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FEDEX maintained its position in 2015 as the top cargo airline by total freight tonnes carried on scheduled services, ac-cording to the International Air Transport Association’s 60th Edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS).

The yearbook of the airline indus-try’s performance for last year, says the US cargo integrator handled 7.1 million tonnes of freight.

In second was UPS with 4.5 million tonnes. In third was Emirates Airline with 2.5 million, in fourth was Cathay Pacific Airways with 1.6 million and in fifth place was Korean Air with 1.5 million.

FedEx came out on top by freight tonne kilometres (FTK) at 15,799 billion, in front of Emirates, 12,157 billion, UPS 10,807 billion, Cathay Pacific 9,935 billion, Kore-an Air 7,761 billion, Qatar Airways 7,660 billion, Lufthansa 6,888 billion, Cargolux 6,309 billion, Singapore Airlines 6,083 billion and Air China 5,718 billion.

WATS found globally, cargo markets saw a 2.3 per cent expansion in freight and mail tonne kilometres. This outstripped a capacity rise of 5.8 per cent decreas-ing freight load factor by 1.6 percentage points to 47.4 percentage points.

Manston Airport will be reopened as an air-freight hub, supporting the UK government’s aim of increasing aviation capacity, the US investment firm attempting to purchase the closed gateway says.

RiverOak Investments has been attempt-ing to purchase the airport, which closed in May 2014. It had tried acquiring the site as the indemnity partner for a Compulsory Purchase Order with the local authority, Thanet District Council, but got rejected twice. RiverOak is now attempting to use a Development Consent Order, which is designed to obtain permission for developments categorised as ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects’.

If approved, the US firm says Manston will be developed to handle more than 10,000 air transport movements of cargo aircraft per year and provide needed additional capacity in the

South East of England, serving as an airfreight and logistics gateway for the region.

In its report, RiverOak says: “The concept of a dedicated air cargo hub airport is well

established across Europe and North America with similar business models in operation at airports in Liege, Belgium, Cologne-Bonn and Leipzig, Germany, Charles De Gaulle, France, Alliance Fort-Worth, USA, Mirabel and JC Munro International both in Canada.”

Plans include two new areas of apron cover-ing 208,000 square metres providing parking for up to 18 aircraft, relocating cargo facilities and new road access to the cargo and aircraft maintenance facility.

RiverOak says airfreight will be the main focus, starting shortly after reopening, and it would seek to attract new customers and oper-ate as a base for one or more freight forwarding and handling company. RiverOak predicts Man-ston could handle 600,000 tonnes of cargo by 2035 via businesses returning, winning market share from other hubs and general growth.

bijaoui departs WFS while Reich to leave Cargolux

Surprise and shock has swept through the air cargo industry after two of the most prominent and well-known figures

left key high-level positions within 24 hours of each other.

Cargolux Airlines Interna-tional announced on 30 June that president and chief executive offi-cer (CEO) Dirk Reich (pictured right) was stepping down for “personal reasons”, but the biggest news then came on 1 July when Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) announced that CEO Olivier Bijaoui (pictured left) had resigned - with no explanation or reason given for his sudden departure.

His abrupt resignation comes nine months since WFS was acquired by Platinum Equity. Since then WFS has bought fellow cargo handlers Fraport Cargo Services and Consolidated Avia-tion Services (CAS).

WFS Group chief operating offi-cer Barry Nassberg will take-on interim leadership responsibil-ities. He says WFS has strong

momentum and is confident busi-ness will continue as usual during the transition: “WFS is a strong and growing company with dedicated employees throughout the organi-sation and strong leaders at every level.

“Our recent acquisition of CAS has all the potential we expected and the integration of our com-panies is proceeding ahead of schedule. We also have several new business wins coming on line and a robust pipeline of additional opportunities.”

Platinum Equity head of Euro-pean investment, Bastian Lueken

says WFS’s strategic growth plan is well on track: “Teams throughout the company are performing at a high level with an intense focus on serving customers. We are pleased with the direction the company is headed and are fully committed to supporting its long-term strategic plan.”

