Greenhouse gas emissions from air freight operators have increased by 25% since 2019, as companies have ramped up their capacity in a push for faster delivery times.
Research from climate policy group Stand.Earth found that the U.S. is responsible for 40% of the world’s air freight greenhouse gas emissions. Just three operators — FedEx, UPS and Amazon Air — also generated more than 27% of the industry’s carbon emissions globally in 2023, along with 50% of domestic air freight emissions in the U.S.
Although FedEx and UPS combined for 24.7% of the industry’s carbon emissions in 2023, Stand.Earth says that Amazon Air is still “one of the fastest growing polluters in the industry.” That’s been driven by higher shipping demand brought on by the rise of same- and next-day delivery as an industry standard for e-commerce, starting with Amazon’s introduction of one-day shipping in June of 2019. Since that shift in 2019, Amazon Air’s yearly carbon emissions from flights out of North America have doubled.
“Today, air freighters are flying more planes, from more places, more often,” Stand.Earth said in its report, adding that freighters have combined to add more than 750 planes to their fleets while operating out of 300 additional hubs since 2019.
Demand for air freight also hasn’t slowed down so far in 2024, as shippers looking to avoid disruptions from the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea are forced to choose between a lengthy reroute by sea around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, or a different mode of transportation altogether. In May, air cargo spot rates for the Middle East and Central Asia to Europe corridor increased 110% year-over-year for the month, according to freight analytics platform Xeneta, along with a 12% bump in demand.