Lufthansa’s high speed logistics arm, Time:matters has opened a courier terminal at Shanghai Pudong Airport. It will reduce handling times by up to two-thirds and it has direct apron access.
The tmCT can monitor shipments on the apron until loading and informs the customer proactively in the event of irregularities. There is also a designated receiving dock, an X-ray system, and a dedicated counter for documentation.
Handling times will be reduced from about four hours for exports and six hours for imports to 120 minutes and 150 minutes, respectively. The terminal is open 24 hours, 365 days a year.
The facility is being constructed in collaboration with terminal operator PACTL (Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal Co. Ltd).
Lufthansa Cargo is to operate freighters from its south hub at Munich for the first time from 6 July with a twice-weekly A321F flight with Istanbul. Munich is already an important centre for Lufthansa’s bellyhold capacity and the airport authority has been pushing the carrier to add all-cargo capacity for some time.
Lufthansa Cargo operates a total of 38,000sq m at Munich including a CEIV-certified Pharma Hub MUC. Until now, these have mainly been transported from the Bavarian capital to destinations all over the world via the belly capacities of Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Austrian Airlines and SunExpress passenger aircraft, or by road feeder. #
Lufthansa Cargo chief executive, Ashwin Bhat, said: “For our southern German customers in particular, Munich Airport offers ideal conditions for the fast and reliable transportation of air freight. With the launch of our cargo operations out of Munich, we are laying the foundation for aligning our network even more closely with the needs of our customers in the future and continuing to manage it flexibly.”
Chief executive of Flughafen München, Jost Lammers, added: “The launch of regular cargo flights to Istanbul by Lufthansa Cargo is very good news for the Bavarian export industry and for Munich Airport. Above-average growth rates in the current year have already shown that Munich Airport is also becoming increasingly important as a hub airport for cargo. The attractiveness of Munich Airport as a cargo location will now receive a further boost through Lufthansa Cargo’s commitment.”
Air France KLM Martinair Cargo has renewed its partnership with the Brunel Solar Team for the 2024 Sasol Solar Challenge in South Africa in September. It will handle air transport and related logistics for the team’s solar vehicle, the Nuna 12s and, to minimise environmental impact, will offset the fuel required to transport the vehicle from Amsterdam to Johannesburg with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Ukranian carrier Antonov Airlines and forwarder Proair have delivered a satellite and related equipment from Ankara, Turkey to Florida.The satellite was transported in a special container fixed to the frame. For loading the piece into the cargo cabin of the AN-124-100, a low-profile cargo ramp was used in combination with external cranes. The Türksat 6A satellite is the first geostationary communication satellite to be built in Turkey.
AeroTransCargo has appointed Charles Szar as president. He brings over 30 years of commercial, civil aviation, and military aviation/aerospace experience to the carrier, from roles in the US, including in the airforce and military, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He is based in Sharjah, UAE.
The charter and leasing cargo airline operates a fleet of five Boeing 747-400 freighters.
Bournemouth Airport and handler Cargo First are gearing up for peak season, with resident operator European Cargo due to bring additional A340-600 freighters on stream shortly to cater for growth in Far East to UK e-commerce.
European Cargo already operates three converted Airbus A340-600 freighters on China-UK routes (Chengdu and Haikou) with further aircraft due to commence operations in the coming months, Bournemouth says that busy London hubs are already constrained and volatility in the Red Sea continues to drive multi-modal cargo solutions.
Bournemouth Airport managing director Steve Gill, said: “Our collaboration with European Cargo has established Bournemouth as a reliable and cost-effective hub for e-commerce and other air freight into the UK, with a proven track record of delivering a highly efficient service for time-sensitive consignments for our customers. With European Cargo’s additional freighters coming on stream shortly and the constraints facing other UK hubs, we see a significant opportunity to grow the market further as we ramp up for the peak season.”
He added that Cargo First had recruited 15 new staff to warehouse, aircraft handling and security roles in the last year and was looking at longer term infrastructure investment to create more dedicated cargo facilities at Bournemouth.
