News / Ecommerce provides some cheer in a muted air cargo peak season

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Cross-border ecommerce continues to bring a little cheer to what is likely to be a muted peak season for air cargo this year.

UK cargo airline European Cargo has increased the number of its weekly A340 freighter flights from Chengdu (CTU) in China to Bournemouth (BOH), on the south coast of England, from six to nine.

It means capacity on the ‘ecommerce’ route has tripled in the six months since Shenzhen Sharing Express Logistic-Tech launched the first all-cargo service on the route, with almost 700 tonnes of weekly import capacity now offered.

“This continued growth is further evidence of Bournemouth’s increasing stature as an ecommerce gateway to the UK. It reflects the confidence Chinese e-tailers have in the UK e-commerce market, which remains the most mature in Europe, and growing recognition that Bournemouth is a cost-effective and uncongested alternative to the busy hub airports,” said Bournemouth Airport MD Steve Gill.

BOH’s freight division, Cargo First, told The Loadstar roughly half the import traffic on the service was clearing Customs at Bournemouth and then released to the relevant final-mile operator’s distribution centre – which could be anywhere in the UK.

“The balance of goods typically transits Bournemouth and goes directly on to Heathrow, (where it clears Customs) before being released into circulation via the receiving agents’ distribution centres in the area. Imports on the Chengdu flights are already going to a range of receiving agents both across the UK and in the London area and this list is growing.”

Cargo First added that the increased [flight] frequency not only offered more capacity for import agents, “but also a much more robust circa-daily schedule outbound offers a much more attractive proposition for exporters too”.

At the end of last month, air cargo services specialist Challenge Group, which has its main hub at Liège Airport (LGG), announced it was scaling up ‘ecommerce’ flights into the Belgian gateway from Hong Kong.

“With the injection of the 767 freighter into our fleet, we have greater capacity and flexibility to meet the growing ecommerce demand out of Hong Kong,” explained chief commercial officer Or Zak.

“We recently increased our frequencies and will soon offer a daily service, deploying a combined 747 and 767 capacity, to best support our regular customers in meeting their new delivery commitments. This means items can be shipped on their day of purchase or, at the latest, the following day.”

It is difficult to gauge how prominent a place ecommerce now holds in the air cargo segment. Last month, Eric Martin dit Neuville, EVP freight forwarding at Geodis, told The Loadstar that, along with consumer electronics, ecommerce was mainly responsible for a slight upturn in demand.

A recent report by the Trade Data Service noted anecdotal evidence that ecommerce was driving increased air cargo volumes in the second half of the year. However, “due to value reporting thresholds, trade statistics generally do a poor job at capturing cross-border ecommerce traffic, which may account for up to a fifth of global air cargo volumes,” it said.

“Value reporting thresholds imply that any increase in ecommerce traffic is unlikely to be captured in the data. Reporting threshold for the EU is €1,000, or 1,000 kg; for the US, it is $2,500 for exports and $2,000 for imports.”

Lufthansa Cargo is one major carrier convinced that ecommerce has a bright and lasting future as an air cargo vertical.

CEO Ashwin Bhat has repeatedly underlined that the company was steadily building a European same-day and ecommerce network, backed by a growing A321F fleet.

Lufthansa Cargo plans to establish Frankfurt Airport (FRA) as a major ecommerce hub, via two of its subsidiaries – ecommerce logistics service provider heyworld and customs clearance agency CB Customs Broker.

“We want to make Frankfurt a leading location in this segment by offering holistic solutions for shipping, customs clearance and onward transport of ecommerce shipments,” said Mr Bhat.

CB Customs Broker has announced a partnership with Georgi Handling to create a new ecommerce terminal at FRA’s Cargo City South.

Lufthansa Cargo is not alone in spotting ecommerce opportunity. Today Saudia Cargo, Cainiao, and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) announced they are collaborating on ecommerce. The trio will be establishing a dedicated area at Cainaio’s Liege e-hub.