Europe Adds 31% Asia-Europe Air Cargo Capacity Amid Middle East Disruption
European airlines and integrators boosted Asia–Europe air cargo capacity by 31% in late March amid Middle East conflict disruptions, per Aevean data. European carriers led the expansion (+38%), while integrators surged +126%—though absolute tonne-km gains were larger for airlines due to higher baseline volumes. New services include My Freighter’s Tashkent–Frankfurt routes, DHL Global Forwarding’s Shanghai–Leipzig and Liège–Hong Kong flights, and Lufthansa Cargo’s expanded summer freighter schedule. Regional data shows Asia–Middle East capacity down 24% YoY and Middle East–Europe down 15%, underscoring systemic rerouting. For supply chain professionals, this signals heightened reliance on European-based capacity, accelerated adoption of multimodal network partnerships, and growing strategic weight of secondary hubs.
