The Air Cargo Capacity Index is a measure of the scheduled airline available tonnage capacity for passenger wide body and freighter aircraft serving a market or an airport on an outbound (OACT) and inbound (IACT) basis. It is expressed in metric tons and is calculated for each week forward going out 12 weeks, as well as weekly going back a minimum of one year. The source of the data are the flight schedules compiled by airline industry published Official Airline Guide (OAG) along with tonnage capacity figures by flight and aircraft type either provided directly by the airlines themselves or as forecast by FreightWaves market expert staff. The data is available for domestic and international flights to, from and within North America. Schedule data must be provided by the airlines involved to OAG.
These are the Air Cargo Tonnage options.
Anyone that has an interest in growth or shrinkage of air cargo capacity leaving an airport or multiple airports, i.e. shippers, freight brokers, trucking company executives, market planners, airline planners, airport planning staff, and cargo handler management.
The ACT indicates the total available tonnage capacity for cargo in and out of an airport or within a market pairing, such as US-Europe or Atlanta-Frankfurt. It shows where airlines believe the market is growing and will invest additional flights vs markets that are losing scheduled flights. Typically more flight capacity translates into greater tonnage potential, demand for more cargo ground handling services, and increased trucking support, and vice versa. This will allow vendors to the airline industry to plan their commercial strategies more effectively. The index will allow comparison of the growth or shrinkage trends over recent history and in the near term future for where capacity is changing across North America airports (U.S. and Canada).
