Cargolux has given a 747-400ERF a ‘retro’ livery, to have a good time its 50th birthday
By Alex Lennane
14/07/2020
Air freight charges from China to Europe have continued their descent, falling 4.64% within the week ending 13 July, to $3.08 per kg.
Nonetheless, charges to the US from Asia ticked up 3.42%, to $4.53, based on the TAC Index.
Freight Investor Service famous that the rise was “a speedy market adjustment” to the information that US carriers had cancelled flights to Hong Kong, after the territory stated all crew members would have to be examined for Covid-19 on arrival, and will face 14-day quarantine.
American Airways has postponed the resumption of its flights to Hong Kong till 5 August, whereas United stated it was suspending plans pending a overview.
“The recent crew-testing requirements imposed at airports like Hong Kong will lead to reduced capacities again,” stated David Wystrach, senior director air freight EMEA for Flexport.
“Some carriers may act quick and implement (PAX) freighter-capacity-flights intra-Asia to utilise worldwide capability from different airports to the US, for instance, however this may have impacts on transit occasions and prices.
“The industry and customers will have to remain flexible and make data-driven decisions within the next weeks and months, when the only constant will be change.”
He stated volatility remained: “Whereas we have now seen the market opening up up to now weeks, on the identical time some markets have all of a sudden seen tighter capacities once more. The uncertainty is mirrored in charges going up and down week by week.
“This may lead to a lot of uncertainty in the coming weeks and months, and in particular around any potential peak season. Staying flexible and having clarity about cargo-readiness to better plan and forecast is becoming more and more essential in this environment.”
Airways are struggling to handle their networks persistently within the face of fixing demand and costs, particularly with low-margin passenger-freighters.
IAG Cargo right now revealed new flight schedules, which seem to point out it making an attempt to maintain its community intact, however with low frequencies to many locations – though it seems to be ramping up others. North American locations together with Atlanta, JFK, Boston, Chicago and Miami are seeing each day – or extra frequent – flights out of London, however there are far fewer frequencies out of Madrid, specifically to South America. Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai have each day flights from London, whereas there may be much less frequency to Bangkok, Singapore and Narita.
One buyer stated: “It looks like IAG Cargo has pulled flights, as either they can’t pay their way with current market rates, or the demand has dried up.”
FIS stated the uncertainty available in the market was additionally impacting contract renewals.
“For the most part, the drive remains downwards, back to some form of normality. A poor view of the future of the market has started to impact the highly diversified time frames for BSA or long-term contract renewals.”
FIS, which is introducing price index-linked contracts, claimed: “Although the near-term market will rely on how effectively businesses continue to react against the uncertain environment, the avenue is wide open and the timing is right to implement contracts that can help provide consistent pricing, while still absorbing the real fundamental impacts of price volatility.”
