E-commerce and AI data centre-related volumes have been fuelling air cargo demand growth over recent years, but the performance of the two verticals has increasingly diverged over recent months.
Speaking at this week’s EU Cross-Border E-Commerce Forum in Liege, Aevean head of consulting Maarten Wormer highlighted the rapid growth of demand for data centre-related air imports.
Over the first seven months of the year, he said, data centre volumes into the US were up by 103% year on year and reached 107,000 tonnes in July – the equivalent to 1,000 freighter flights.
Drilling further into the segment, Wormer said that over the seven-month period, US air imports of network equipment were up 130% year on year, there was a 37% increase in power infrastructure, computer components increased 86% and servers were up 181%.
In contrast, e-commerce volumes from China to the European Union declined by 29% year on year in July following the introduction of a €3 charge for low-value package imports.
The volume decline to France had started in March when volumes dropped by 30% as it introduced its own charge in anticipation of the EU levy, Wormer said. In July, e-commerce volumes into France had declined by 64%.
Despite the decline in China-Europe e-commerce demand, Wormer said that the overall air cargo market had been growing this year.
Aevean figures show that over the first seven months of 2026, air cargo volumes are up 5.8% year on year, primarily led by Asia Pacific to North America volumes, which have increased by 24% on 2025 levels.
Meanwhile, volumes from Asia Pacific to Europe had increased by 4% year on year. Intra-Asia volumes had improved by 8% and there was also an 8% improvement from Asia Pacific to South America.
The trade lane to record the largest fall in demand was Asia Pacific to the Middle East as a result of the ongoing US-Iran conflict.
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