THE GROWTH OF CARGOFLEX IN DUBAI
Cargoflex is a bonded delivery service provided by dnata’s cargo arm that operates between Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai Cargo Village and Dubai World Central Cargo terminals and
forwarders’ premises. This product started as a simple idea to reduce truck movements at its docks by consolidating loads while offering freight forwarders a one-stop-shop for the
transportation of shipments from the terminals to their doorstep.
A HANDLING
PERSPECTIVE
Dnata, the Dubai-headquartered
ground handler, was well placed
to observe the freight situation in
the Middle East. “In 2019 dnata’s
cargo handling in the UAE declined
by 4% to 700,000 tonnes, which
was impacted by a lower demand
in the overall air cargo market.
In 2019 we served some 10,000
freighter flights, 7% less than in the
previous year,” notes Kevin Ennis,
Vice President, Commercial and
Business Development Cargo, UAE
Airport Operations.
compared to last year. This figure stands as testament to the growth
of e-commerce in the region. Meanwhile, our bonded vehicle
delivery service, Cargoflex, has also seen significant growth, with
average monthly figures of nearly 2,000 tonnes per month.”
Calogi has several objectives: it seeks to encourage electronic
communication between trading partners and render more efficient
the whole transaction process. Flexibility of forms of payment is
another feature and a simplified air cargo supply chain process is the
end goal. The system has been operating for over a decade.
Etihad enhances its cargo handling
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Cargo has bolstered its global handling
partnership agreements with dnata, the airport services provider
owned by the Emirates Group. The new agreements align the two
UAE-based companies until 2023, with dnata providing warehouse
and cargo handling services to manage the 180,000 tonnes of air
cargo carried annually across 15 gateways in Etihad Cargo’s global
network.
For the first time, the Etihad Cargo-dnata alliance will now
extend to North America as well as South Asia Pacific, with dnata
having commenced warehouse operations at Canada’s Toronto
Pearson airport on February 5; this was due to be followed later in
the year by Singapore’s Changi airport, on May 1.
The new North America and South Asia Pacific agreements add
to existing Etihad Cargo-dnata warehouse and cargo handling
operations at Dubai International and Dubai World Central airports,
as well as Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia, together
with Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan and Zurich, Geneva,
Manchester, Milan and Amsterdam within Europe. Stewart Angus,
Divisional Senior Vice President, International Airport Operations,
dnata, commented:
“We are delighted to expand our long-standing, successful
partnership with Etihad Cargo. We continue to invest in our
facilities, equipment and team to deliver best-in-class services for
this important customer airline.”
However, overall, 2019 was less than rosy for Etihad: in terms of
passengers, numbers were down
by 1.7%. Cargo volumes dipped
to 635,000 tonnes, reflecting a
7.4% drop compared to 2018.
Emirates bucking the trend?
“Last year was undoubtedly a
challenging year for the global
air cargo industry. There were a
number of factors that impacted
global trade, and therefore also
air cargo. Global GDP and trade
grew at a very slow pace.
“Economic uncertainty,
trade tensions and local unrest,
combined with a slowdown
in manufacturing in certain
sectors such as automotive, had
a negative impact on exports
and trade flow globally,” reflects
Henrik Ambak, Senior VP,
Cargo Operations Worldwide at
Emirates.
“At Emirates SkyCargo,
we intensified our focus on
specialised product offerings
over 2019. The tough market
conditions were actually an
opportunity for us to review our
core offering and ensure that we
continued developing our core
infrastructure and capabilities.”
Examples of its work in pharma
were Emirates opening new
facilities in both Chicago and
Copenhagen.
Performance within the
group was healthy: over 400,000
tonnes of perishable cargo was
freighted in 2019, which was in
line with what was transported
the previous year. Year-on-year
increases of 6% were recorded in
the volume of high value goods
that were flown under Emirates
Safe VAL, Emirates SkyCargo’s
product for the transportation
of precious goods. Furthermore,
a 12% increase in demand for
Emirates Pets was also logged,
while close to 11,000 high
priority shipments were moved
across six continents under the
Emirates AOG product during
2019.
Needless to say, Ambak’s
operation felt the impact from
the restraint of goods travelling
between the US and China but
he noted that there was a quick
adjustment in the market, with
Emirates seeing the emergence
of other centres of activity
in Asia. “As and when there
are shifts in production, we
are well positioned to serve
our customers through our
network,” he remarks.
Facing the spread of
COVID-19, Emirates has been
adapting on a daily basis to
restrictions placed by various
governments, yet keeping
up and expanding its ad hoc
cargo flights to serve a market
increasingly impacted by
reductions in global passenger
operations.
“We continue to offer cargo
capacity to and from China
through our freighter services
to Shanghai and Guangzhou as
well as on our daily passenger
flight to Beijing,” he ends.
As ALI went to press,
business was picking up again
in China; but with passenger
flights being cut globally,
requests for cargo capacity were
at unprecedented levels – with
rates reflecting the pent-up
demand.
www.airlogisticsinternational.com April 2020 29
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