September to the end of each year is the traditional peak season for air cargo. Recently, during the overseas end-of-year shopping season, international air cargo capacity continues to be tight, and freight rates have once again hit a record high.

Reporter Huang Yajie: This is a logistics and warehousing area close to Shanghai Pudong International Airport. It is currently the peak shipping season before Christmas. You can see that the goods inside the warehouse are almost full. There are forklifts at the three exits of the warehouse in busy operation.

Ni Kaihua, an employee at a warehouse near Shanghai Pudong Airport: Our warehouse covers an area of more than 4,000 square meters. If we add the two subsequent warehouses, it will be almost 7,000 square meters. The current cargo volume accounts for about 70% of the warehouse area.

According to the person in charge, every morning is the peak warehousing period for the warehouse, and recently there are often trucks queuing up to unload. Wang Zichun is the booking business manager of a logistics company. According to her, under normal circumstances, it only takes two or three days for customers to book a space and take off, but the current cycle has been extended to 7 to 10 days.

Reporters consulted airlines and learned that international freight capacity continues to be tight, and many airlines have seen significant increases in cargo volume this year compared to last year.

Keisuke Kitamura, General Manager of Japan Airlines Cargo Headquarters in China: (Every week) a total of 38 flights are dedicated to cargo. Unfortunately, cargo booking currently takes longer than usual, because the cargo flights operated by our company are almost always at 100% capacity.

Jiang Xuan, deputy director of the Sales Management Office of China Southern Airlines Logistics East China Marketing Center: Since June 2020, we have actually increased our fleet from 12 all-cargo aircraft to the current 14.

In terms of freight rates, freight rates on major routes have recently reached a record high again. Taking a Boeing 747 on the China-US route as an example, the current charter price is as high as more than 2 million US dollars, or approximately 13 million yuan.

Zhao Chao, a senior analyst in the transportation industry at Changjiang Securities: The price of air cargo on China-US routes has reached a historical extreme, reaching US$13.62 per kilogram. Compared with 2019 before the epidemic, it has increased by 3 to 4 times year-on-year. Freight rates on the China-Europe route have also continued to rise this year and have basically doubled compared to the beginning of the year.