Maersk has decided to axe around 15% of its corporate jobs as part of efforts to cut costs, while it confirmed its 2025 airfreight volumes were affected by tariff measures.
The Danish shipping and logistics company did not specify whether any of the jobs affected were in its air cargo business, including its Maersk Air Cargo airline, but said that approximately 1,000 corporate positions out of 6,000 would be made redundant.
“To drive continuous productivity improvements and maintain strong cost discipline, Maersk has announced steps to simplify the organisation and reduce the company’s corporate overhead,” said Maersk in a press release about its 2025 results.
“As part of this, Maersk is reducing corporate costs across headquarters, regions, and countries with $180m annually.
“Out of approximately 6,000 corporate positions, around 15% – or approximately 1,000 positions – will be closed. The required notification and consultation processes have been initiated.”
Maersk reported a “strong performance in all businesses in 2025”, although it said its Logistics & Services business, of which air is a part, is “not yet at full potential and further improved performance remains a priority”.
Within the segment, fourth quarter 2025 revenue grew 1.9% year on year, while profitability improved year on year for the seventh consecutive quarter, with the EBIT margin increasing 0.8 percentage points to 4.9%. Improvements were driven particularly by the performance in warehousing and e-fulfilment, said Maersk.
However, airfreight volumes for the year were down 2.8%. Maersk handled 318,000 tonnes of airfreight in 2025, down from 327,000 in 2024.
In the fourth quarter specifically, airfreight volumes increased by 19% year on year to 93,000 tonnes, but lower air rates impacted the profitability of own-controlled capacity.
The company attributed the reduction in business to the impact of tariffs.
“Air encountered significant challenges due to tariff implications during the first half of 2025, followed by strong volume recovery until year-end,” it said.
Maersk Air Cargo has been focusing on building up its network in the US since its launch in 2022.
Its hubs include Billund (BLL) in Denmark, Chicago Rockford (RFD), Greenville-Spartanburg (GSP), Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX) in the US, Chenang and Hangzhou in China, Incheon in Korea and Johannesburg in South Africa.
Routes in 2025 included Billund (BLL) to Hangzhou (HGH), Bournemouth (BOH) to Hangzhou (on a trial basis), between RFD and Zhengzhou, and RFD and Hangzhou, Zhengzhou-GSP, Incheon International to RFD and GSP.
There are also flights between Cologne-Bonn (CGN) Germany and GSP.
Miami-headquartered cargo airline Amerijet had a three-year agreement to operate three of Maersk’s newbuild Boeing 767-300Fs, although Amerijet’s agreement ends on 1 April and the three aircraft have now been sold.
The three aircraft previously flew between the US and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and China, and by the last quarter of 2025, the aircraft were flying between Anchorage (ANC) and GSP, ANC and RFD and Santiago (SCL) and Panama City (PTY)
On an organisational front, Maersk said that its Logistics & Services product portfolio will be regrouped into three subsegments: Landside, Forwarding, and Solutions.
This grouping reflects the general product segmentation in the industry and the fundamental differences across logistics products in how they create value for customers, said the company.
Consequently, Landside products will be managed locally at a country level, while Forwarding and Solutions will operate as global product organisations.
Responsibility for the global products will be divided between two roles, aligned with the new product categories.
Narin Phol, current head of logistics & services, is appointed head of Solutions, and Christoph Hemmann, global head of air product & LCL, has been appointed head of Forwarding.
With this appointment, Hemmann, who took up his former position in September 2025, will join Maersk’s executive leadership team alongside Phol.
