Expedited : Spotlight on Air Cargo

Special Report

Robust e-commerce demand a gift for air cargo carriers : execs

By Greg Knowler

Liege , Belgium — Soaring demand for e-commerce out of Asia this year was a gift to an airline industry under severe financial pressure as it recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic , air cargo executives said at an industry forum in mid-September .

Executives from Cathay Pacific , Qatar Cargo , Emirates SkyCargo and freighter operator Silk Way West attending the EU Cross-Border E-Commerce Forum at Liege Airport described the e-commerce demand as welcome as it was “ unstoppable .”

“ E-commerce for us has been a very pleasant surprise after what has been a difficult three or four years for both Hong Kong and the Cathay Pacific group when COVID hit us hard ,” Tom Owen , head of cargo at Cathay Pacific , told the forum .

“ It ’ s all e-commerce , and if it wasn ’ t there , we would all be in trouble ,” Veltman said , adding that Qatar Airways has had to adapt its network to cover the market ’ s growing needs that are impossible to ignore .

Wolfgang Meier , CEO of Baku-based freighter operator Silk Way West , said e-commerce has added a fourth dimension to the air freight industry .

“ E-commerce is good because we have had the forwarders , the airlines , the integrators and now we have the e-commerce players ,” Meier said . “ It has changed the way business is conducted .”

Low levels of exposure

The buoyant mood of airlines contrasted with that of global forwarders that have low levels of exposure to e-commerce shipments and are under pressure to find space for traditional customers competing for capacity with online orders from China on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe routes .

“ There ’ s an awful lot of capacity that ’ s still in the market that would have left .”

“ The dominance and the strength of the e-commerce market going forward is something that we ’ re very excited about ,” he added . “ We are now carrying anywhere between 50 % to 60 % of e-commerce , whereas before COVID it was around 20 % to 30 %.”

Owen said that without the volumes generated by e-commerce over the last two years , there would be fewer aircraft available as planes were parked or retired .

“ There ’ s an awful lot of capacity that ’ s still in the market that would have left ,” he noted .

Jeffrey Van Haeften , senior vice president at Emirates SkyCargo , said e-commerce was “ extremely important ,” with most of the cargo coming from southern China composed of online packages . He estimated that 20 % of the carrier ’ s global volume is currently made up of e-commerce shipments .

“ E-commerce is helping so much that if it did not exist , the whole industry would have an issue ,” he told the forum .

Rob Veltman , vice president of cargo at Qatar Airways , said there was no real growth in exports of traditional air cargo from China .

14 Journal of Commerce | October 7 , 2024 www . joc . com