In our third edition of Cargo Live, various speakers from the world of air cargo offered insight and analysis to market trends, cargo flows and industry awards. This episode featured IAG Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer John Cheetham, Commercial Director at WorldACD Market Data Ken de Witt Hamer, Head Exim Operations at FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd Pranav Malik and Media, Training and Events Coordinator at the British International Freight Association Sharon Hammond
Watch Cargo Live: Episode 3 below
And here are some snippets of what was said:
John Cheetham, Chief Commercial Officer IAG Cargo
“Working hard in the fight against Covid-19, we’ve recently celebrated flying over 10 million “Working hard in the fight against Covid-19, we’ve recently celebrated flying over 10 million vaccine doses, including four million doses to Abuja in Nigeria in collaboration with UNICEF and the Covax initiative. Our network continues to expand – we’re operating new routes to Madrid and Male, we have restarted operations in Nairobi, and we’re also expanding in the North Atlantic with much needed capacity during the upcoming peak periods. We’ve also launched new routes to Phoenix and Denver, showing our ambitions to improve and expand the business – if you are interested in joining the team, do get in touch with us on Linkedin.”
Ken de Witt Hamer, Director Commercial at WorldACD Market Data
“Cargo is more important to the aviation industry than ever before and it’s crucial for parties to understand true market dynamics and their detailed position in the market. High level trends and averages do no tell the whole story, and can mean different things for different parties, depending on the markets served and the profile of the business. Therefore, it is important to get into the details to understand what is happening, for example by looking at individual city pairs, product categories and forwarders. In 2021, we have seen a relatively stable weekly pattern of chargeable weight, especially in the last 15 weeks leading up to September 5. Looking underneath this high-level trend, we see a very different impact on different players in the industry. Compared with 2019, the year 2021 shows volume growth in Asia and North and South America, but a drop in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and South Asia. As far as development per product category, yield/rates have increased by 87 per cent for general cargo, 76 per cent for pharmaceuticals, 81 per cent for hi-tech and vulnerables, and 53 per cent for express shipments.”
Pranav Malik, Head Exim Operations – FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd
“India’s top fruit and vegetable exports consist of onions, fresh vegetables, walnuts, mangoes and grapes. Despite the pandemic, our cargo volumes grew by almost 4.6 per cent. Looking at the fresh vegetable category, the total exports from India amounted to US$300 million, with US$32 million of the sum coming from the UK. The top five destinations receiving fresh vegetable exports from India are the UAE with a 21 per cent share, followed by Nepal with 19 per cent share, then Bangladesh, the UK and Qatar. This growth speaks to India’s potential as a fresh produce exporter but sustainability needs to be a more concerted focus for forwarders.”
Sharon Hammond, Media, Training and Events Coordinator, British International Freight Association
“Now in its 33rd year, the BIFA Freight Service Awards recognises the best UK-based freight forwarders and logistics providers across 11 categories. Entry is open to BIFA member companies, who must identify their entry subject/case study/service, alongside their category and a submission of 1,000 words. In addition to the business categories other awards that are up for grabs this year include the Young Freight Forwarder of the Year available to professionals under 32 who have two years’ of industry experience and the Apprentice of the Year, open to all ages. Entries must be submitted by October 7th 2021, and finalists will be announced in late October. The awards luncheon ceremony will take place January 20th 2022. You can enter at bifa.org/awards.”
Discover innovation, market and trends talk from earlier instalments of Cargo Live here