Fifteen years of Cargolux results reveal air cargo’s uneven new era
Here at The Loadstar, we’ve been watching Cargolux for well over a decade. It has had its ups and downs – from financial stress ...
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European players have hit out against an “unlevel playing field” that could see them face “a lot of additional administrative work” and costs.
At Air Cargo Europe, Richard Forson, CEO of Cargolux, told The Loadstar: “There’s always unfairness, but it’s not helped by the fact that the EU has come out with all of this legislation on sustainability.
“It’s a lot of additional administrative work that has to be done,” he added.
According to Mr Forson, even with the recent announcement of reduced requirements for the level of data points that need to be collected and reported, “it’s still a significant burden on airlines and other industries, such as manufacturing, in the EU”.
He explained: “As an airline, we have to reinvest in new aircraft, that’s billions of euros. And all the other obligations we face, including what kind of SAF is acceptable in the EU versus what is used in the US, and so on.
“In terms of the unlevel playing fields, for example, if an EU airline had to fly to Asia, it would have to uplift all the fuel in the EU, whereas a carrier that operates through the Middle East just needs to get to its hub, and from there on outwards they don’t always have to [source fuel locally].
“I think that’s a very difficult one to deal with,” he said.
Ashwin Bhat, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, also told The Loadstar: “We too would appreciate a level playing field and no advantage for one and disadvantage for others – be it the cost of SAF or subsidies, or new rules and regulations which increase the cost for carriers.”
Currently, the EU allows airlines to offset their carbon emissions under ICAO’s 2018 CORSIA initiative (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), but Mr Forson noted that the aviation playing field could be even more uneven if the EU decides to strengthen this.
“Is the EU going to say ‘offsetting is not really what we want, it’s not reducing carbon at all. We want to see a reduction in your absolute carbon emissions?’.”
Mr Bhat added that a “level playing field” would be also welcome “in all aspects of doing business”.
Indeed, Mr Forson pointed to the tariffs between the EU and US, as Cargolux has Boeing aircraft on order, which are manufactured in the US.
Listen to The Loadstar Podcast to hear global director and GM of Amazon Air Cargo, Tom Bradley, explain how to harness technology to create service reliability:
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