newstodate.aero
Feb 19, 2015 (newstodate): How does one ACMI provider of cargo aircraft capacity see prospects for 2015?
-We are actually seeing two trends emerging in the cargo ACMI market, says Steinn Logi Bjornsson, Bluebird Cargo Chairman of the Board.
-One trend is that more and more commercial carriers are disposing of their cargo aircraft as they take in new passenger aircraft offering large volumes of cargo capacity replacing the need for freighters that are costly to operate.
-A second trend is that more and more freighters are instead being placed with the integrators that are thus increasing their share of the world's freighter fleet significantly.
-This leads to increased competition among ACMI providers of cargo aircraft as there are not that many integrator customers. This trend tends to bring down contract values for the ACMI providers.
-Looking ahead we still expect the market to remain pretty stable in 2015 but profit margins are thin, making this business rather risky while we still do not expect rates to dip much further from now as they have really come close to commodity prices.
-Even if the integrators may of course like to see the cost of their ACMI contract down, I do not think they will eventually go beneath certain levels. They rely on dependable longer-term relationships with their providers to secure their operations - and there are always certain laws of economics to be observed, says Mr Bjornsson.
The Icelandic cargo aircraft ACMI company is taking in its sixth Boeing 737 freighter by the end of this month.
-We are actually seeing two trends emerging in the cargo ACMI market, says Steinn Logi Bjornsson, Bluebird Cargo Chairman of the Board.
-One trend is that more and more commercial carriers are disposing of their cargo aircraft as they take in new passenger aircraft offering large volumes of cargo capacity replacing the need for freighters that are costly to operate.
-A second trend is that more and more freighters are instead being placed with the integrators that are thus increasing their share of the world's freighter fleet significantly.
-This leads to increased competition among ACMI providers of cargo aircraft as there are not that many integrator customers. This trend tends to bring down contract values for the ACMI providers.
-Looking ahead we still expect the market to remain pretty stable in 2015 but profit margins are thin, making this business rather risky while we still do not expect rates to dip much further from now as they have really come close to commodity prices.
-Even if the integrators may of course like to see the cost of their ACMI contract down, I do not think they will eventually go beneath certain levels. They rely on dependable longer-term relationships with their providers to secure their operations - and there are always certain laws of economics to be observed, says Mr Bjornsson.
The Icelandic cargo aircraft ACMI company is taking in its sixth Boeing 737 freighter by the end of this month.