While overall air cargo volumes carried last month fell significantly, year on year, demand for freighter capacity remains strong as the market has turned to freighter charters to compensate for the loss of bellyhold space due to the mass cancellation of scheduled passenger services in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, air freight sources confirm.  

That increasing reliance on freighter aircraft has also translated into strong demand for road feeder services (RFS) in Europe, according to Wallenborn Transports, which recorded solid growth in volumes on its pan-European network.

“Our year-on-year volumes were up by approximately 9% in March due mainly to extra flights from the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and extra RFS from and to freighter hubs due to the drop in pax flights,” the Luxembourg-based company’s commercial director, Jason Breakwell, told Lloyd's Loading List. “Demand for the transportation of fresh food, pharmaceuticals and other medical equipment from and to airports is rising.”

He highlighted continued strong demand for freighter charters on all major routes.

“In Europe, that means more freighters from and to APAC and on transatlantic corridors,” Breakwell observed. “In the past ten days, Amsterdam Schiphol became busier as they lifted freighter slot restrictions and as some of the larger hubs were very busy, we’ve serviced more charters at Basel, Frankfurt Hahn, Maastricht and Ostend.”

Breakwell also noted the “growing trend” of pax aircraft being used in cargo-only mode, “mainly for mail, medical goods and military shipments”.

Asked to comment on the impact of land border closures in Europe on truck movements, he said: “Apart from some delays at Hungary and Switzerland borders, we are not experiencing anything that is seriously disruptive.”

In its latest air freight update on the impact of COVID-19 published today,  Agility continues to highlight “significant capacity constraints and surge in rates” on Europe-China routes while on the Europe- US trade lane, the main features of the current market are capacity shortages and “considerable” increases to spot price rates. Space is nonetheless available but “with constraints.” 

Forwarder charter programmes  

Meanwhile, Bolloré Logistics has extended its programme of freighter charter flights  between Europe and China into April and May as a part of its ‘coronavirus impact’ contingency plans. 

The first of five round trips linking Luxembourg and Shanghai Pudong Airport is planned for early next week. The freighter charter programme also includes three westbound flights between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg and four westbound flights between Zhengzhou and Frankfurt Hahn.

In its latest  operational update on the impact of the pandemic published yesterday, the French company said the flights were part of  a “robust alternative transport plan, to ensure continuity of service” and to adapt needs to capacities, maximizing operations through our air cargo hubs”.

In a separate development, Geodis has been commissioned by the French government to organise the emergency supply of millions of masks from China to France.

In order to respond to requests from the national authorities, it is planning 16 flights over the coming weeks, representing in volume terms approximately 2,400 cubic metres of capacity weekly. If necessary, this schedule could be extended into May.

For this operation, the French forwarding and logistics group has chartered two Antonov 124 aircraft from Russian carrier Volga Dnepr Airlines which will operate in rotation between France and China.

The first flight from Shenzhen Airport in China containing 8.5 million masks arrived in France earlier this week via Paris-Vatry airport. A second flight was scheduled for this week carrying 13 million more masks.

France’s health minister said that the airbridge was part of the expected delivery to France of one billion masks over the next 14 weeks. Geodis told Lloyd's Loading List that it was only transporting part of the order of one billion masks but declined to comment on what its share was.

Source:lloydsloadinglist

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