Lueken adds he expects a seamless transition at the top of management, while a thorough global search will take place for a new CEO to identify the right candidate to lead the combined organisation into the future.

Meanwhile, just as Cargolux

announced it was continuing its network expansion with services to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, it was revealed Reich was to stand down at the end of July.

The carrier says Reich was leaving Cargolux “for personal reasons” after he has asked the board of directors for the early termination of his contract.

Executive vice-president and chief financial officer, Richard For-son will take over from 1 August, with vice-president corporate development, Maxim Strauss fill-ing Forson’s old position.

Cargolux chairman of the board of directors, Paul Helminger paid tribute to Reich’s contributions to Cargolux, saying: “I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Dirk for his significant contribution to the success and development of Cargolux, especially in China, but also elsewhere.”

He adds: “I am personally sad to see Dirk leaving us, but I respect his decision that is based on per-sonal reasons beyond the air cargo business and the Cargolux family.”

Plan revealed to turn Manston Airport into a cargo hub

Volume: 19 Issue: 27 11 July 2016

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NEWSWEEK

3ACW 11 JULY 2016

T he industry has got electronic air waybill (e-AWB) penetration rates up to 39 per cent in May but hitting the December 2016 target of 56 per

cent looks unlikely.Penetration rates rose by 0.7 per cent

from April to May but are still below the International Air Transport Association’s target for 2015, which had been 45 per cent.

Where legally feasible, e-AWB penetration has increased from 28.6 per cent in June 2015 to 39 per cent.

Hong Kong International Airport has retained the top spot for e-AWB volume by airport of origin, with 69,348, and has a pen-etration rate of 66.5 per cent.

By country, Hong Kong had the second highest volume, only beaten by the US at 78,364 e-AWBs.

Most of the top 10 hubs retained their rankings, with Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport moving from 10th to 9th and Los

Angeles International Airport entering the list at 10th.

By airline, flydubai was the only one to achieve a 100 per cent penetration rate, with the next best performer FedEx at 71.8 per cent. Cathay Pacific jumped from fifth to third with a penetration rate of 71.3 per cent, and also topped the list for the most e-AWBs handled.

DHL Global Forwarding retained the number one spot for e-AWB volumes among freight forwarders, with Schenker and Panalpina rounding out the top three. DHL Express had the highest e-AWB penetration rate among freight forwarders at 65 per cent, with Panalpina in second at 58.7 per cent and Expeditors Group in third at 58.7 per cent.

VIRGIN Atlantic Cargo is increasing investment in tem-perature-controlled services after doubling its share of the pharma market from the UK to North America in two years.

The carrier has appointed Darren Sherlock (pictured) into the new position as manager for products and partnerships. He says pharma growth is being driven by its network, and high frequencies to the US and to India and China.

Sherlock adds growth is based on understanding the sensitivities of shipments, being customer focused and tai-loring services. He notes the UK to US market is forecast to grow by seven per cent a year to 2020.

WorldNewsDUBAI International Airport has seen freight volumes continue to grow steadily in May reaching 226,916 tonnes compared to 216,712 tonnes in May 2015, a year-on-year (YOY) increase of 4.7 per cent.During the first five months of 2016 cargo volumes han-dled at Dubai International reached 1,055,850 tonnes, up four per cent YOY compared to the 1,015,482 tonnes handled during the same period last year.The hub has seen volumes rise in every month this year.

WORLDWIDE Information Network (WIN) has launched a new mobile application platform, which it says will give independent forwarders a “mobile edge”.The app features real-time track and trace, an interac-tive agent directory, instant messaging, route checking, and shipment status tools - allowing users to track and update status on any shipment including proofs of de-livery or pictures of damaged cargo.

WorldACd: 0.5% growth in MayMAY was another “disappointment” as volumes grew year-on-year (YoY) by 0.5 per cent, according to WorldACD.

The industry analyst says North America fell by four per cent, whereas MESA grew by the same percentage. Yield in US dollars dropped by 1.9 per cent compared to April.

