cargo link Air China Cargo joint venture
will provide freighter muscle By themiddle of 2011,AirChinaCargo will have 12 B747-400 freighters of varied types operating in its fleet, enabling it to expand its network and offermore flexible charter services, says GuDongfeng, vice president of commercial for the carrier. Although demand forChina’s exports
is still belowthe pre-recession level,Gu said there is“active potential”for imports, as the country is looking to Europe and theUS for automotive parts, medicines, seafood andwine. He believes thatChina’s import to
export ratiowill becomemore balanced andAirChinaCargo plans to capitalise on the anticipated growth by launching newfreighter services. The news thatAirChina andCathay
Pacific are to combine parts of their freighter fleets in a joint venture, amove
that received the go-ahead from theChinese authorities in January,will considerably shake up the balance of power among themain all-cargo operators in China. Cathay PacificCargo operates
a fleet of 24 freighters fromits Hong Kong hub to 38 destinations around theworld, in addition to utilising the cargo space on its passenger aircraft – and in theMiddle East the airline currently flies scheduled widebody services to Bahrain,Dubai, Jeddah and Riyadh. In its final figures for 2010,Cathay
PacificCargo reported an 18.1 percent year-on-year improvement in its cargo traffic compared to 2009with just over 1.8million tonnes of air freight carried. Cargo andmail tonne-kmflownwere
It operates full-freighter services betweenDoha and
Hong Kongwith a growing all-cargo fleet that comprises two newbuild B777Fs and three A300-600 freighters,which it obtained by passenger-to-freighter conversion. The carrier took delivery of its first B777-200 freighter in
May 2010 and has since introduced the equipment onQatar Airways Cargo services to and fromHong Kong. Commenting on the arrival of the newcapacitywhen the second B777F arrived to join the fleet,Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker said that itwas“an opportune time to be introducingmore freighter capacity”as the airlinewas growing at “a phenomenal pace”. He said the cargo fleetwas expanding“exponentially”and the airline’s focus on
up by 23.2 percent for the year compared to a capacity increase of 15.2 percent. JamesWoodrow, the airline’s general
manager sales andmarketing, said: “Freight volumes held upwell through to the end of 2010 helped by year-end cancellations fromour competitors.” The load factor (inDecember)was
marginally down on the samemonth in 2009, but therewas a significant growth in tonnage and yield, he added.
increasing its freighter network means“we are always finding newcustomers and offering existing customersmore options and convenience”. With a third newB777
freighter due to join the fleet by mid-2011, the airline’s dedicated cargo capacity“will have effectively quadrupled in size in a period of a little over a year”, he noted.
ABUDHABI Etihad Crystal Cargo, the air freightwing of AbuDhabi- based Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, operates freighter services to four destinations in Greater China – Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The airline operates a fleet of two A300-600 freighters, two A330-200Fs and twoMD-11Fs and covers 23 cargo freighter destinations and 71 cargo destinations around theworld. The carrier recently extended its existingwet-lease
Al Baker believes it to be “an opportune time to be introducing new freighter capacity”
contracts on two A300-600RF (Regional Freighter) aircraft withMaximus Air Cargo until August 2012. Etihad operates the freighters on scheduled and charter services between theMiddle East, the Indian subcontinent, East Africa and China. “Our arrangementwithMaximus provides an extra
24 AIR LOGISTICSCHINA
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