COMMENT: When one door closes, our industry will find another one opens to provide opportunities
- News Feed
- Tuesday, 20 February 2018
The Northern hemisphere industry currently is talking about air freight rates becoming “unrealistic” along with moans about capacity constraints and frequent delays. However, this seem to be more of a case of winter blues than a reflection of worldwide trends.
There always are blips in space availability on key routes, plus clearance at destination and ‘last mile’ delivery delays caused by congestion, but they don’t mean air cargo is finished as a preferred transport mode.
What’s more, the day there isn’t some criticism of pricing structures or rate increases is rare. Market forces always mean a certain level of volatility – high demand does drive prices higher, but eventually if that demand is sustained, then services grow to cope with it and pricing levels stabilise.
Certainly there seems to be significant optimism about air cargo in the Asia Pacific region.
Freighters and belly-hold tonnages have been healthy, albeit with the occasional hiccup – occasionally even on high traffic routes as well as the more marginal.
A decision by Amazon to open a fulfilment centre in Australia is obviously going to impact the country’s long-haul parcel freight. But for every change on that side of the ledger there is a new opportunity to exploit - or one just over the horizon.
It’s a cliche, but the saying ‘when one door closes another opens’, often is true.
European criticism of air cargo, especially in the cold months when harsh weather gets in the way, is tempered by the region’s mature acceptance of inter-modal logistics. Sea, road and rail are all viable alternatives to air at times – even perishables can be moved rapidly across continental Europe these days and tightly-scheduled container liners often now compete with air trans- Atlantic or to the Middle East.
Meantime, the Chinese have called on age-old transport beliefs to resurrect multi-modal routes around the world with China as their hub. The Silk Road lives again in the One Belt. One Road concept, which is evolving rapidly.
Air plays only a small role in that concept – as yet, anyway. But its inter-modal foundations will benefit our sector in the long run.
Meantime, on our doorstep in the Pacific, business is picking up as both Australia and NZ adjust their relationships with island neighbours and trade becomes two-way and diversified. The opportunities for air haulage of perishables, tech and other commodities are developing slowly but with a sureness that bodes well. This is complemented by Pacific nations looking more and more to Asian links, partly for tourism but with cargo capacity to follow.
- Kelvin King