WorldACD says the world’s top 10 forwarders have a joint market share of 35 per cent, each ranging from 8.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent. First is DHL, followed by K + N, Schenk-er, Expeditors, Panalpina, UPS, Nippon Express, DSV/UTi, Kintetsu and CEVA. WorldACD sees further consolidation among forwarders, through acquisition or co-operation.

aircargoweek.com

Electronic air waybill target looking distant

Virgin targetspharma market

NEWSWEEK

4 ACW 11 july 2016

TURKISH Cargo is aiming to make Istanbul one of the biggest players in air cargo trade between East and West for cold chain logis-tics and it is further enhancing processes.

The carrier notes temperature-controlled cargo is prepared specifically to protect the contents and prevent them from deteriora-tion, in accordance with International Air Transport Association regulations.

A key aspect of this is new active cool-ing system containers, where it can have cold-chain transportation in aircraft, in-cluding loading and unloading areas, using Envirotainer active temperature-controlled containers.

Turkish moves highly sensitive cargo such as medical supplies, vaccines, insulin and cancer drugs at temperatures from -20 de-grees Celsius to +25 degrees Celsius.

Data is also a critical part of the process and Turkish reports to customers any tem-perature changes in their shipments during the whole transportation process.

Turkish says it is constantly trying to eliminate technical and infrastructure short-comings. The carrier says every shipment has to reach a level where it can offer services complying with its high quality standards, and medicine and active container transport regulations.

AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) has increased its coverage in South East Asia with Boeing 747 Freighter services to Phnom Penh, starting on

5 July.The weekly service to Cambodia’s capital will

operate on a Moscow – Singapore – Phnom Penh route before returning to Sheremetyevo Inter-national Airport. The 747F will offer more than 100 tonnes of capacity, accommodating trade lanes from Cambodia to Europe and the US.

ABC senior vice president, marketing & sales, Robert van de Weg (pictured) says while China’s

export growth is slowing, Cambodia is growing at double-digit rates and has ambitious airport development plans.

He says: “By establishing our footprint in this country, not only do we open up new destina-tions for our customers, but we also strengthen our position in Southeast Asia – the main driver of world trade.”

He adds textile and garment exports will ben-efit the most and extra capacity in and out of Singapore will strengthen ABC in the region.

DALLAS Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) (above) has been designated an ‘e-airport’ by the International Air Trans-port Association (IATA) after becoming fully electronic air waybill (e-AWB) compliant.

To qualify as an e-airport, the majority of airlines and cargo handlers had to adopt e-AWBs. Companies are using technology to streamline documentation and e-AWBs increases speed and productivity, improved security, enhanced customer service and environmental benefits, by replacing 30

different paper forms.DFW head of cargo business development,

Mark Thorpe says: “Our airline partners and their forwarder and shipper customers will see tremendous benefits from DFW’s des-ignation as a cargo e-airport. Technology will be used to simplify the documentation process for all of their airfreight shipments.

“By doing so, they will improve the ef-ficiency, traceability, and integrity of the services they provide at DFW in a more en-vironmentally responsible manner.”

ETIHAD Cargo has launched a new ser-vice for guests who want to travel with their luxury car over the summer as it looks to boost business in the sector.

Drivers can enjoy up to 20 per cent off air cargo rates and their seat, when they book in first or business class.

The carrier is also offering additional services, such as arranging hotel accommo-

dation and deliveries to the driver’s doorstep.The offer is available from Abu Dhabi to Eu-

ropean destinations including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Manchester, Milan, Munich, Paris and Zurich.

The number of cars Etihad has moved has been steadily rising over the last few years and the carries handled hundreds of auto-mobiles last year.

Luxury car push by Etihad Cargo

Temperature-control target for Turkish

ABC operates 747F to Cambodia

E-airport status awarded to DFW

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ACW 11 JUly 2016 6

S WISS WorldCargo is investing in premium products, which are per-forming well while overall demand proves sluggish, head of marketing Alain Guerin tells Air Cargo Week.

