German Logistics Companies Dominate the Air Cargo Sector

German logistics companies are top of the league in the worldwide air cargo sector. Kühne + Nagel, which for strategic reasons has moved its headquarters to Switzerland, moved 2.2 million tons of freight in 2021 by airplane. Second-placed DHL Global Forwarding transported 2.1 million tons. Both companies could raise freight volume again last year after the massive slump induced by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 for the sector. Danish company DSV Panalpina also grew its freight volume once more, as did DB Schenker, which is a subsidiary of Germany's publicly traded but state-controlled railway company Deutsche Bahn.

According to data from consultants Armstrong & Associates, U.S. companies UPS and Expeditors are moving considerably less air freight than their European competitors - at the height of the pandemic and currently.

Altogether, the top 8 air freight companies moved approximately 11 million tons of goods through the air last year, up from 8.8 million in 2020. Chinese company Apex Logistics, which managed to pick up some of the slack in 2020 as its home country emerged as a big winner of the pandemic economy, left the top 8 again, while French company Bolloré moved in.