IASC’s ‘easy days’ end suddenly as carriers battle for capacity
AirCargo Archive Stories #223
Monday, 27 May 2013
- Kelvin King looks at the surge in route bids
THE OnCE-heated area of Australia’s designated air cargo routes is in a flux.
A few months ago, cargo movements were strong, both by freighter and belly-hold, but capacity allocation as a designated, scheduled operator on a week-by-week basis was languishing. There was plenty of unutilised tonnage in the register looking for someone to snap it up; the International Air Services Commission (IASC) was sufficiently on top of things to move ahead of schedule a little in passenger route renewals and no one had emailed through a cargo route request for yonks.
Former big player HeavyLift had lost its mojo, hit first by the noise restrictions which grounded its ageing 727s and then by difficulties with a leased new-era 737 freighter which sat on the ground for a lengthy period.
Qantas was doing heavy work on Tasman routes daily and Pacific Air Express was picking up good loads on its PNG and Vanuatu routes as well as the Solomon Islands.
Pionair, reborn as Skyforce Aviation, was working hard on a charters and made its move, seeking 28 tonnes on France Route 3/New Caledonia ex Brisbane and 18 tonnes PNG ex Cairns, using its existing Convair 580 freighters and two newly-acquired BAe 146-200QC aircraft.
Being QC variants, the aircraft have the potential for FIFO and other passenger duties as well as freight.
Next to move was global charter operator Chapman Freeborn, which handles some Australian defence and other government work.
Applying under its corporate name of Alltrans Management, it announced it was leasing a Safair Hercules L382 freighter which it planned to base in Brisbane.
It wanted 32 tonnes of capacity each way on the New Caledonia, PNG and Nauru routes. Michael Grant, general manager of Chapman Freeborn Australia, told the IASC the aircraft “is currently operating under an Australian FAOC and it is our intention to place this aircraft on an Australian AOC as soon as possible”. He pointed out that the Herc was “capable of uplifting out-of-gauge cargo via its ramp loading configuration; this is cargo that might not otherwise by airlifted”.
Grant said Chapman Freeborn had generated interest from the “oil and gas, construction and freight forwarding industries”.
Next to move was Qantas which told IASC it was again planning to introduce dedicated freight services to PNG and sought 27.5 tonnes per week.
Routings would be Melbourne-Brisbane-Port Moresby-Melbourne and Cairns-Brisbane-Port Moresby-Cairns.
Tony Wheelans, executive manager, government and international relations, said Qantas wanted to start operations almost immediately “and proposes to operate B737-300 aircraft from the fleet of our wholly owned subsidiary company Express Freighters Australia”.
It later bumped up the bid to 35 tonnes.
At one stage Qantas held 34 tonnes capacity on the PNG route, later reduced to 17.5 tonnes before deciding not to operate EFA freighters on the run.
Qantas found itself in the rather unusual situation of being supported by Skyforce, whose general manager Michael Lee wrote to IASC saying: “We respectfully submit that both Skyforce and Qantas are capable of operating the proposed services (for which capacity is available) and are bonafide Australian companies with valid and existing Australian Air Operators certificates, proven operational charter experience in and out of PNG and New Caledonia and are the operators of the aircraft that are put forward to provide the services.”
On the same day, Pacific Air Express (Australia) weighed in, saying it was keen to secure the three B737 slots for Nauru which the air services agreement allows for.
PAE already has the IASC big tick as an Australian carrier, along with a good track record for dependability on Pacific operations.
PAE managing director Gary Clifford told IASC the company was currently operating three B737F charter services weekly between Brisbane and Nauru, providing logistics support for the refugee processing centre.
“PAE proposes converting the three charter services each week into three scheduled services.” PAE also wanted a shared weekly B737 freighter service with Air Caledonie International on the Brisbane-Noumea-Vila-Brisbane routes.
Chapman Freeborn then said it was withdrawing its route allocation bids, but Skyforce kept up the pressure on IASC, noting that PAE was linking up with New Caledonia’s national carrier while Skyforce would be an all-Australian competitor to Aircalin’s operations.
France 3/New Caledonia allows only one Australian-designated cargo flight weekly, to a maximum of 28 tonnes. This was not utilised as at early May. And as at early May the PNG unallocated tonnage stood at 77.5 tonnes.
