AIRCHARTER Christmas saves charters? W


hen an industry is about pro- viding additional capability and capacity, and customers have so little business they have dis- owned their own assets, there is


going to be little demand; but with major con- sumer electronic products announced for this December holiday season, the air charter sector could be about to have a truly festive time. “One of the publications was talking about the launch of some new consumer products like the next Xbox and Playstation 4,” Air Partner’s freight director Richard Smith says, probably


referring to an issue also reported by Air Cargo Week (Everywhere but Europe is growth’s answer, 2 September). “And there are enquiries to move very large, high volumes that have come out into the market, as an exploratory exercise. We look at all the enquiries we’re receiving and you have this gut feel after a few years in the business,” Smith adds. “You know whether this is for real or people are just asking as a com- parison exercise with other options. It is just a question if there is enough scheduled capacity for those things to be absorbed by the existing operations.”


As much as the consumer electronics indus- try is hopeful that the demand will be there to outstrip scheduled carrier capacity, Smith shares the optimism, but the last few years have tempered it: “those guys are trying to figure out what will become of Christmas, if enough confi- dence has returned to the consumer to actually shift very high volumes into the US and Europe. We don’t really know the answer to that yet.” Reto Hunziker is Chapman Freeborn’s group


cargo director and he is equally sanguine: “In general there will be a peak season, but I do not see that it will bring us a lot of business because most of the additional volume can be absorbed by the carriers because they have available capacity around. I think there will be charter


opportunities, but it won’t be comparable to before where customers need 30-40 flights in the fourth quarter. The opportunities will be at short notice.”


One person with more optimism is Hunt and


Palmer’s cargo charters head, Jamie Peters. Starting the company’s cargo charter service last year he agrees that there is a, “lot of doom and gloom,” but his experience so far has meant that, “development is on course and we’re ahead of where we expected to be in this stage of development and it is all very positive.” From Hunziker’s point of view, Chapman


Freeborn’s “year was not so bad for us. Tra- ditional markets are down. Traditional trunk routes are down,” but his company was able to compensate with other traffic.


Seeking the positives


Like Peters, Hunziker sees the positives: “It’s not brilliant, but looking at the overall situation, we are happy with what we get. The number of requests are picking up everywhere. It’s always good to get more requests.” Peters never expected charter to die out and his view is that there is always going to be a need for it. “We’re still increasing our enqui- ries month on month and increasing our flights month on month, but from a standing start 18 months ago you should be expected to anyway,” he says. Coming from a competitor of Hunt and Palmer, Peters approach to sustained growth begins with an ethos. “There was an ethos that I shared with the Hunt and Palmer directors,” he explains, “and they pride themselves on relationships and a service level that should be above the competition and that should stand you in good stead if you do the right things for the customer, then there is repeat business.” Repeat business is not easy in this climate.


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ACW 9 SEPTEMBER 2013


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