newstodate.aero
May 29, 2009 (newstodate): Not all parties in Sweden's airfreight community share the widespread and prevailing pessimism for 2009.
-January and February were definitely disastrous in volumes and traffic, March proved little better, but April marked a turning point, says Lee Pohl, Airline Services GSA, in Stockholm.
-Even if total volumes in April 2009 were still 20-30 percent below April 2008-levels, we still saw tonnages twice the volumes of January, and there is every sign that this is continuing. Rates are, however, only half those of last year so we have, literally speaking, to sell twice the volume to generate approximately the same revenues.
-The number of AWBs is also rising, but volume per AWB is decreasing. This indicates that exporters deal with customers that request more frequent, but smaller quantities, making up for emptying stores. In the end we must soon reach the point where stores are fully gone, necessitating a fresh build-up that will lead to a renewed demand for airfreight.
-Until the end of the first half of 2008 we still saw a trend in freight from air to sea. This trend is now reversed, and we are seeing again freight turning from sea to air. Also because utilization of sea transportation requires logistics that are hard to sustain under the current unstable economic situation in the world's markets. Sea transportation requires long-term commitments while air transportation works from day to day, says Ms Pohl.
A subsidiary in the Swedish market of the Finnish OY Airline Services GSA, Airline Services GSA's single airline customer is Singapore Airlines Cargo.
-January and February were definitely disastrous in volumes and traffic, March proved little better, but April marked a turning point, says Lee Pohl, Airline Services GSA, in Stockholm.
-Even if total volumes in April 2009 were still 20-30 percent below April 2008-levels, we still saw tonnages twice the volumes of January, and there is every sign that this is continuing. Rates are, however, only half those of last year so we have, literally speaking, to sell twice the volume to generate approximately the same revenues.
-The number of AWBs is also rising, but volume per AWB is decreasing. This indicates that exporters deal with customers that request more frequent, but smaller quantities, making up for emptying stores. In the end we must soon reach the point where stores are fully gone, necessitating a fresh build-up that will lead to a renewed demand for airfreight.
-Until the end of the first half of 2008 we still saw a trend in freight from air to sea. This trend is now reversed, and we are seeing again freight turning from sea to air. Also because utilization of sea transportation requires logistics that are hard to sustain under the current unstable economic situation in the world's markets. Sea transportation requires long-term commitments while air transportation works from day to day, says Ms Pohl.
A subsidiary in the Swedish market of the Finnish OY Airline Services GSA, Airline Services GSA's single airline customer is Singapore Airlines Cargo.