Plenty has been said about the impact of the war in Ukraine and closed airspace on commercial passenger operations in Europe, but less has been said about the effects on air cargo operations. A lot of capacity has been removed from the market, which has significant consequences for the movement of goods around the world. Here's a brief update on the state of the air cargo market in and around Russia and Ukraine.

UPS, DHL, and FedEx are all out of Russia & Ukraine

The three big cargo airlines - UPS, DHL, and FedEx, have around 1,000 planes between them, though not all fly in Europe. Memphis-based FedEx has suspended all services to Ukraine to keep its employees safe. FedEx says they are in touch with each and every Ukrainian employee every day to check on their welfare. The cargo carrier has also suspended all FedEx services in Russia and Belarus.

DHL operations in Ukraine are closed. The German-headquartered cargo giant says its highest priority is the safety of its employees. DHL has also suspended inbound services and domestic operations in Russia and Belarus until further notice. UPS has also temporarily suspended its services to and from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.

Fedex Cargo Freighter Plane
Photo: FedEx

Specialist heavy-lift cargo carriers seriously hamstrung

And what of cargo airlines based in Ukraine or Russia? Famously, Antonov Airlines lost AN-225 Mriya during the Battle for Hostomel Airport in late February. Two more planes, AN-26 and AN-74, are also confirmed as destroyed. Antonov did manage to get a number of its aircraft out of Ukraine before the Russian invasion. However, they haven't been doing a lot of flying since. At the time of writing, only one AN-124 was in the air. UR-82007 departed Djibouti early on Wednesday morning (local time) for an undisclosed destination.

Ulyanovsk-based Volga-Dnepr Airlines has suspended all flights using Boeing aircraft. The cargo carrier has 24 of them at subsidiaries AirBridgeCargo and Atran, including 18 Boeing 747s and 6 Boeing 737s. But Volga-Dnepr Airlines also has some An-124 and Il-76 cargo planes and continues to fly them to countries where Russian-based aircraft remain welcome.

Antonov AN 22 Getty-1227894488
Photo: Getty Images

Some air cargo continues to make it into Russia

The bulk of the world's air cargo is carried in the belly holds of passenger planes, so some passenger airlines that usually fly to Ukraine and Russia with cargo in their holds have also made adjustments - the likes of British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Finnair, and All Nippon Airways have canceled flights to both countries.

Of course, while Ukraine's airspace remains closed to civil aircraft for safety reasons, not all airlines are boycotting Russia, and Russia is not banning flights from all countries. Cargo (and passengers) can still fly in from the Gulf states and countries like Turkey. Big-name airlines like Emirates and Turkish Airlines continue to fly to Moscow. Emirates President Tim Clark told a conference last week his airline would continue to fly there as long as the airline's owner, the Dubai Government, wanted it to.

"We carry humanitarian goods in our holds. We've got NGOs traveling in and out of Russia. We've got the diplomatic community going in and out of Russia, so all we're doing is being an enabler, facilitator, without taking a political position on this for the time being," Reuters reports the UK knighted businessman saying.

Then, of course, you can also slide your cargo into Russia via China, which maintains a frenemy status relationship with Moscow. Air China and China Southern continue to make trips between the two countries.

But there's no disputing it's far harder (and more expensive) to get air cargo in and out of Russia these days and virtually impossible to do so to or from Ukraine. Specialty heavy-lift cargo airlines like Antonov and Volga-Dnepr are hamstrung by their location, which adds to the problems. The upshot is the world's air cargo capacity further tightens, causing more supply chain disruptions and delays.