as 226 Cessna 208Bs, down 7. In 2024, FedEx had retired from service 22 Boeing 757-200Fs and nine MD-11Fs. As of May 2025, FedEx was scheduled to take delivery of 29 aircraft in 2026, including 7 767Fs, 3 ATR 72-600Fs and 19 Cessna SkyCourier 408s. UPS grows UPS closed the gap between itself and FedEx and moved back up into second place amongst the carriers with growth of 7.2% to 16.1bn CTK. UPS, whose US Domestic Package and International Package segments are together referred to as the company's global small package operations, said in its annual report that US domestic volume was down as consumers had scaled back on consumption, but international volumes were up. Speaking about its US Domestic Package operations, UPS said volumes were negatively impacted by its planned reduction of business with Amazon, with a targeted reduction of 50% by June 2026 from 2024 levels to improve profitability, and shift away from some other e-commerce customers, alongside challenging market conditions. As part of its Customer First, People Led and Innovation Driven strategy, UPS is focusing more on healthcare, small-and medium-sized business and international shipments that generate higher yields. It has expanded business with small and medium companies to over 30% of its total US volume. "Within our Air products, average daily volume decreased 11.7% in 2025, driven by the volume declines from our largest customer, partially offset by increased demand from customers in the healthcare and technology sectors.," said the company in its annual report. But UPS also benefitted from securing a contract with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to become its primary air cargo provider. The contract began in October following a transition period with former provider FedEx. International volumes International Package volumes, in particular China-US volumes, were impacted by the introduction of tariffs and the US decision to end the de minimis exemption on goods from China and Hong Kong from 2 May and all countries from 29 August. "Global trade policy changes during 2025, including pending and enacted tariffs and de minimis exclusions, resulted in shifting trade lane volumes, particularly reducing volumes on our China to U.S. lane, pressuring our International Package segment margins during the year," said UPS. Including reference to domestic shipments within the countries that make up the International Package segment, the company further explained: "Average daily volume increased in 2025, with increases in both domestic and export products, primarily in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa ("EMEA"). "These increases were partially offset by China-to-U.S. trade lane volume declines due to U.S. trade policy changes that took effect in the second quarter of 2025." UPS also commented: "Domestic average daily volume increased 1.4% in 2025 primarily driven by both business-to-consumer retail customers and business-to-business professional services customers in Canada." It added: "Export average daily volume increased 3.5% in 2025 due to our agility to adjust to changing trade lanes, and led by strength in SMBs volumes between European countries." Examples of its network adjustments included expanded frequencies and capacity on its intra-Asia air network, increased flights between Europe and India and the addition of a new route between Paris and Hong Kong. Acquisitions also strengthened business in Europe and North America. In January, UPS completed the acquisition of Germany-based Frigo-Trans and its sister company BPL, which provide complex healthcare logistics solutions across Europe. Business in Europe was further boosted by the implementation of weekend delivery within the continent. UPS also expanded its global cold chain and pharma capabilities in November by completing the $1.6bn acquisition of Andlauer Healthcare Group (AHG), with operations in Canada and the US. In July 2024, UPS had entered into an agreement to acquire Mexican express delivery company Estafeta, including a fleet of six aircraft, but the takeover was terminated in 2025. While UPS gained in its international volumes, its fleet underwent some substantial upheaval. The biggest change to the fleet as of 31 December 2025 was the retirement of all 27 of its MD-11s after the fatal crash of the UPS MD-11. However, UPS' MD-11s had largely been flying on domestic routes, meaning international capacity wasn't majorly affected and the airline had already been in the process of retiring some of its older and less efficient aircraft of the type before the incident. This aside, UPS focused on increasing 767-300Fs. The airline added seven of the model during the year and had another 18 on order at year end. It also retained six 767-300BCFs and four 767-300BDSF. There were no changes to the rest of its fleet comprising 75 757-200s, 52 A300-600s, 11 747-400Fs, two 747-400BCFs and 30 747-8F. Qatar faces headwinds Qatar Airways dropped to third place in the top 25 rankings with a 5% decrease to 14.4bn CTK. Both tonnes measured in chargeable weight and cargo carried, which includes both air cargo and trucking weight, declined throughout 2025. Qatar Airways Cargo's annual report for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 said that Group "transported more than 1.43 million tonnes of chargeable weight" and carried 2.8 tonnes of cargo. In comparison, the airline's report for 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025 said over 1.5m tonnes of chargeable weight was transported, and 3.1m tonnes of cargo was carried. This means, in terms of financial year on year, chargeable weight was down 4.7%, and tonnes of cargo carried was down 9.7%. In contrast to global growth, Middle Eastern carriers grew just 0.3% in 2025, according to IATA. "Middle Eastern airlines saw more modest 0.3% full-year growth, constrained by an exceptionally strong 2024 base and geopolitical disruptions earlier in the year, although volumes in the second half of 2025 exceeded 2024 levels from July onward," said the trade body. The Middle East's role as a hub between Asia and Europe, Africa and the Americas made the flow of air cargo more challenging when Middle East-Asia cargo demand growth was up 5.8% and down 3.4% for Europe-Middle East. Qatar remarked that: "Global cargo markets were influenced by continued uncertainty, including new tariff regimes, shifting trade flows, and broader geopolitical change." The tougher market conditions appeared to pose a challenge for growth. The tariffs and subsequent changing trade flows saw China-US e-commerce volumes drop; supply chains continue to move from China to Southeast Asia and airlines