A surge in air cargo volume through Dubai International Airport last month is providing a glimmer of hope that recovery is on the way for the global air freight sector after a year of weak performance.
Loads jumped 6.5 per cent to 157,492 tonnes compared with 147,937 tonnes in February last year.
The rise follows an 8 per cent collapse in global air freight volumes for last year, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures, released this month. However, economists, airlines and plane makers believe the market is about to rebound, with Middle East carriers building on performances last year that bucked global trends.
"Air traffic globally, including cargo, will be on the road to recovery and there might be some upside surprises," said Kelvin Lau, a transport analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets in Hong Kong. "The picture will be better in the second half."
Last year, Middle East carriers enjoyed a 9.4 per cent rise in demand, much of it generated by Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways growing their freight networks.
"Etihad Airways' cargo operations saw outstanding performance in 2011 and volumes are continuing to grow in 2012 in line with capacity increases and network expansion," said David Kerr, the vice president of cargo for Etihad.
"In 2011, cargo operations accounted for 20 per cent of Etihad Airways' overall revenues, with average monthly loads of 25,000 tonnes.
"In the first quarter of this year, we have seen a comparably strong performance. We expect March volumes to be very good as operations into and out of China pick up. European and American demand has also been strong and we forecast strong performance into the second quarter."
The recovery is being driven by high-end freight, according to Pradeep Kumar, the senior vice president of cargo revenue at Emirates Airline. "We are seeing strong performances into Africa, South America, especially Brazil, and Asia, mainly in areas such as temperature-sensitive [pharmaceutical] cargoes and mobile phones.
"Other areas may remain under pressure until the second half, but then we see growth consolidating."
This month, Tony Tyler, the IATA director general and chief executive, said the global cargo sector was looking up. "It appears that freight markets have stabilised."
Rising oil prices, Europe's sovereign debt crisis and the economy in the United States have driven freight levels down, but the decline in air freight had stabilised in the fourth quarter of last year, at levels 4 per cent below the 2008 pre-crisis peak, Mr Tyler said.
Asia-Pacific and European airlines have borne the brunt of the international decline, down 14 per cent and 9.6 per cent in January, respectively, compared with the same month last year.
"By value, over 35 per cent of goods traded internationally are handled by air, although this accounts for just 0.5 per cent of global volumes traded," Mr Tyler said. "Air cargo provides the connectivity that is at the core of modern businesses serving global markets. The growth potential is enormous."
Boeing, the US plane maker, in its latest market review, said the Asian market was likely to drive the air freight recovery after IATA reported freight traffic in the Asia-Pacific region fell each month year-on-year for 12 months to the end of January.
The review said airlines were looking to the introduction of new electronic products, which required shipment of parts and components, to be one of the biggest contributors to air cargo demand, and predicted the region's air freight may rise as much as 8 per cent this year, faster than in any other part of the world, with global growth of about 3 per cent for the year.
"Fears have been replaced by greater confidence that the advanced economies are slowly recovering," Tim Condon, an economist at ING in Singapore, told Bloomberg. He said the rise in semiconductor orders and increases in Asian exports were "signs that the air cargo industry may recover more quickly than most currently expect".
dblack@thenational.ae
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
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Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
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Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
