Freightos has published its forecast for 2026 ocean and air freight, building its outlook on the patterns that defined 2025 across container and air cargo markets.

The analysis, titled "What 2025 Means for 2026: Ocean and Air Freight Forecast," positions the year now ending as the reference point for the rate, capacity and demand shifts shippers, carriers and forwarders should expect in the coming twelve months.

Why does 2025 matter for 2026?

Forecasting in freight rarely starts from a blank page. The Freightos outlook treats 2025 as the baseline year: the behavior of carriers on capacity management, the trajectory of spot rates across major trade lanes, and the demand signals from air cargo all feed directly into what the market can reasonably expect in 2026.

For shippers, the practical question is whether the conditions that shaped contract negotiations and procurement strategy in 2025 — volatile ocean spot pricing and shifting air freight demand — will persist, soften or reverse.

What does the forecast cover?

The Freightos analysis spans the two main modes of international freight:

• Ocean freight — container rate expectations and carrier capacity dynamics heading into 2026
• Air freight — demand and pricing outlook for air cargo in the year ahead

By pairing the two modes in a single forecast, the report allows shippers moving cargo on both to weigh modal trade-offs against a common 2025 baseline rather than treating ocean and air as separate planning exercises.

Who should act on it?

The forecast speaks primarily to three audiences with money on the line:

• Shippers weighing timing, mode selection and contract strategy for 2026 tenders
• Forwarders calibrating pricing guidance and capacity commitments across ocean and air
• Carriers and logistics providers benchmarking their own 2026 planning against a market-level view

What comes next?

Freightos, which operates a freight booking and pricing platform, publishes rate data and market commentary on an ongoing basis, meaning the 2026 outlook will be tested against live spot and contract movements as the year unfolds. Shippers and forwarders will be watching whether the patterns the forecast identifies hold through the first quarter, when annual contracts and lunar new year capacity planning typically set the tone for the rest of the year.