European Cargo chief executive Jason Holt added: “We recently celebrated the first anniversary of flights from Bournemouth to Chengdu and in our first year operated almost 300 flights carrying some 20,000 tonnes of cargo. With our fourth fully converted long-haul freighter expected to enter service in July and two more by October, we see continued growing interest in our aircraft and services. We continue to gear up to handle the autumn peak and accompanying additional services coming on stream in the next few months.”
European Cargo’s Airbus A340-have a maximum payload of 76 tonnes and a cargo capacity of 440 cubic metres.
Both Bournemouth Airport and Cargo First are part of the UK’s privately-owned Regional and City Airports (RCA) group. RCA also owns Coventry Airport, Exeter Airport and Norwich Airport as well as executive jet centres.
Qatar Airways Cargo and Malaysia’s MASkargo have memorandum of understanding for joint cargo business operations. The two carriers will offer enhanced connectivity via their hubs at Hamad International Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It follows the expanded codeshare agreement signed in 2022 to offer more passenger connections. Qatar Airways Cargo is the launch customer for the Boeing 777-8 freighter and has purchased 34 aircraft with options for 16 more. Malaysian Airlines has obtained 20 new A330neo aircraft for passenger aircraft with belly-hold capacity.
Strasbourg in eastern France has become IAG Cargo’s latest Constant Climate approved station in Europe, bringing the total in the region to 29. It will facilitate the transportation of temperature-sensitive healthcare products from France via IAG Cargo’s hubs in London and Madrid. Other recent station openings include Cincinnati and Cape Town.
“Inconvenient retirements” of aircraft could lead to a tightening of the narrowbody freighter market, says Gediminas Ziemelis founder and current chairman of the board of Avia Solutions Group, a provider of ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, and Insurance) services.
As the freighter market has begun to stabilize after the return of passenger aircraft belly capacity, the drop in demand for narrowbody freighters and the corresponding decrease in supply could result in capacity shortcomings in the near future. There has also been a fall in passenger-to-freighter conversions, Ziemelis states.
Narrowbody freighters are vital to e-commerce operations and, with the elimination of belly capacity during the pandemic, as well as the growth of e-commerce, many aircraft owners and operators turned to passenger-to-freighter conversions as a potential way to increase their revenue.
As a result, conversions more than tripled from 61 in 2019 to about 185 in 2023, with the 737-800 freighter type seeing the most growth, with many lessors converting aircraft speculatively because they had no use for them in the passenger market at the time.
While the narrowbody conversion market saw tremendous growth during the first two years of the pandemic, deliveries of converted freighters have slowed now that passenger flights have resumed and even overtaken 2019 levels. Converters reduced their delivery schedules in 2024, while others have voiced concerns about challenges facing maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities, including supply-chain shortages and decreasing demand.
Narrowbody freighters coming off conversion lines have also headed into storage, leading to concerns about overcapacity, according to Oliver Wyman.
However, the rise of e-commerce has confounded traditional thinking of the freighter market. While growth of air cargo has traditionally been closely linked to growth in GDP, long-term air cargo traffic will continue to outpace global trade growth, according to Boeing’s most recent Commercial Market Outlook, published in June 2023.
E-commerce has doubled its share of retail sales over the last five years and could account for 23% by 2026, with a demonstrable impact on narrowbody freighter demand, says Ziemelis, quoting the Commercial Market Outlook by plane manufacturer, Boeing.
Boeing’s also says that new express networks will continue to support the growth in e-commerce, with a forecasted growth of 58% in express fleets over the next 20 years, while specific rates of growth will change per region with new opportunities being created around e-commerce platforms. In the narrowbody market, for example, the 737-800 freighter has already been adopted and utilized by the likes of Amazon, DHL, Mercado Libre and JD.com for their own networks.
However, an increase in retirements is expected in the next few years for many of the aircraft in the express freighter fleet. While e-commerce has relied upon narrowbody workhorses like the 737-400F and 757-200F, both types are nearing their inevitable retirements.
