Tariffs and trade tensions are biting the air cargo industry and some carriers are warning things could get worse.

Demand for the speedy shipments of high-value goods from consumer electronics to industrial components to apparel that cargo airlines provide is falling, freight airlines are warning, just as they approach the busy year-end season.

Shares of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, which flies for DHL, Amazon and others, fell nearly 25% on Thursday — their steepest one-day percentage drop since November 2008 to a more than three-year low. The carrier reported weaker-than-expected second-quarter profits before the markets opened due to softer demand and warned net income would fall on the year.

President Donald Trump later Thursday delivered what could be another blow to the industry: a 10% tariff by Sept. 1 on another $300 billion in Chinese goods coming into the U.S. The tweeted announcement sent markets tumbling.

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Throughout the industry, executives are fretting over the prolonged trade battles and how that will affect demand amid an already-reduced economic growth outlook. Some recent economic indicators have been downbeat, such as the U.S. factory activity, which slowed to a nearly three-year low in July.

If trade issues "don't get resolved soon, it's going to get a lot worse," said Stephen Fortune, principal at Fortune Aviation Services, an aircraft investment firm that specializes in the air cargo business.

Air cargo demand, measured by freight-ton kilometers, fell 3.3% in the first five months of 2019 from the year-earlier period. The percentage decline was more than double that in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report earlier this month from the International Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents most of the world's airlines.

Manufacturers and shippers took a "wait-and-see approach regarding tariffs and trade issues" that hurt cargo flying demand, Atlas Air CEO Bill Flynn said in an earnings release