newstodate.aero
May 06, 2010 (newstodate): While several projects are on the drawing board, and several earlier projects have failed, an industry observer sees little prospects for pure freighters to serve Norway's huge salmon exports by air.
-We have seen many attempts to launch all-freighter services to lift Norwegian fresh salmon to markets in the Far East and in the USA. But so far few have survived in even the middle term, says a Scandinavian industry observer.
-The rock that eventually capsizes the projects remains the issue of rates: no carrier can sustain an imbalanced operation, and the low rates for shipments of salmon require high-value loads on the return leg, which is seldom found in sufficiently steady flows.
-There is only one way forward if Norwegian exporters of fresh salmon by air are really keen to see a stable solution to their need for stable all-freighter services: they must accept a rates level sufficient to sustain the operation!
-After all, the world market price for fresh Norwegian salmon has reached levels that would easily sustain a higher cost of transportation. But this would require a thorough re-thinking of the entire logistics, and so far we have not seen any signs that this is on the agenda, he says.
Lurking in the horizon now are several freighter projects initiated by both Norwegian and Swedish groups, targeting launch of operations from both Swedish Luleaa Kallax Airport and airports in Northern Norway.
In the meantime the outlook for a resurrection of the latest attempt at a US-bound all-freighter service from Oslo Gardermoen, Sundt Atlanta Skybridge, seems uncertain, as do also efforts to revive the freighter service from Luleaa Kallax Airport earlier operated with Korean Air Cargo.
In 2010 the total volume of Norways salmon export by air may reach some 70-75,000 tonnes, making it one of Europes largest airfreight commodities
-We have seen many attempts to launch all-freighter services to lift Norwegian fresh salmon to markets in the Far East and in the USA. But so far few have survived in even the middle term, says a Scandinavian industry observer.
-The rock that eventually capsizes the projects remains the issue of rates: no carrier can sustain an imbalanced operation, and the low rates for shipments of salmon require high-value loads on the return leg, which is seldom found in sufficiently steady flows.
-There is only one way forward if Norwegian exporters of fresh salmon by air are really keen to see a stable solution to their need for stable all-freighter services: they must accept a rates level sufficient to sustain the operation!
-After all, the world market price for fresh Norwegian salmon has reached levels that would easily sustain a higher cost of transportation. But this would require a thorough re-thinking of the entire logistics, and so far we have not seen any signs that this is on the agenda, he says.
Lurking in the horizon now are several freighter projects initiated by both Norwegian and Swedish groups, targeting launch of operations from both Swedish Luleaa Kallax Airport and airports in Northern Norway.
In the meantime the outlook for a resurrection of the latest attempt at a US-bound all-freighter service from Oslo Gardermoen, Sundt Atlanta Skybridge, seems uncertain, as do also efforts to revive the freighter service from Luleaa Kallax Airport earlier operated with Korean Air Cargo.
In 2010 the total volume of Norways salmon export by air may reach some 70-75,000 tonnes, making it one of Europes largest airfreight commodities