AFM72_Asia Pac_AFM71 04/03/2011 11:24 Page 34
34 | AFM • ISSUE 72 March-April 2011
FLEET OPERATIONS: Asia Pacific neighbouring airports. Shanghai Pudong will open runways four and five in 2015, the firm’s report states. By 2020, Incheon in South Korea will have four runways, and Kuala Lumpur five. Bangkok, Singapore and Taipei airports are also scheduled to expand. Singapore Airlines (SIA) saw cargo volumes improve by 10.4 per cent and yields by 33.2 per cent in the 1H of its 2010-11 financial year. Now, in line with its competitors, SIA observes “marked regional differences”, with weak European demand undermining a strong Asia-Pacific market. Analyst Standard & Poor says it has been difficult to build a global-scale air cargo operation from a base in south-east Asia because of the limited manufacturing in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, relative to China. This prompted SIA Cargo’s decision to take a 16 per cent stake in China Cargo Airlines (CKK). Taiwan’s EVA Airways has done likewise, while a shipping line holds 17 per cent. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines retains a majority 51 per cent share and will continue to manage CKK’s operations. The JV covers freighters only, unlike the Cathay Pacific-Air China agreement, but again develops an existing relationship. CKK will acquire core air cargo transport businesses and related assets from Shanghai Cargo Airlines International, formed as a venture between Shanghai Air and EVA, and from Great Wall Airlines, which was owned by China Eastern, SIA and Singapore government investment company Temasek.
Airport activity: on the up EVA and rival Taiwanese carrier China Airlines both profited from GDP growth of more than eight per cent in Taiwan last year, with sales of notebook computers and mobile phones buoyant. For many years, the airlines were unable to operate to mainland China, but now fly freighters to destinations including Shanghai, Guangzhou Nanjing, Xiamen and Fuzhou. Singapore’s Changi Airport is developing an Air Cargo Express hub (ACE), supported by new airside infrastructure including two new aircraft parking bays. The first facility of its kind in the region, ACE is expected to be operational in the 1H of 2012. The airport has not revealed the name of the hub’s main tenant, but FedEx is considered a likely candidate. Singapore Airport Terminal Services has meanwhile opened Coolport at Changi, hailed as the first dedicated on-airport perishables facility in Asia. Coolport is already claimed to be 60 per cent full and is expected to reach its 250,000 tonne capacity in two years. The unit is designed to handle meat, live seafood and fresh flowers, but its secure cool chain logistics process will enable it to handle more stringently controlled pharmaceutical and biomedical products. Changi recorded an 11 per cent increase to 1.81 million tonnes of cargo last year, boosted by three new all-cargo carriers, Transmile, Tri-MG Airlines and CKK. Hong Kong Airlines followed in January, introducing four freighters a week. In Japan, meanwhile, All Nippon Airways (ANA) has benefited from the restructuring at debt-ridden Japan Airlines (JAL), resulting in the sale of all its freighters. This has coincided with a sharp recovery in cargo demand, and the return of international traffic to Tokyo’s Haneda airport, which can offer more slots after opening a fourth runway. ANA has added freighter services to Singapore and Vietnam from its cargo hub in Okinawa, and has responded to a liberalised aviation agreement with China by promising new passenger services there. Okinawa, 1,500km southwest of Tokyo, opened in October 2009 and initially served Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei, Seoul and Shanghai, all within four hours’ flying range. The hub is free from the night restrictions that hamper operations in Tokyo.
Singapore’s Changi Airport is building an Air Cargo Express hub
“China is an important and strategic market. We believe that through this acquisition, we will gain a stronger foothold in the China market,” says an SIA Cargo spokeswoman. CKK is based at Shanghai Hongqiao with a hub at Shanghai Pudong. It operates a mixed fleet of 13 freighters, comprising MD-11s, 747-400s, 777s and A300s and serves 26 destinations in China, Asia, Europe and the US, recently adding a scheduled Milan service. China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, has the largest fleet of China’s “big three”, China Southern, China Eastern and Air China, but unlike its rivals, has established no cargo JV with a foreign partner. The financial crisis put an end to a proposed deal with Air France-KLM in 2009, though the carrier joined the SkyTeam Cargo alliance. China Southern Cargo operates freighters from Guangzhou and Shanghai to destinations including Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna, Chicago and Los Angeles, and will receive a sixth 777-200F this year to take its fleet to nine.
ANA plans to integrate its network with the merged United Airlines/Continental entity in a JV launching on April 1. The only downside for the carrier, the launch customer for the 787, is that it has been forced to retain older aircraft and bring in short-term cover while it awaits its first Dreamliner deliveries. Haneda has seen a five-fold increase in cargo traffic since it opened a new international terminal towards the end of 2010 and restarted scheduled overseas flights for the first time in more than 30 years. Users of Haneda’s Tokyo International Air Cargo Terminal (TIACT) are exporting fish, fruit and other fresh produce following the opening of a temperature-controlled holding facility. A new US-Japan aviation bilateral agreement, signed in October, may encourage new carriers to consider Haneda. No freighter operators to and from the US have yet taken up the Haneda opportunity, however, because the annual number of cargo services is still tightly controlled and freighter flights are forced to land between 11pm and 6am. The first of four A330-200 freighters is due to enter service with MASkargo in September. “We are confident the aircraft is set to become a game-changer in the mid-size freighter market, enabling us to efficiently match capacity closely to demand, especially on intra-Asia sectors,” says MASkargo MD, Shahari Sulaiman.