Parag’s Global Air Freight Contract Benchmark
Six observed contract corridor indices, the award month each one implies, the directional premium between paired corridors, and the gateway spread across the captured air lanes. Contract rates only; spot appears nowhere in this product.
Captured air lane network
Arcs are the observed lanes drawn as great-circle routes on a locally bundled world outline; no modelled route is drawn. Arc intensity scales with the lane benchmark and node size with the lanes captured at that airport. The table twin for this map is the all 20 captured air lane benchmarks table further down this page.
Corridors
Asia to Europe
Award month September at -12.3 pts against the annual mean; the peak is April at +14.9 pts, a span of 27.2 points.
Europe to Asia
Award month September at -8.1 pts against the annual mean; the peak is April at +12.0 pts, a span of 20.1 points.
Europe to Middle East and India
Award month January at -4.6 pts against the annual mean; the peak is June at +4.4 pts, a span of 9.0 points.
Europe to North America East
Award month July at -8.9 pts against the annual mean; the peak is February at +8.2 pts, a span of 17.1 points.
Intra Asia
Award month August at -8.6 pts against the annual mean; the peak is April at +17.6 pts, a span of 26.2 points.
North America East to Europe
Award month December at -15.2 pts against the annual mean; the peak is March at +13.2 pts, a span of 28.4 points.
Award-timing seasonality, all six corridors
Deviation from each calendar year own mean, averaged across four years. Computed twice independently, by the provider analysis service and from the raw monthly series, agreeing to within 0.2 index points on all six corridors. Year-to-year agreement varies: an average trough is where the corridor usually sits low, not a guarantee for any single year. Read it as award timing, never as a forecast level.
Directional pairs — the premium between a corridor and its reverse
Asia to Europe over Europe to Asia
+53.6% → +49.6%-4.0 ptsEurope to North America East over North America East to Europe
+36.0% → +19.5%-16.6 ptsThe premium is one leg's index over its reverse at the same month, on one axis and one base. Neither leg is converted into a price.
What the compression means at the table
The Europe to North America East premium over North America East to Europe was +36.0% in January 2026 and +19.5% by July 2026 — a move of -16.6 pts in 6 months. That is a live negotiating fact, not a curiosity: a headhaul premium that has halved is a premium a carrier can no longer defend on structure alone, and an annual contract signed on the January differential is now overpaying the outbound leg.
Asia to Europe over Europe to Asia moved from +53.6% to +49.6% over the same window (-4.0 pts), so the Asia imbalance is holding while the transatlantic one is not. Two corridors, two different conversations.
European destination benchmarks from PVG
Reading the gateway spread
From PVG the cheapest captured European gateway is FRA at 1.99 USD/kg and the dearest is AMS at 2.84 USD/kg — a spread of 43% on one origin, with CDG 2.69 in between. Gateway choice on a single origin is worth more than most rate negotiations on the same lane.
Corridor summary
| Corridor | Latest | Month | 3-month | 12-month | Award month | Span |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia to Europe | 188.55 | July 2026 | -19.8% | -10.0% | September | 27.2 pts |
| Europe to Asia | 126.03 | July 2026 | -15.4% | -11.2% | September | 20.1 pts |
| Europe to Middle East and India | 178.08 | July 2026 | -23.2% | +0.2% | January | 9.0 pts |
| Europe to North America East | 161.60 | July 2026 | -18.9% | -19.5% | July | 17.1 pts |
| Intra Asia | 141.54 | July 2026 | -13.9% | -2.3% | August | 26.2 pts |
| North America East to Europe | 135.28 | July 2026 | -10.6% | -11.4% | December | 28.4 pts |
All 20 captured air lane benchmarks
| Lane | Benchmark (USD/kg) | Captured |
|---|---|---|
| ORD → FRA | 0.95 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → PVG | 0.96 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → HKG | 1.05 | 2026-07-26 |
| JFK → FRA | 1.09 | 2026-07-26 |
| AMS → JFK | 1.39 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → DXB | 1.41 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → JFK | 1.42 | 2026-07-26 |
| DEL → FRA | 1.46 | 2026-07-26 |
| CDG → JFK | 1.50 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → ORD | 1.50 | 2026-07-26 |
| SIN → FRA | 1.67 | 2026-07-26 |
| BOM → FRA | 1.94 | 2026-07-26 |
| PVG → FRA | 1.99 | 2026-07-26 |
| BKK → FRA | 2.03 | 2026-07-26 |
| TPE → FRA | 2.23 | 2026-07-26 |
| HKG → FRA | 2.46 | 2026-07-26 |
| FRA → GRU | 2.55 | 2026-07-26 |
| PVG → CDG | 2.69 | 2026-07-26 |
| HKG → AMS | 2.79 | 2026-07-26 |
| PVG → AMS | 2.84 | 2026-07-26 |
Check a rate against this capture
Place a contract rate against the lane benchmark for any of these lanes, in any input currency — the conversion is always shown — one at a time or in bulk. Open rate position. Your rate is your input and never becomes part of the capture.
Escalation on air contracts
No published air index separates fuel, so an air contract cannot be escalated off an ex-fuel index at all. Fuel reaches an air rate as a weekly pass-through against a published jet fuel reference, and security sits on top as a fixed amount per kilogram. Write the clause against those two mechanics, not against the all-in corridor index above — see the air cost drivers.
External reference indices
These are public market references published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the European Commission. They sit beside the lane benchmark for context on the direction of the wider air market. They are not inputs to any benchmark, corridor or lane figure on this site, and each is drawn on its own axis because the units differ.
US scheduled freight air transportation, producer price index, monthly
Published by US Bureau of Labor Statistics (US BLS), monthly, in index. Public reference beside the benchmark, refreshed at most once a day.
US import air freight price index, monthly
Published by US Bureau of Labor Statistics (US BLS), monthly, in index. Public reference beside the benchmark, refreshed at most once a day.
EU27 air freight and mail, tonnes, quarterly
Published by European Commission (Eurostat), quarterly, in tonnes. Public reference beside the benchmark, refreshed at most once a day.
- US BLSMonthly · fresh, latest 202.36 index at 2026-06, last successful fetch 2026-08-04 02:59 UTC
- US BLSMonthly · fresh, latest 307.80 index at 2026-06, last successful fetch 2026-08-04 02:59 UTC
- EurostatQuarterly · fresh, latest 3,981,783.00 tonnes at 2025-Q4, last successful fetch 2026-08-04 02:59 UTC
Contract rates only; spot is excluded by design. Every figure on this page resolves to a stored row and an as-of date, and modelled values are never drawn as observed. Methodology.