IASC’s ‘easy days’ end suddenly as carriers battle for capacity
AirCargo Archive Stories #223
Monday, 27 May 2013
- Kelvin King looks at the surge in route bids
THE OnCE-heated area of Australia’s designated air cargo routes is in a flux.
A few months ago, cargo movements were strong, both by freighter and belly-hold, but capacity allocation as a designated, scheduled operator on a week-by-week basis was languishing. There was plenty of unutilised tonnage in the register looking for someone to snap it up; the International Air Services Commission (IASC) was sufficiently on top of things to move ahead of schedule a little in passenger route renewals and no one had emailed through a cargo route request for yonks.
Former big player HeavyLift had lost its mojo, hit first by the noise restrictions which grounded its ageing 727s and then by difficulties with a leased new-era 737 freighter which sat on the ground for a lengthy period.
Qantas was doing heavy work on Tasman routes daily and Pacific Air Express was picking up good loads on its PNG and Vanuatu routes as well as the Solomon Islands.
Pionair, reborn as Skyforce Aviation, was working hard on a charters and made its move, seeking 28 tonnes on France Route 3/New Caledonia ex Brisbane and 18 tonnes PNG ex Cairns, using its existing Convair 580 freighters and two newly-acquired BAe 146-200QC aircraft.
Being QC variants, the aircraft have the potential for FIFO and other passenger duties as well as freight.
Next to move was global charter operator Chapman Freeborn, which handles some Australian defence and other government work.
Applying under its corporate name of Alltrans Management, it announced it was leasing a Safair Hercules L382 freighter which it planned to base in Brisbane.
It wanted 32 tonnes of capacity each way on the New Caledonia, PNG and Nauru routes. Michael Grant, general manager of Chapman Freeborn Australia, told the IASC the aircraft “is currently operating under an Australian FAOC and it is our intention to place this aircraft on an Australian AOC as soon as possible”. He pointed out that the Herc was “capable of uplifting out-of-gauge cargo via its ramp loading configuration; this is cargo that might not otherwise by airlifted”.
Grant said Chapman Freeborn had generated interest from the “oil and gas, construction and freight forwarding industries”.
Next to move was Qantas which told IASC it was again planning to introduce dedicated freight services to PNG and sought 27.5 tonnes per week.
Routings would be Melbourne-Brisbane-Port Moresby-Melbourne and Cairns-Brisbane-Port Moresby-Cairns.
Tony Wheelans, executive manager, government and international relations, said Qantas wanted to start operations almost immediately “and proposes to operate B737-300 aircraft from the fleet of our wholly owned subsidiary company Express Freighters Australia”.
It later bumped up the bid to 35 tonnes.
At one stage Qantas held 34 tonnes capacity on the PNG route, later reduced to 17.5 tonnes before deciding not to operate EFA freighters on the run.
Qantas found itself in the rather unusual situation of being supported by Skyforce, whose general manager Michael Lee wrote to IASC saying: “We respectfully submit that both Skyforce and Qantas are capable of operating the proposed services (for which capacity is available) and are bonafide Australian companies with valid and existing Australian Air Operators certificates, proven operational charter experience in and out of PNG and New Caledonia and are the operators of the aircraft that are put forward to provide the services.”
On the same day, Pacific Air Express (Australia) weighed in, saying it was keen to secure the three B737 slots for Nauru which the air services agreement allows for.
PAE already has the IASC big tick as an Australian carrier, along with a good track record for dependability on Pacific operations.
PAE managing director Gary Clifford told IASC the company was currently operating three B737F charter services weekly between Brisbane and Nauru, providing logistics support for the refugee processing centre.
“PAE proposes converting the three charter services each week into three scheduled services.” PAE also wanted a shared weekly B737 freighter service with Air Caledonie International on the Brisbane-Noumea-Vila-Brisbane routes.
Chapman Freeborn then said it was withdrawing its route allocation bids, but Skyforce kept up the pressure on IASC, noting that PAE was linking up with New Caledonia’s national carrier while Skyforce would be an all-Australian competitor to Aircalin’s operations.
France 3/New Caledonia allows only one Australian-designated cargo flight weekly, to a maximum of 28 tonnes. This was not utilised as at early May. And as at early May the PNG unallocated tonnage stood at 77.5 tonnes.
