Widebody freighter capacity remains under pressure in 2026 as airlines continue to wait for new-generation aircraft and conversion programs struggle with limited feedstock and certification delays.
Speaking at the IATA World Cargo Symposium, Willie Walsh said the manufacturing supply chain for freighter aircraft remains unstable and continues to pose a serious concern for the industry.
According to Walsh, the problem extends well beyond cargo aircraft alone and reflects the broader disruption that has affected aircraft supply chains since the Covid crisis.
He said progress is being made, but far too slowly, and warned that the disruption is likely to continue for several more years before the industry can speak of a stable supply environment again.
Walsh stressed that the issue is not due to a lack of effort from aircraft manufacturers, but rather to persistent bottlenecks throughout the industrial chain.
Interest in all-cargo aircraft remains strong, he said, but manufacturers have struggled for some time simply to keep overall aircraft production moving.
One consequence is the ageing global freighter fleet. Walsh noted that cargo aircraft have always tended to be older than passenger fleets, but said the gap is widening because priority has increasingly been given to restoring passenger capacity rather than freighter availability.
Julia Seiermann, IATA’s head of industry analysis, also said earlier this year that widebody freighter capacity is likely to stay under pressure throughout 2026 and beyond, as aircraft order backlogs remain near historic highs.
LATAM Cargo chief executive Andrés Bianchi added that he expects capacity constraints to become even more visible, given the slow pace of newbuild deliveries and reduced passenger aircraft deliveries, which in turn limit the feedstock available for freighter conversions.
As a result, the cargo industry has been forced to keep older freighters in service for longer.
Bianchi said the situation can be particularly challenging for operators relying on specific aircraft types. He pointed out that while Boeing 767 conversions remain possible, there is no newbuild equivalent replacing that aircraft in the market. LATAM currently operates a mix of factory-built 767Fs and converted 767-300Fs.
At the same time, he acknowledged that the recent oversupply seen in narrowbody freighter conversions means the real shortage today is concentrated in widebody aircraft.
Another issue discussed during the IATA press conference was the impact of Middle East conflict-related rerouting. If aircraft have to carry additional fuel in order to avoid conflict zones, that will further reduce the payload capacity available for freight.
The widebody supply constraint is tied both to delays in new generation freighters and to slower conversion timelines.
Boeing’s 777-8F program, for example, has been pushed back from 2027 to at least 2028.
Airbus is targeting certification of the A350F in the second quarter of 2027, with deliveries expected to begin in the second half of that year. However, Airbus has already postponed the aircraft’s entry into service twice because of supply chain issues: first in May 2023, when it shifted the target from the end of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, and again in February 2025, when it delayed the program to the second half of 2027.
The conversion market has also moved forward more slowly than expected. Mammoth Freighters, for example, has faced a long wait for STC approval for its 777-200LRMF program, despite completing the prototype’s first test flight in May 2025.
