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K+N chief bullish about air freight, demands improvements

SWISS forwarding giant Kuehne + Nagel chief executive Detlef Trefzger suspects that recent increases in air freight demand is part of a modal shift.

Although the air freight market remained tense during the third quarter it did see a 3.8 per cent increase in tonnage, the company said.

September traffic figures reported by airlines show a continued improvement in demand during the month.

Dr Trefzger said that the company had also noticed an improvement in demand as the quarter progressed and this could be partially down to some companies moving back to air freight from sea.

'We saw [demand growth] accelerating throughout the quarter. Why is that so? Maybe new industries find a way into air freight again. Also, the overall rate level, reflecting the oil price situation and fuel surcharges and so on, maybe becomes attractive again for certain industries that have partly or fully moved away from air freight.

'One example may be the high tech industry, while after the so called [global financial] crisis, almost every single item has been shipped as seafreight, initial product launches and relaunches of products, those waves are coming back or have come back to air freight again.

Asked for his thoughts on the air freight peak season, Dr Trefzger said that all trade lanes - apart from Latin America - were developing 'very well" and added that it was confident of a normal peak season for air cargo.