Global Air Cargo Demand Surges, Squeezing Caribbean Capacity
Global air cargo demand jumped 5.6% to start the year — the strongest growth since 2017 — as shippers bypass ocean bottlenecks. The surge is straining networks, with Mideast disruptions forcing reroutes that are now tightening capacity and raising spot rates on North America–Caribbean lanes.
While global air cargo demand jumped 5.6% to start the year, carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean saw a 2.0% decrease in demand for January 2026, the weakest performance of any region. Despite this regional dip, capacity on routes from North America is tightening as global networks absorb freight diverted from other strained lanes. The primary driver of this global capacity strain is the ongoing disruption to ocean freight in the Red Sea. With container ships being rerouted around Africa—a detour that can add up to two weeks to transit times—shippers of time-sensitive goods are increasingly turning to air cargo, particularly on the busy Asia-Europe trade routes. This shift from sea to air is absorbing available space and aircraft, creating ripple effects worldwide. The rerouting of flights and altered shipping rotations are creating knock-on effects that extend to previously stable trade lanes, impacting both cost and availability for shipments originating in North America. For multi-island resort operations, these pressures highlight the vulnerabilities in an already complex supply chain. The common model of consolidating goods from global suppliers in a single U.S. hub, like Miami, before distributing
