newstodate.aero
Sep 16, 2014 (newstodate): Twice a year, prior to the shifts in six-months schedules, airlines and airfreight forwarders consume hectoliters of coffee during airfreight rates negotiations. Is it worth the efforts?
-Decades ago, IATA carriers published their rates schemes, and that was it. These times are long gone, says a Danish airfreight forwarder in a phone talk with newstodate.
-Negotiations are still conducted and probably of some use for major forwarders with high volumes. For forwarders with smaller volumes they are probably of less use, reflecting the basic truth that volumes weigh in talks.
-Airlines may announce their intentions of raising rates on specific lanes by a certain percentage but in the end it is more a declaration of intentions than a solid fact.
-In the end, the big players among the forwarders will land longer-term rates on bilaterally agreed terms, while forwarders with smaller volumes will eventually shop around for ad-hoc rates that reflect short-term, even day-to-day balances between demand and supply. And in today's situation few lanes can boast of demands exceeding supply..
-As we are among airfreight forwarders in Denmark with more modest annual volumes, we do drink the coffee and meet with airlines over coming rates. But we are not much affected by the over-all rate trends that are also in most cases set by airline headquarters at quite at distance from the Nordic region.
-The general impression shared in the Danish airfreight forwarding market seems to be that rates in the coming schedule will be more or less the same as of today - maybe with a certain rise on North Atlantic segments and a certain and sustained decline in the Asian traffics, he concludes.
(The identity of the source is of course known and verified by newstodate)
-Decades ago, IATA carriers published their rates schemes, and that was it. These times are long gone, says a Danish airfreight forwarder in a phone talk with newstodate.
-Negotiations are still conducted and probably of some use for major forwarders with high volumes. For forwarders with smaller volumes they are probably of less use, reflecting the basic truth that volumes weigh in talks.
-Airlines may announce their intentions of raising rates on specific lanes by a certain percentage but in the end it is more a declaration of intentions than a solid fact.
-In the end, the big players among the forwarders will land longer-term rates on bilaterally agreed terms, while forwarders with smaller volumes will eventually shop around for ad-hoc rates that reflect short-term, even day-to-day balances between demand and supply. And in today's situation few lanes can boast of demands exceeding supply..
-As we are among airfreight forwarders in Denmark with more modest annual volumes, we do drink the coffee and meet with airlines over coming rates. But we are not much affected by the over-all rate trends that are also in most cases set by airline headquarters at quite at distance from the Nordic region.
-The general impression shared in the Danish airfreight forwarding market seems to be that rates in the coming schedule will be more or less the same as of today - maybe with a certain rise on North Atlantic segments and a certain and sustained decline in the Asian traffics, he concludes.
(The identity of the source is of course known and verified by newstodate)