newstodate.aero
Jun 07, 2012 (newstodate): Latvia's airBaltic is seeing its cargo performance being overshadowed at Riga Airport by the transfer of huge volumes of cargo by US carriers serving the ISAF forces from Riga to Afghanistan since April 2012.
-Our cargo business is, however, in good shape, and as shown by Riga Airport's statistics we have so far has exceeded last year's volumes every month in 2012, says Toms Andersons, airBaltic head of cargo.
-The statistics also show an especially strong increase in our mail volumes. We have been successful in our cooperation with existing mail clients as well as adding a couple of new mail clients delivering a 40 percent increase in volumes.
-Air cargo is, however, down around 20 percent as our capacity is reduced compared to last year. We have seen a decrease in cargo volumes to and from destinations in Central Asia and the Middle East as flights have been suspended or frequencies reduced from this year's schedule.
-This is due to the carrier's plans for aircraft fleet reduction and consolidation aiming at having only two types of aircraft - Airbus A319 or Boeing 737, and Bombardier Q400. The Q400 has now replaced the Fokker 50 on many routes, and this is helping us a lot.
-What also helps is that we can see a healthy growth in exports from Latvia, and the import/export ration is now 50/50, with transit cargo now accounting for less than 50 percent of our total cargo volume. Only a few years back, the ratio between export and import cargo was 1/3.
-As for the future, we shall have slightly less volumes in the summer months when capacity, compared to 2011, is reduced the most, while expectations for the winter schedule are positive with capacity back to about the same levels as before, says Mr Andersons.
In 2011, a total of 8,610 tonnes of cargo was carried by the airline, split evenly between air cargo and mail.
-Our cargo business is, however, in good shape, and as shown by Riga Airport's statistics we have so far has exceeded last year's volumes every month in 2012, says Toms Andersons, airBaltic head of cargo.
-The statistics also show an especially strong increase in our mail volumes. We have been successful in our cooperation with existing mail clients as well as adding a couple of new mail clients delivering a 40 percent increase in volumes.
-Air cargo is, however, down around 20 percent as our capacity is reduced compared to last year. We have seen a decrease in cargo volumes to and from destinations in Central Asia and the Middle East as flights have been suspended or frequencies reduced from this year's schedule.
-This is due to the carrier's plans for aircraft fleet reduction and consolidation aiming at having only two types of aircraft - Airbus A319 or Boeing 737, and Bombardier Q400. The Q400 has now replaced the Fokker 50 on many routes, and this is helping us a lot.
-What also helps is that we can see a healthy growth in exports from Latvia, and the import/export ration is now 50/50, with transit cargo now accounting for less than 50 percent of our total cargo volume. Only a few years back, the ratio between export and import cargo was 1/3.
-As for the future, we shall have slightly less volumes in the summer months when capacity, compared to 2011, is reduced the most, while expectations for the winter schedule are positive with capacity back to about the same levels as before, says Mr Andersons.
In 2011, a total of 8,610 tonnes of cargo was carried by the airline, split evenly between air cargo and mail.