Guerin says business has been challenging due to events outside of SWISS’s control, such as falling oil prices and the Swiss franc / euro exchange rate, but he says special products are helping to keep up revenue.

Removing the cap on the Swiss franc caused problems, Guerin comments: “Removing the cap of the Swiss franc has accelerated the trend of transporting cargo on the surface to other Euro-pean consolidation gateways such as Frankfurt, Munich, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Paris.”

Switzerland, and Europe in general, can be a challenging place to do business due to the limited size and high cost of infrastructure, and expansion constraints because of regulations

such as nighttime flight bans.He says SWISS is predicting the rest of 2016

will be tough but figures should remain stable and it is improving facilities for products such as pharmaceuticals with certification, and it has also signed an agreement with cold chain con-tainer company, va-Q-tec.

Guerin says: “We are investing in improving our specialist product offering, including getting Good Distribution Practice (GDP) and IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Vali-dators for Pharmaceutical Handling (CEIV Pharma) at Zurich hub recently, something that is being extended to other stations with the aim of achieving it across the whole network.”

SWISS has also been upgrading its fleet, having started to take delivery of Boeing 777-300ERs and Bombardier C Series aircraft.

The 777s are being used on routes to Asia, South America and the US West Coast and

SWISS is the first operator of the C Series.Describing the Bombardier, Guerin says:

“The innovative short- and medium-haul twin-jet sets new benchmarks in inflight comfort, operating economics and environmental terms, including a 50 per cent noise reduction which will particularly benefit local airport residents creating 150 new jobs at SWISS).”

So far SWISS has only received three 777s,

which are being used on routes to New York, Montreal, Hong Kong and Los Angeles, and they are performing well.

“The new twinjet enables SWISS WorldCargo to offer more capacity (plus 15 per cent) and enhance the environmental performance on its long-haul sectors. Of course, this is a challenge too, because we have to do our utmost to fill the additional space with shipments.”

WESTERN EUROPE

Lufthansa reconnects Tehran and Denver with Munich

aircargoweek.com

Premium products the main focus for Swiss

Lufthansa has increased services from Munich by reconnecting the Bavarian city with Denver in the US and Iran’s capital, Tehran.

The German flag carrier restarted Den-ver flights on 11 May, having last flown the route in the summer of 2008, and Tehran re-joined the schedule on 4 July after a 10 year break.

Describing the Tehran service Lufthansa Munich hub chief executive officer, Thom-as Winkelmann says: “Due to increasing business relations, we are expecting a sig-nificantly higher demand in the future.”

The Denver flight leaves Munich on Tues-days, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 11.45h, landing at 14.30h local

time using an Airbus A330-300. The return flight leaves Denver at 16.05h and lands back in Munich at 10.05h the next day.

A330-300 Services to Tehran leave Mu-nich at 22.10h on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, landing at 05.20h, with the re-turn flight leaving at 06.55h on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving back in Mu-nich at 09.30h.

Denver is home to a number of mining companies and telecommunications firms, with energy supply and logistics also import-ant industries.

Half of Iranian businesses are based in Tehran, especially the oil and gas industry, with textile, agriculture and building materi-als proving important.

T he slowdown of the UK manufacturing sector has made business challenging and Brexit may compound this, but IAG Cargo tells Air Cargo Week it is still one of the best connected economies in the world.

The airline group, which owns Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling, says the end of 2015 saw a slow-down, which continued into the start of this year, with oil and gas proving slow but premium products growing.

IAG Cargo says: “The first quarter of 2015 benefited from the port congestion on the US west coast which resulted in modal shift from sea to air freight. However, we saw the market soften in the final quarter of the year and the pre-Christmas surge in demand was down on previous years.”

It adds: “While in 2016 we have witnessed a decline in the oil and gas sector due to the reduction in the number of new explora-tion projects, there is still strong demand for premium products with perishable and retail demand in particular continuing to hold steady.”