In fact, Boeing estimates that there are more than 700 30-year-old narrowbody freighters still in service.
Ultimately, airlines will be facing a shortage of converted narrowbody freighters as retirements continue. Combined with the decrease in conversions in the long-term outlook, there is an impending shortfall of freighter capacity in this segment.
Global air cargo set for double-digit growth in 2024
The global air cargo market is on a pathway to double-digit growth in volumes in 2024 after a +12% year-on-year jump in demand in May, according to the latest data analysis by Xeneta.
Despite conservative, low single digit forecasts at the end of last year, expectations have been boosted by six consecutive months of ‘quite extraordinary’ regional demand. The global air cargo spot rate in May consequently registered its second consecutive monthly growth, rising +9% year-on-year to $2.58 per kg, and up +5% pts month-on-month.
Xeneta’s chief airfreight officer, Niall van de Wouw, said: “In terms of growth data, analysts sometimes say ‘once is an incident, twice is a coincidence, and three-times is a pattern’. In the world of air cargo, there’s an undeniable pattern emerging. We can’t use the word ‘surprising’ anymore. When we take a mid-term view of the market, with these kinds of numbers, we might be on track for double-digit growth for the year. It is now a possible scenario.”
While the growth in general spot rate must be measured against a low comparison in May 2023, van de Wouw says the market this year adjusted well to absorb the +5% increase in airlines’ summer capacity.
The highest year-on-year rate increase for May was the +110% rise in the spot rate on the Middle East & Central Asia to Europe corridor, to $3.21 per kg due to continuing Red Sea disruption. Southeast Asia and China to North America spot rates rose +65% and +43% to $4.64 per kg and $4.88 per kg respectively, while China-Europe spot rate also recorded double-digit growth, up +34% year-on-year to $4.14 per kg.
Dynamic load factor in was largely unchanged month-on-month at 58%, but up by +3% pts year-on-year.
How companies see the current market, van de Wouw acknowledged, depends on which region they are active in. Spot rates from North America and Europe to China fell -32% and -23% year-on-year respectively in May to $1.61 and $1.65 per kg. The Transatlantic market also suffered with the corridor experiencing freight rate declines in both the front and backhaul lanes. Increased belly capacity due to summer passenger travel led to drops in air cargo spot rates.
Europe-North America spot rate declined -21% to $1.77 per kg in May versus the previous year, while, eastbound, the North America-Europe corridor spot rate was -16% lower at $1.08 per kg.
Heading towards the second half of the year, van de Wouw pointed to other positive market indicators. A bright outlook for Q4 2024 may be on the horizon following last year’s bumper end-of-year volumes. This may also be helped by a threefold increase of ocean container shipping spot rates from the Far East to North Europe and the US West Coast compared to the previous year, due to port congestion and wider disruption caused by conflict in the Red Sea, reducing the cost gap for shippers or forwarders contemplating a modal shift to air cargo.
A major shift of volume from ocean to air, however, is unlikely, Xeneta says. Compared to the onset of the Red Sea crisis or the Covid pandemic, cost spikes this time around are most likely triggered by shippers frontloading imports ahead of the ocean peak season to eliminate impacts from increased supply chain disruptions.
China’s cargo market to North America continued to gain from the resilient US economy and its strong e-commerce demand. The big question for the air cargo industry is what happens following the US crackdown on e-commerce shipments from there?
Van de Wouw comments: “At the end of 2023 we saw the dramatic impact China’s e-commerce behemoths had on the air cargo market. Everyone is now waiting anxiously to see what happens in the upcoming peak season. But if the potential rising costs and increasing transit times of e-commerce ex-China leads US consumers to procure less and less, that can have a ripple effect globally.
“If fewer freighters are required to carry e-commerce, they will enter the general air freight market (again) and produce a noticeable supply impact, putting downward pressure on rates. This possibility cannot go unnoticed.”
