Feature sponsored by Air Asia


low-cost carriers


of that bellyhold space.However, the low-cost carriers are now actively encouraging passengers to cut down on their baggage and carry it in the aircraft cabin – and they charge an extra fee to stow suitcases in their holds.This approachmeans less luggage to handle in the hold, reducing baggage loading and unloading times and, once again, helping to preserve those fast turnaround times. Over the course of only a few


adding that it also reduces the need for expensive airport infrastructure. So far, easyJet’s biggest rival in Europe – Dublin-headquartered low-cost carrier Ryanair – has firmly kept its B737 fleet out of the air cargomarket, even though the airline actively discourages its passengers from travellingwith bellyhold baggage, providing itwith plenty of space to fill.


Alpa – serving Europe since December 2005


years, the growth of the low-cost carrier has been spectacular and there are nowabout 100 such airlines operatingworldwide. At themoment, China has only Spring Airlines and Lucky Air offering low-cost flights to serve the country’s huge population, but the budget airline business is growing quickly in almost every other part of theworld andmany are offering cargo services. In just a brief selection: Cebu Pacific in the Philippines aims to provide a‘one-stop’airport-to-airport cargo service via its Manila hub, Thailand’s Bangkok Airlines offers domestic air freight lift, Brazil’s Gol Transportes Aéreos has a branded Gollog air freight division and in Japan JAL Expressmoves cargo in partnershipwith its Japan Airlines parent carrier. In Europe, Norwegian Air Shuttle flies large amounts of


air freight,whilewith daily flights to and fromits Reykjavik hub Iceland Express claims its fleet of B737-700 aircraft is


SPACE


well suited to cargo transport. InTurkey, low-cost Pegasus Airlines has recognised the bottomline advantages of offering cargo services by filling the bellyhold capacity of its fleet of B737 aircraft. Pegasus Airlines has been providing cargo services fromits home hub at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International airport to numerous locations across Europe since December 2005, points out airline vice president cargo Aydin Alpa. In the UK, low-cost carrier easyJet has recently started


carrying a limited amount of small-sized cargo on selected flights to and fromLondon Gatwick airport as part of a six- month trial project to assesswhat benefits a fuller utilisation of the airline’s bellyhold space can bring – and with services to over 100 European airports every day, that could be an attractive proposition. “easyJet’s businessmodel is designed to achieve high


aircraft utilisation. Key to this isminimising the turnaround time between its short-haul point-to-point,” the airline said,


Feature sponsored by Air Asia AIR LOGISTICSCHINA 19


TESTING THE OPTIONS The European low-cost carriers are not alone in their air freight ambitions. Singapore’s Tiger Airways began testing cargo options on its A320 services earlier this year. A spokesman said in February that trials carried out between Singapore and five South-East Asian destinations would pave the way“for larger scale implementation”of an air freight product. Rosalynn Tay, managing director of Tiger Airways Singapore, commented: “The addition of cargo services will create an additional source of ancillary revenue.” One low-cost carrier thatwent straight in at the deep


endwith a cargo productwas AirAsia. The Kuala Lumpur- based carrier and its long-haul sister company AirAsia X have both been quick off themark in offering freight services. “I believewe can offer lower cost cargo because we operate a low-cost structure in our airline,”noted Sathis Manoharen, head of cargo at the two airlines. “We have subcontracted all our cargo handling and


trucking functions, but these are carried out strictly under our instructions,”he said. “On the A320 flights operated by


Manoharen:


“I thinkwe are doing a pretty good job”


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