28/05/2026
This Month in Freight: What’s Moving the Industry. May Edition
Global freight markets continued to shift throughout May, with changing trade patterns, capacity fluctuations and rising operating costs continuing to impact supply chains worldwide. Here are some of the key developments shaping the industry this month.
✈️Air Freight
Air freight demand remained strong throughout May, particularly across Asia to Europe trade lanes, with capacity tightening continuing to place pressure on rates and transit planning.
Ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and operational disruption across parts of the Middle East have also contributed to rerouting and network adjustments across several global carriers.
At the same time, increased demand for time sensitive shipments and faster inventory movement continues to push more cargo towards air freight solutions, particularly across electronics, retail and high value sectors.
🚢 Sea Freight
Ocean freight markets have continued adapting to ongoing routing changes, with many services still avoiding traditional Red Sea transits and operating via longer alternative routes.
These diversions continue to impact transit schedules, equipment positioning and overall operational costs across key global trade lanes.
May has also seen continued fluctuations in container demand, with carriers closely managing capacity and schedule reliability as market conditions remain unpredictable.
🚛 Road Freight
Across the European road freight sector, operators continue to face rising fuel and transport related costs, placing ongoing pressure on regional distribution networks and delivery pricing.
Demand across road freight remains steady, particularly for cross border and final mile operations, with flexibility and planning remaining critical for maintaining service reliability.
What this means for shippers
• Continued pressure on transit schedules
• Tight capacity across selected lanes
• Ongoing operational and fuel cost increases
• Greater importance of forward planning and flexibility
• Increased need for reliable multimodal logistics support
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