Air cargo is in the spotlight nowadays like never before. The Covid-19 crisis has underlined the significance of air cargo therefore, I have tried to share my long-term experience and knowledge in this blog post series. In this third and last blog, I want to end this series by highlighting some areas for airlines who want to start from scratch or those that wish to boost their current operations. I am confident that the stakeholders from all segments of the air cargo supply chain will find many useful tips and forecasts about the industry.
Is the wide-body aircraft the new star of the fleet?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have observed a rising trend of cargo flights in passenger aircraft, passenger freighters, actually in both the belly capacity and main-deck capacity. In particular, starting from April 2020, the outbound belly capacity for the top 8 airports with the largest belly capacity recovery have been: Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tokyo, Hong-Kong, Seoul, Dubai, and Los Angeles. It has demonstrated that previously cargo capacity in the air cargo aircraft was inadequate, and the shortfall has been made up with the capacity in passenger aircraft. This is where the role of the wide-body aircraft has become important because airlines with only narrow-body aircraft are only able to carry limited cargo. Those airlines with narrow-body fleet do not want to focus on the air cargo business as this limited capacity is not valuable to them.
How to operate a wide-body passenger aircraft for cargo?
There were combi-aircraft in the 1990s for carrying cargo not only in the lower deck of the aircraft but also in the afterward section of the aircraft’s main deck. The front half was used for passengers and the remaining half was filled with cargo in the main deck. Additionally, in the combi aircraft, the lower deck of the plane was filled with cargo. To be compliant with this cargo loading style, the aircraft must be produced in line with these requirements. For the cargo operations, the main deck floor of the cargo aircraft or freighter must be strengthened. If the main deck floor is not strengthened, the weight of the cargo will not be proportional to the pulling force of the floor. The weight of the cargo should satisfy the limit of floor load and running load of the base of the aircraft's’ floor. When calculating the floor load in the passenger aircraft, the maximum passenger weight is normally taken into consideration. For this reason, the floor of the aircraft needs to be reinforced. While designing factory-built cargo aircraft and freighters, the main deck floor is strengthened according to these requirements. Without changing the main deck floor enforcement, boxes are placed on the seats in the passenger aircraft. To load the boxes, the handling staff carry the boxes one by one up the stairs into the aircraft and fix and attach them. Loading and unloading the boxes is a very labor-intensive process and takes additional time on both sides.
Why you should move immediately?
In order to start a cargo operation and create additional revenue for your company as a newcomer in air cargo, there are some rules and procedures to be followed in terms of certification and regulation. These are not complicated and what airlines need to follow is very simple. At the beginning, the airline can work with Cargo GSA or outsource the cargo capacity to the relevant companies involved in this business. Thus, it is possible for airlines to carry air cargo and gain additional income from it very fast.
According to the average numbers revealed by IATA, 9% of the airlines’ income comes from air cargo. In other words, 91 USD is earned from a passenger operation and 9 USD from the cargo operation of the aviation revenue generated. Airlines must acquire or increase their share of the air cargo cake, especially taking into consideration the increasing trend of e-commerce. There has been a 12% growth in the field of e-commerce trade all over the world in the last 10 years, and this percentage is even higher in some countries. Air cargo is the only form of transportation in e-commerce cross border sales. If you are shopping on digital channels, you expect that your products should be delivered to your address as quickly as possible. It is not possible for a product you purchased online, from the far corner of the world to be delivered to you by ocean, road, or rail transportation mode. Therefore, e-commerce constitutes a large part of the air cargo traffic. Additionally, pharmaceuticals, nowadays, have gained much importance and this will be even more important moving forward. Of course, for this to happen, the cold chain should not be disrupted in the supply chain. Airlines must have the relevant IT software to monitor every second of the transportation while they carry it. This is exactly where Hitit enters the game and can offer valuable solutions.
There is a long way to go for complete digitalization in air cargo. However, at Hitit we want to be a pioneer in this transformation and lead the way in the air cargo industry as we do in the PSS industry.