News Content

Falling oil prices said to hasten air freight growth, Hactl up 9pc

HONG KONG Air Cargo Terminal Ltd (Hactl) has become the latest air cargo service provider to report surging demand with year-on-year growth at nine per cent for November to reach a new peak volume of 176,103 tonnes, in line with trends seen earlier in the year.

The third quarter registered growth of 10.1 per cent year on year.

Cathay Pacific, and its subsidiary Dragon Air, also saw its November cargo tonnage rise 12 per cent compared to the same month last year while revenue for Cathay Pacific was up by 14 per cent for the year-to-date. Load factors tightened by 4.7 per cent over the past month.

Both Hactl and Cathay gave the same reasons for the growth explaining that the most dynamic route was transpacific, helped by the problems at US container ports.

Said Cathay cargo chief Mark Sutch: "The demand for air cargo shipments remained very robust throughout November.

"Intra-Asian traffic remained robust in November, and it was a better month for our cargo business in Europe, helped by big shipments of the new-release Beaujolais out of France. We carried close to 2,000 tonnes of the wine in total, most of it bound for Japan."

Similarly Hactl saw growing US west coast port congestion as a driver of demand as well as the usual seasonal factors and the launch of new mobile products, the UK's Transport Intelligence reported.

Outside Asia Pacific, Etihad also experienced increasing demand for cargo, with a seven per cent year-on-year increase in tonnage in November, although in part this reflects the Abu Dhabi, UAE-based carrier's expansion in capacity.

Looking at the underlying trend, it appears that the biggest driver of growth is consumer demand in the US. However specific issues, such as the continuing problems at American ports, are also leading to spikes in demand.

All of these effects were being felt before oil experienced its steepest decline in price, so it is possible that the lower fuel surcharges may amplify demand for air freight further both over December and into 2015, the report said.