On August 11th, Singapore Airlines Cargo division added an open-jaw service to Bangkok and Shanghai Pudong on a thrice-weekly basis, to be operated with a B747-400 freighter,
NEW CARGO SERVICES FOR 2010
The air freight market does appear to be rebounding rapidly. IATA figures for July show that cargo traffic levels are up 22.7% on the previous year and 4% up on the pre-crisis levels in 2008. There are signs, however, that the pace of the recovery has slowed, with the annualised growth rates having fallen in July. The major growth is coming from the Asia-Pacific carriers which are up 25.3% and the North American carriers 27.1% compared to Europe which grew 12.1% in the same period.
Driving the Asia growth is the expansion of pure freighter routes. July saw Cathay Pacific Cargo launch a twice weekly service with B747-400F with a routing of Hong Kong-Anchorage-Chicago-Amsterdam-Dubai-Hong Kong, replicating a similar move by all freight operator Cargolux which in April also added a new TransPacific route operating through Hong Kong-Baku-Chicago-New York.
China Southern Cargo has also added new services this year to Vienna from Shanghai, as well as services from Guangzhou to Amsterdam and Shanghai Pudong to Los Angeles. June also saw Asiana Cargo launch a weekly charter route from Seoul Incheon to Los Angeles and Yantai.
As the economy appears to recover, businesses are restocking inventory, which needs to be shifted from producer, to retailer and finally to the consumer. The rise in air freight demand can also be attributed not just to increase demand, but also the pulling of pure cargo operations from mainline carriers. High profile airlines,who were traditionally very freighter focused such as Air France and JAL (which will end all freighter services from October 31st) are two such airlines.
Belly capacity on scheduled airline routes has also declined as airlines have pulled services . The A380 is showing that it can provide passenger seats at the expense of cargo space, especially on trunk routes where carriers seek to expand capacity to meet the passenger demand of the market. This is prevalent with the A380 which is largely operated on trunk routes and cargo is of secondary importance to carriers.
Pure freighter divisions will continue to open routes where there is improving demand and yields. 2010 has shown the Asian freighter carriers have steadily been adding new services, clear signs that the cargo market is recovering.
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