UK manufacturing has had a weak start to the year, which IAG Cargo says explains the softer export market in the first quarter, but it will focus on the premium products. “This year we will con-tinue to focus on key commodity sectors such as pharmaceutical, aerospace, perishable and fashion retail. Some of our new routes to Latin America will undoubtedly prove beneficial for these key sectors.”

This year, IAG Cargo has launched Latin American services including to Peru’s capital, Lima, flying from Gatwick Airport and San Jose – Heathrow flights, operated by British Airways.

The airline says: “The new services have had a good start, particularly San Jose and Lima. The Lima route is proving to be popular across our global network, with pharmaceuticals being one of the major contributing commodities. We are also seeing a strong interest in our new JFK service ex Gatwick.”

In addition, IAG Cargo will be increasing capacity to the Mid-dle East by delinking Bahrain to Doha and Abu Dhabi to Muscat, making them all direct flights. It says this will increase Middle Eastern operations by 20 per cent and 80 per cent to the four destinations.

“We will be able to accom-modate the growing demand in the Middle East with the capac-ity added by delinking our Bahrain to Doha and Abu Dhabi to Muscat routes and replacing them with direct flights to all four destinations.”

IAG Cargo says wherever it is operating in the world; invest-ment in people and facilities is vital for delivering customer service. Using pharmaceuticals as an example, it says: “We have made significant investments in personnel, training and infra-structure at our London hub and across the globe to ensure that we deliver the high level of specialist service required when han-

dling high value and sensitive goods.”All 110 of IAG Cargo’s Constant Climate stations are Quality

Approved, audited and meet International Air Transport Associ-ation Chapter 17 regulations as well as being Good Distribution Practices compliant. IAG Cargo also says: “Our London Heath-row hub was the first air cargo airside hub worldwide to receive Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (WDA) and Good Distribu-tion Certification (GDP) from a National Standards Regulatory Authority (The UK MHRA). It’s this level of investment that will ensure the UK remains competitive with other markets.”

UK remains strong despite weak start to 2016

7ACW 11 july 2016

WESTERN EUROPE

Frankfurt dips, Munich up

FrankFurt airport (above) saw cargo and mail volumes dip by 1.3 per cent to 177,536 tonnes in May while Munich airport (below) was up by 0.2 per cent to 28,398 tonnes.

For the year between January and May, Frankfurt has seen volumes increase by 0.2 per cent to 865,918 helped by a particularly strong month in April, where the airport registered an increase of five per cent to 181,948 tonnes.

Frankfurt Airport’s operator, Fraport also operates Han-nover-Langenhagen Airport, which saw an increase of 22.7 per cent to 1,317 tonnes in May and 11 per cent to 8,136 tonnes between January and May.

At Munich, cargo has increased in every month of 2016, though May registered the lowest year-on-year growth at 0.2 per cent. The biggest improvement of 2016 so far was in January when volumes went up 11.5 per cent to 26,198 tonnes. Year-to-date volumes have increased by 4.7 per cent to 142,760 tonnes.

In the first five months of 2016, Munich has seen freight-er aircraft cargo increase by 14 per cent to 24,370 tonnes while bellyhold was up 2.5 per cent to 110,172 tonnes. Freighter tonnage was up 7.6 per cent in May to 4,898 tonnes while bellyhold was down 1.9 per cent to 21,940 tonnes.

aircargoweek.com

ACW 11 JULY 2016 8

I ndian airfreight is booming and according to analysts Frost & Sullivan the air cargo market for the country of 1.3 billion people, reached 2.52million tonnes in 2014-15.

International traffic makes up a major part of this, taking a 61 per cent share and key markets include the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, UK, Germany, Singapore and Qatar.

Frost & Sullivan’s senior consultant for its transportation and logistics practice, TJ Sivan, believes much more is to come with the market reaching 2.8 million tonnes in 2018, 3.8 mil-lion tonnes by 2020 and a sizeable 10 million by 2027. India is at present the second fastest growing air cargo market in the world.

