One of the side effects of the COVID pandemic for the air cargo industry was a fundamental shift away from long term contracted rates over to “spot booking”, as capacity shrunk and demand increased. According to air cargo industry experts, fixed rate bookings are not likely to make a comeback in the short term.

Spot Booking: an Advantage for Shippers, Forwarders and Air Cargo Carriers

“Spot booking” refers to freight shipments booked without a contract. In other words, each shipment is booked individually at its own price.
Smaller shipping businesses have historically relied on spot rates, but pandemic-related supply chain disruptions have made them increasingly important for frequent shippers, too.

Unpredictable freight rates, constrained belly capacity due to the reduction of passengers flights, shipment disruptions, and fluctuating demand have all made contract rates less reliable.

This context facilitated the surging of digital market places for air cargo bookings, that automate the booking process for the shippers, by providing instant quotes across several freight forwarders, but also for the freight forwarders, by providing quotes across several air cargo carriers.

Most of these platforms are converting inbound email quotation requests into instant quotes and deliver published rates, contract rates and allocations, as well as spot or promo rates.

These platforms were real game changers for the air cargo business, as they allow shippers and forwarders to save time and money by providing market visibility, a clear picture of price trends and transparency on the quotes, which can significantly increase business flexibility and mitigate procurement risks.


Thanks to the uptake of digitalization accelerated by the pandemic, air cargo carriers could also adapt to this changing business landscape and the use of market places introduced huge efficiencies for them too, making pricing quicker and more responsive and building resilience and future proofing against the next challenge.

For this reason, even if air cargo capacity increases, either through increased passenger flights or investment in freighters, air cargo carriers probably won’t return to fixed rates, at least in the short term.


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