General airfreight in the doldrums – but charters are soaring
While scheduled airfreight operations continue to be buffeted by economic headwinds, the going has been ...
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The fast-growing Middle Eastern air cargo market is benefiting specialist start-up businesses, as well as established scheduled carriers and charter operators.
Dubai-based broker Delta World Charter (DWC), launched in 2014, arranged 180 charters within and beyond the region in the first six months of this year, generating revenue of more than $8m via managed fleet, third-party cargo and commercial aircraft charters, private jet charters, aircraft leasing and trading.
Chief executive Dmitriy Korshunov said: “This has been an exciting year for us. Though the global trend has not been encouraging, DWC has leveraged the strong growth in air freight demand in the Middle East.”
Mr Korshunov said a GSA agreement for the sales and marketing of two nose-loading B747-200F freighters, signed in January, was key to DWC’s success. In the first eight months of the contract, DWC generated 75% of business for the aircraft, equating to more than 1,000 hours of flying time and earning $4m for the owner and operator, which he was unwilling to identify.
However, a typical charter involved a delivery of general cargo to Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in April. The company secured a last minute co-loaded dangerous goods shipment to help fill the return leg to Sharjah. Roman Gilmanov, cargo chief commercial officer of DWC and an IATA-accredited DGR agent, said: “We knew it was going to be a challenging task because of local regulations and the unstable situation in Iraq.”
Humanitarian missions have provided regular work for DWC. The company managed the transport of essential supplies to Conakry, Guinea, to support the ebola relief effort in West Africa, and also organised two relief flights to move 120 tonnes of urgent freight from Dubai and New Delhi to Kathmandu on behalf of US-headquartered forwarder National Air Cargo following the Nepalese earthquake.
“We faced some challenges,” Mr Gilmanov said. “Just as the second flight was scheduled to take off from Delhi, a second earthquake shook Kathmandu and the plane had to be diverted back to the stand. But I’m glad to say everything worked out in the end.”
DWC remains upbeat, despite low commodity prices and declining demand from major charter users such as the oil & gas (O&G), mining and automotive industries, and it has relocated to the new Dubai South development at Al Maktoum International Airport, and is hiring additional staff.
“The UAE is among the best positioned of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries to withstand the lower oil price environment because of its diversified economy. Even if we are losing a client a month from O&G, we gain another client elsewhere and keep our business on track,” Mr Korshunov claims.
He argued there are gaps in the market that commercial cargo charter providers can exploit: “Companies that need to focus on their core business and are realising that their needs can be best served by an experienced broker with good contacts and a wide portfolio of aircraft who can take responsibility for delivering their freight cost-effectively and within the time-frame.
“The historic, ad-hoc approach to transporting commercial cargo is no longer appropriate.”
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