French air cargo industry has faced significant challenges and transformations in recent years. With the surge of e-commerce, shifts in demand and the increasing need for sustainable practices, French air cargo players have had to adapt quickly. Among them, Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), country’s primary cargo hub, has shown remarkable resilience and dynamism.

With almost 1.9 Mt of cargo in 2023, CDG airport has performed better than many other airports in the world in a turbulent period for the air cargo business following two years of euphoria.

Decrease in the demand and rise in the capacity have impacted the results of many airlines in the world, thus creating some sort of anxiety and new strategies among big players.

Despite these challenges, 2023 has been a very particular and exciting year at CDG.

CMA CGM has increased its activity, Air China Cargo and Emirates have resumed cargo flights after a long period of absence; Central Airlines, a Chinese airlines focused on e-commerce, started to operate beginning of 2023 and then strongly increased its flights by July 2023.

Today, compared with 2019, the number of full freighter flights at CDG has almost doubled, offering more capacities from Paris and the French market, thus enabling the reduction of trucking towards/from other European airports. On the trade lane France-Asia, trucking has been reduced by at least 50 percent!

As e-commerce focuses on fast deliveries to the final customer and France is an important market of consumption, this increase in the number of full freighter flights allows more competitiveness for CDG in this specific market, which everyone has seen evolving and booming in the last months.

The fast adaptation of the French cargo community (airport authorities, forwarders, handlers, customs,…) to the new emerging trends has been key to the success: coordination between operators, need for space, custom clearances, evolution of the processes…The cargo community has understood the opportunities created by e-commerce and thus keeps adapting to meet the needs of the customers.

Besides e-commerce, the main sectors of excellence of the French export market (luxury, pharmaceuticals, fresh products, live animals…) are not forgotten. Investments keep on being made to create new warehouses with state-of-the-art equipments. Last in date (end of 2023) was the new Kuehne Nagel warehouse at CDG, offering 10,500 m² of storage, including 4,500m² of temperature controlled.

In recent years, the French air cargo community has strengthened its relationships. The ACFA (Air Cargo France Association) has been structured to increase its coordinative actions through different “Clubs”: “Security Club”, “Ground handlers Club”, “Club for promotion of the profession”, “Green Club”.

Through these clubs, operators can exchange on best practices and work together on settling more efficient processes.

The environment is high on the priority list of the air cargo community. At CDG all the operators are fully involved in enabling the goal of net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. Electrification of the GSE’s, use of other alternative energies, reduction of energy consumption – many investments are being made by operators and the airport authority to achieve this purpose.

Common actions are also being conducted to increase the rate of recycled plastic in the stretch plastic films and to reduce the use of plastic wrapping, replacing it, when it is possible with reusable blankets.

Another goal is to increase the waste recovery rate among the cargo community to reach at least 70 percent in the next years. 

A notable development in sustainability efforts is the focus on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The French government has implemented policies to encourage SAF integration into the aviation fuel mix. This initiative not only supports environmental goals but also enhances the competitiveness of French air cargo on a global scale.

Boeing anticipates an average annual growth of the world air cargo activity of 4.1 percent till 2041.

The French cargo community aims to benefit from a share of this growth and is working on a long-term adaptation of the processes and infrastructures to achieve this goal, also taking into account the necessity to reduce its environmental footprint.