Global pandemic and air freight of goods in Europe

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected flight schedules and operations planning as well as air cargo capacity and freight rates imposed by the air carriers around the world. Airlines had to quickly learn how to respond to fast changing conditions due to the constant changes of entry requirements introduced by many countries. The European air freight market, which had experienced a significant overcapacity before the pandemic, faced an unexpected decrease in cargo space under decks of the passenger aircrafts and a simultaneous increase in demand for this type of service. The purpose of this article is to present the activities undertaken by air carriers and airports regarding cargo transport during the COVID-19 crisis. The author focused on these measures, because the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus became a turning point for air carriers. Apart from the ever-lasting competition between market participants, there was a need to deal with external epidemic constraints and developing new and profitable market strategies.