Service cuts and reduced capacity coming on Asian air exports
January 16, 2012
Air cargo carriers look set to cut services and reduce capacity as demand for exports out of the key Asian markets of Hong Kong and mainland China remains soft.
Cargoitalia grounded its freighter operations last month, as did Jade Cargo, a China-based joint-venture between Lufthansa Cargo and Air China, hoping to restore them today. However, late last week, the carrier announced this would not happen.
And, as reported in IFW, Air India last year scrapped plans to set up dedicated freighter services from Asia.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and sister carrier Dragonair carried 142,122 tonnes of cargo and mail in December, down 11.9% on the same month in 2010 with the load factor down 9.6 percentage points to 67.8%.
Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne km, rose 3.9%, while cargo and mail tonne km flown were down by 9%. For the year as whole, tonnage dropped 8.6% compared to a capacity increase of 6.9%, while cargo and mail tonne km flown fell by 5.2%.
Cathay Pacific’s General Manager Cargo Sales & Marketing, James Woodrow, said: “The traditional year-end peak for our cargo business simply didn’t happen and our December figures were a disappointing end to what was a challenging year overall.
“Demand out of our key markets in Hong Kong and mainland China remain soft and there is no sign of any upturn.”
Overall, Asia-Pacific carriers saw traffic fall 6.5% in November, year on year, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA). Carriers saw traffic fall 4.8% in the first 11 months of the year compared with 2010.
Asia-Pacific airports saw cargo volumes decline 3.2% in November, year on year, with major export gateways hit most severely, according to statistics from Airports Council International (ACI) reported in IFW.
Taipei, Incheon, Hong Kong and Shanghai saw traffic fall 10.6%, 8.2%, 6.6% and 5%, respectively.
The air cargo export market out of Asia is “really bad,” said Paul Tsui, Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics.
“Most of this is down to the EU debt crisis but the US economy is also not very stable and Japan has not fully recovered from its earthquake. Overall the market is just really bad.”
The first Asia airport figures available for December, released by Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals, showed a similarly disappointing picture. Volume was down 4.3% year on year and exports fell 9.3%.
“Given unresolved concerns about the Eurozone debt crisis, and wider uncertainty about the global economic outlook for 2012, Asian carriers are bracing themselves for another tough year ahead,” said AAPA Director General Andrew Herdman.
Courtesy of IFW
