News / Finding nimble (and available) freighters is key to delivering time-sensitive cargo

© Kamil Petráň

Time-critical charters can be challenging: their extremely urgent nature – plus having the right type of available capacity – is crucial for service delivery. But in some sectors, such as automotive, demand is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

One sector with growth, sadly, has been humanitarian. Air Charter Service said 2023 was its busiest year, starting with the earthquake in Turkey, for which ACS arranged some 2,000 tonnes of relief cargo across seven aircraft types. That was followed by events in Sudan, Guam, Hawaii, Libya – and many more.

Other sectors, however, have seen less demand – although Frankfurt based trade-only charter specialist NEO recently completed 20 air cargo charters from Spain and Portugal to the UK, carrying urgent automotive components.

NEO used Metro, Saab 340, ATR42 and ATR72 freighters, with capacities ranging from 2.1 to 9.2 tonnes. The palletised loads were from just one to 25 packages per flight, each item measuring 120cm x 80cm x 120cm, and weighing 360 kg.

“The current market is somewhat difficult,” Ismail Duran, time-critical sales manager at NEO, told The Loadstar. “Demand for urgent automotive charters is still there, however in comparison to the past few years it is lower. The increasing switch to electric vehicles by car manufacturers is a factor,” he added.

Automotive parts charters can be extremely urgent and are often used to avoid production line shutdowns. Mr Duran said flights were typically booked at a few hours’ notice, with departures and arrivals always required on the same day. Temporary or sustained supply chain disruptions can also lead to sporadic and unpredictable component needs.

“Sourcing suitable, available, nearby aircraft and operating them at such short notice, while also minimising the costs to the client, created a few challenges – but nothing we couldn’t solve – smaller freighters provided the solution,” said Mr Duran.

There are several considerations when managing extremely urgent consignments, explained Mr Duran: “One major issue, which wasn’t the case pre-Covid, is the lack of staff at airports or at the cargo handling agents, leading quite a few airports to reduce their operational hours. During Covid, of course, many regional airports reduced staff numbers as a result of fewer passenger flights.”

Such issues have caused major difficulties in choosing at which airports to operate, especially if a regional airport is no longer accessible at the times required.

The current lower demand for charters has led to lower charter rates, while current freighter capacity is adequate to meet the level of demand in the market, noted Mr Duran.

“There are always rate peaks where there is more demand, however, in my opinion that would probably not be sustainable long term,” he said.

The latest fleet data from AviationValues shows significant available feedstock for small regional freighters. A general snapshot shows 564 Dash 8 Q400s and five Q400Fs in the market, with 223 Dash 8-300s and only two -100Fs flying.

Following the recent retirement of 18 Saab 340s by Loganair, the type looks increasingly attractive for conversion. Data shows 26 Saab 340F in operation and 187 in passenger configuration. Additionally, 30 ATR 42-300Fs (84 passenger) and around 180 passenger ATR-500 series aircraft still out there.

Elsewhere, other time-sensitive solutions to avoid ‘aircraft on ground’ (AOG) situations in the aviation industry have become even more critical in light of the supply chain issues industry is facing.

Meanwhile, the charter team at NEO are heavily involved in flying AOG parts.

Having a strong network of suppliers has usually been the standard approach to effectively resolve AOG situations. In the wake of the pandemic-induced supply chain chaos, the aviation industry has been compelled to explore innovative strategies to mitigate costs and enhance operational efficiency, and now logistics firms are getting in on the action.

In March, Sterling (an aviation logistics specialist and part of Kuehne+Nagel) and SATS announced a partnership to expedite first- and last-mile airside services for time-critical AOG shipments. They said their collaboration would focus on “optimising handling processes to support the urgent needs of the aviation industry and expediting the delivery of aircraft components to resolve AOG situations quickly”. To achieve this, the partnership combines Sterling’s critical logistics expertise with the enhanced visibility provided by SATS for express shipments booked with airlines.