reroute capacity away from the transpacific to Asia-Europe. Qatar, for which China was a major part of its network, was no exception, and had redeployed some of its capacity to southeast Asia, although competition for volumes amongst airlines was fierce. Drusch said in an interview with Air Cargo News in October 2025 that Qatar Airways Cargo's "vast global network" enables it to move around capacity to meet demand and is "very aggressive at moving around during those individual peaks through the holidays". Still, the airline faced another challenge when in June, Qatar's airspace was briefly closed due to Iran launching missiles against US bases in Qatar and Iraq, although disruption to cargo operations, including booking restrictions, shipment backlogs and aircraft displacement, lasted longer. Despite market constraints, Qatar made plenty of investments in its services, network and fleet in 2025 to bolster volumes. The airline launched its TechLift service for semiconductors and high-tech cargo, and its aerospace service. Plus, Alibaba's Cainiao more than doubled its weekly charter flights on key China-Europe routes to better meet e-commerce demand as part of its partnership with Qatar. The airline also announced in April that it would launch a joint global cargo business with IAG Cargo and MASkargo, although operations were still in the planning stage by the end of the year. In 2025, the airline also started freighter services to Erbil, Iraq; Baghdad, Iraq; and Cairo, Egypt. During the year, Qatar also upped its capacity to Guangzhou, China with an extra freighter service. From June 2025, Qatar offered customers an additional 180 tonnes of cargo capacity per week across Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth as part of a new partnership with Virgin Australia. Total cargo capacity increased to more than 400 tonnes each way, each week. Through its WeQare programme, Qatar Airways Cargo enabled the free transport of more than 267 tonnes of life saving humanitarian aid to 17 countries. At the end of 2025, Qatar Airways Cargo's fleet comprised 28 freighters, all 777Fs. In 2022, the airline became the launch customer for Boeing's 777-8Fs, with an order for 34 and with options for 16 more, though the first deliveries won't be until 2028. Partly due to this, Qatar decided to invest in five 777-200LRMFs from Mammoth Freighters and, as the launch customer, was due to receive the first two aircraft in the last quarter of 2025, but these were delayed until 2026. Fewer big shifts Amongst the other top 25 carriers there were fewer major shifts within the list than in previous years. However, Korean Air, Kalitta Air and British Airways each dropped three places, although none had large declines. Korean Air suffered from the slowdown in Asia-North America e-commerce volumes following the end of the US de minimis exemption. Demand on the transpacific, where Korean Air's cargo network and operations was particularly strong, fell as a result, shifting to Asia-Europe. While the airline did adjust its routes and focused more on higher value cargo, it was competing against other carriers with strong European hubs and networks that could potentially exploit the Asia-Europe shift more effectively. Additionally, All Nippon Airways (ANA), which had placed 24th on the list in 2024, dropped out entirely. Like Korean Air, the Japanese airline was negatively impacted by the decline in China-North America cargo demand but helped its recovery by shifting capacity elsewhere in Asia. The airline said in its results for the nine months ended 31 December that "cargo demand from China to North America via Japan, previously declined due to the U.S. tariff policies" and it had also seen "reduced automotive-related cargo and e-commerce demand". The acquisition of Nippon Cargo Airlines was also completed during the year. Meanwhile, Air China moved up three places and China Eastern Airlines was also up two places. Despite the disruption to China-US e-commerce flows in 2025, Air China had a 23.4% jump to 9.1bn CTK. Air China said in its 2025 annual report that cargo capacity and tonnages increased. The airline carried more cargo across its network, including on international flights. Its passenger network grew, increasing belly capacity globally. According to fleet tracking site Planespotters.net, Air China Cargo had a fleet of 24 freighters in the last quarter of the year, consisting of eight A330-200Fs, three Boeing 747-400Fs and 13 Boeing 777Fs. In November, Air China Cargo signed a purchase agreement for six Airbus A350 freighters. Air France was the only airline to enter the list and had benefitted from deploying capacity in Asia and utilising increased belly capacity. Operating conditions Despite some tough tariff hurdles in 2025, e-commerce proved to be a positive force for air cargo, but the overall 3.4% rise in demand was well below the 11.3% growth seen in 2024. In its market analysis for the year, the trade body said total demand growth reflected "a move towards growth normalisation". It added: "Rather than reflecting a broad-based trade surge, growth remained selective, anchored in e-commerce, supply-chain reconfiguration, and a continued preference for time-critical transport. "Furthermore, air cargo enabled businesses to adjust to the quickly changing trade policy landscape throughout the year, including by frontloading deliveries." Asia Pacific airlines saw 8.4% year-on-year demand growth for air cargo in 2025, the strongest among the regions. While there had been a downturn for China-US volumes, the transpacific trade lane did recover, and Asia Pacific continued to thrive as growing economies in Southeast Asia continued to encourage the development of production and supply chains in the region. IATA said that Asia Pacific demand was "supported by most major routes despite continued weakness on flows with North America and Africa". North American carriers saw a 1.3% decline for 2025, the only regional decline and the weakest performance globally. IATA stated that "North America remained the principal laggard, with full-year demand contracting by 2.2%, reflecting prolonged softness concentrated on transpacific trade". Amongst the other regions, growth was 6% for African airlines, 2.9% for European carriers, 2.3% for Latin American and the Caribbean, plus 0.3% for Middle Eastern carriers. Looking at overall trade lanes, IATA said: "2025 trade lane data shows a clear shift in global air cargo flows from Asia-North America to Asia-Europe, driven by tariff pressures and the removal of the US de minimis exemption. The Within Asia, and the Middle East-Asia corridor also recorded strong growth."