keynote feature Imbalance spurs ambition


Although the import of US products into China is growing rapidly, air cargo carriers suffer from the fact that eastbound demand from China to US is almost four times greater than westbound demand. For Chinese carriers, sometimes freighters have to fly


back with nearly empty back-haul loads during the slack season, which is a major challenge to the company’s profitability. Operating a US hub is one of the solutions, which could allow US-bound cargo traffic to be consolidated from different regions of the US, thus improving capacity utilisation. There has been interest in setting up a cargo hub at St


Louis Lambert airport in Missouri for a long time. Air China has been planning it for more than two years but the negotiations have progressed slowly. In late May, a delegation of China Cargo Airlines executives representing the Chinese government, visited St Louis Lambert and met with officials to talk about the possibility of a long-term plan of building an air hub.


connections with all major airports in the Asian markets within eight hours. In April this year, Atlanta-headquartered Delta Air Lines


commenced a passenger flight combined with bellyhold cargo capacity from San Francisco to Guangzhou via Japan using B767 widebody aircraft. Hong Kong is the world’s busiest airport in terms of cargo


traffic. It still retains an important position as a hub connecting Asia with the US. FedEx and UPS both offer services to and from Hong Kong. Nowadays, Hong Kong is still responsible for a significant amount of southern China’s air cargo uplift. Cathay Pacific Airways and its wholly-owned sister carrier


Dragonair both operate all-cargo services between Hong Kong and the US and passenger services between mainland China and Hong Kong. Based at Shenzhen in China’s Pearl River Delta, Jade Cargo


This year, it was rumoured, once again, that China Southern


was to launch a dedicated cargo unit by establishing foreign partnerships, but nothing has materialised yet. China Southern is also looking to muscle in on the business opportunities in Shanghai. China Southern runs two Sino-US freighter services from


Shanghai to Los Angeles and from Shanghai to Chicago. There are six flights a week on the Shanghai to Chicago route. A Shanghai - Los Angeles route was opened last year using China Southern’s new B777Fs on a three times a week basis. FedEx Express switched its Asia Pacific hub from Hong Kong


to Guangzhou in 2009. It is the largest FedEx hub outside the US. The facility serves as the company’s China operating hub. FedEx also has an operating hub in Tokyo and its Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. FedEx utilises a number of hub facilities to support its Asian operations. Since 1995, its Subic Bay hub in the Philippines has allowed it to effectively link North America and Europe with both North and South Asia. FedEx also notes that the Anchorage hub, which includes of floor space and room for 10 aircraft, and provides


258,000ft2


Customs clearance for approximately 80 percent of its flights from China to the US, is strategically located nine hours or less from 90 percent of the industrialised world, and allows


16 AIR LOGISTICS CHINA Delta Air Lines provides bellyhold capacity


International is a joint venture of Shenzhen Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo. It operates dedicated cargo services from Yantai in Shandong Province and Shanghai to Chicago and Los Angeles. In addition to Jade Cargo, China Cargo Airlines and Asiana Airlines both operate all-cargo freighter services from or via Yantai to the US. While the role of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou as hubs


remains clear, the Chinese government continues planning for the development of additional air cargo hubs. According to China’s new Five Year Plan, the CAAC will designate six air cargo hubs. Besides Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, Wuhan airport has been added to the plan to serve central China and two additional hubs would be located to serve northwest China, at either Xian or Urumqi airports, and southwest China, at either Chengdu or Kunming airports.


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