Sivan says the freight categories expected to drive this growth include precious metals and jewellery, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, leather products and perishable goods and he adds: “E-commerce has also emerged as a key

driver.”However, challenges to growth remain and

Sivan identifies a lack of “enabling infrastruc-ture such as dedicated airfreight warehouses and terminals”, complicated regulatory pro-cesses and procedures and inadequate and poor quality of human resources deployment. “A lack of effective technological enablement of the cargo handling supply chain is another chal-lenge,” Sivan also notes.

In an effort promote air cargo growth, the Indian Government announced a National Civil Aviation Policy in June. As part of this policy the Air Cargo Logistics Promotion Board (ACLPB) has been constituted for better coordination among various government and private agen-cies involved in the air cargo market.

According to Sivan, the ACPLB is “likely to focus on growth by improving efficiency and simplifying procedures and other administra-

tive hurdles, which are contributing to higher cost”.

The Indian Government’s move to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) by relax-ing regulations around it is another major driver. This includes the allowance for 100 per cent FDI in existing airports and 100 per cent tax exemption for infrastructure projects for the next decade.

Other notable developments as part of the civil aviation policy include moves towards adopting paperless airway bill technology, free-trade zones and the streamlining of customs processing procedures.

The Indian Government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, which aims for manufacturing to represent 25 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2022 compared with 15 per cent at present, is another boon. As part of the drive the government recognises the need to improve the supply chain and infrastructure.

Cathay Pacific Airways believes the Make in India programme will provide a huge boost to Indian airfreight. “The Make in India plans and FDI in various key sectors are going to be key drivers to yield strong growth in air freight,” says Mark Sutch (pictured), Cathay’s general manager for cargo sales and marketing.

He adds: “With the Make programme we note that there are few plants being built in India. There may be growing semi-finished or even raw materials to feed these local facto-ries in the future.”

Cathay is becoming a more fre-quent visitor to India. It has both passenger and freighter services to New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

“We are seeing increasing volumes of finished electronic products and their accessories, IT hardware and infrastructure project equipment into India and garment, leather, pharmaceu-ticals, auto spare parts and perishables out,” explains Sutch.

“India is one of the fastest growing econo-mies in the world. The growth from key sectors namely retail, manufacturing, automobile and pharmaceutical drive exports. For imports the growth is driven by higher purchasing power of Indian local people who crave modern elec-tronic products made abroad particularly mobile phones. The more stable Indian cur-rency also gives a good boost to the purchasing power,” he notes.

Sutch also praises the improved warehousing facilities and airport infrastructure in places such as New Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Looking to the future, Sutch says Cathay will keep abreast of global trade flows before decid-ing whether to permanently increase their freight operations in India. “In recent months we have increased our scheduled flying into India to accommodate for increased trade flows. This has been more on an ‘as-need’ basis but we would be prepared to grow with the market and demand.”

0ther operators benefiting from the growth in the sector include Indian express cargo carrier Blue Dart (pictured), which posted a 49.7 per cent increase in profits for the year ending 31 March, helped by growth in the business to con-

sumer segment particularly e-tail.Blue Dart has seen steady growth since entering the market 20 years

ago and looks ideally placed to grow as the Indian market expands. It was boosted in 2004, when DHL took a majority stake in the car-

rier’s parent company, Blue Dart Express, which has helped it achieve

growth of around six per cent over the last few years.

From its Chennai base, Blue Dart launched with a single Boeing 737-200 Freighter, but has since upgraded to larger 757 freighters with bigger payloads - a decision driven by the short-age of landing slots at key hubs.

It is clear that India looks like a market of opportunity and growth in the years ahead.

INDIA

Make in IndiaAll about trade flows

aircargoweek.com

A market that just keeps on rocking and rolling

Tabloid page bled.indd 1 01/07/2016 14:10

ACW 11 july 2016 10

INDIA

LAUNCHED earlier this year, Indian all-cargo carrier Quikjet Airlines is offering airport to airport freighter capacity with a premium overnight network specifically designed to best serve the requirements of the express cargo, e-commerce and automotive markets.

The airline is part of ASL Aviation and operates a schedule network connecting Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore overnight, six days a week using a fleet consisting of a Boeing 737-400SF and an ATR 72-200.

The freight being moved consists largely of general goods, finished garments, jewellery, electronic goods and automo-tive spare parts.

Quikjet Airlines chief executive, Capt. Preetham Phillip ex-plains: “We have been witnessing positive growth in the lower double digits month-on-month since we started operating.

“With India having only seven freighters we continue to be upbeat about demand in the domestic market. Our growth is primarily due to the premium overnight air freighter capacity that we have introduced which is driven by priority shipments previously being trucked or sent by rail or as belly freight on passenger flights.”

Phillip sees more domestic airfreight growth ahead. “The dedicated airfreight capacity being utilised by the e-com-merce players and other time-sensitive shippers translates to the efficiency, enhanced service levels and more reliable delivery options expected by customers,” he observes.

He also explains: “The Indian government’s positive growth and infrastructure development initiatives are steadily gath-ering momentum. Government initiatives of a centralised GST (goods and services tax) would further propel the in-dustry and give further impetus to the already booming e-commerce sector.

“We see a consolidation of a few regional warehouses and movement of goods between these regional centres.”

In response it expects to introduce a new 737-400 Freight-er to its fleet in the coming months while “more aircraft are planned in the near future”.

aircargoweek.com

India’s pharmaceutical market accounts for 1.4 per cent of the global industry in value, making it the 13th biggest sector in the world, and 10 per cent in volume terms.

According to investment research firm Equitymaster, the market is set to grow by between nine per cent and 12 per

cent between 2013-18 - boosted by rising consumer spending, rapid urbanisation, increasing healthcare insurance and drugs.

Besides the domestic market Indian pharma firms makes a large chunk of their revenues from exports focusing on the generics market in the US and Europe. Biopharmaceuticals are

also growing in demand given the “complexity in manufacture and limited competition”.

Air cargo operators are taking advantage. Last November, Qatar Airways Cargo (pictured) began two dedicated pharma express routes from India to Doha under its QR Pharma service - offering services for pharma and healthcare products.

At the time, Qatar Airways Cargo chief officer for cargo, Ulrich Ogiermann said: “The Pharma Express flights will cater to the growing industry in the region. Air cargo standards for handling time and temperature-sensitive commodities such as pharma-ceuticals are becoming more stringent with stricter guidelines on temperature control.”

Envirotainer is another company cashing in on pharma growth and it opened a new service station in Delhi in May and says rising demand for its secure pharma products services came from a growing desire for “high quality cold chain management compliance” from Indian drug manufacturers.

As a result of the station, it says partners and customers will have greater access to its RAP t2 and RKN t2 containers in and out of the region, seen as vital for Indian pharma export-ers. Exports amounted to $15.2 billion in 2014-15 with the US, European Union and Africa leading the way.

Envirotainer head of global key accounts, Stephen Maietta (pictured) says: “The development of biologics manufacturing in India has been driven by higher purchasing power of the middle class, more regulations around the distribution of products, good availability of a skilled talent base, more FDA approved facilities, lower manufacturing costs, growing populations and the growth in the number of lifestyle diseases.

“The Indian Government’s Pharma Vision 2020 to make the country a major hub for end-to-end drug discovery has also helped. That means there is a lot of need for technologies to enable the transportation of airfreight. We are still scratching the surface in India.”

He cautions there is a “level of comfort and trust” in which the pharma market has to achieve to take full advantage. He cites meeting challenges around customs procedures and protocols and the culture of “containers not normally being moved off of airports” before “regular and repeatable business takes place”.

Discussing the industry’s needs with Indian airports and for-warders is therefore vital with an acceptance that investment in infrastructure is needed, he notes: “It is about investment and encouraging collaboration with service providers such as local truckers developing temperature-controlled trailers.”

Celebi Delhi Cargo chief executive offi-cer, Ramesh Mamidala feels investment is paying off by having Envirotainer as its partner to establish a service sta-tion at New Delhi and it is focused on creating “state-of-the-art cold chain infrastructure”.

Pharma a key sector in India for air cargo operators

Quikjet posting solid growth

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