Up & Down the Ladder
The most rapid rise was also not a major shock as Silk Way West Airlines leaped six spots to reach No. 35, reporting a whopping 62.5 percent increase in FTKs to more than 1.5 billion, on the strength of increased traffic through Europe and the United States, as the carrier expanded beyond the confines of the Caspian region in 2016 (See Fastest Growing & Contracting Carriers chart).
Baku-based Silk Way West not only added two 747-400 and two 747-8 freighters in the last few months, it also named Amsterdam its new Western Europe hub and began service between Schiphol and Kuala Lumpur. The growing Azerbaijani carrier is also ideally poised to reap the benefits of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, with increased traffic between Europe and the Far East.
Turkish Airlines was another high-flying performer in 2016, jumping six rungs to the No. 22 spot, with 30 perent FTK growth, year-over-year. Turhan Ozen, chief cargo officer at Turkish, said the carrier began a new five-year plan in early 2017 that was “formulated focusing on significant investments in capacity and operational capabilities, in line with the new airport, and on significant levels of growth.” This year, Turkish Cargo is also focusing on “increasing its freighter fleet, adding four new freighters,” two of them being 747s, to reach a total of 15, Ozen said.
As part of the Volga-Dnepr Group, Russia’s AirBridgeCargo Airlines rose two spots to land at No. 17. Sergey Lazarev, general director of ABC, said one of the reasons for the group’s 17.5 percent increase in 2016 traffic, topping 5.1 billion FTKs, was its “focus on the development of services for special cargoes,” which, he said, are still in high demand this year. “Our hub model, together with the launch of new stations in all regions, gave our customers more and more delivery solutions last year and this is continuing in 2017.”
Some carriers are feeling so confident that they question the importance of freight forwarding expertise. “In 2016, Air China Cargo has been approaching our customers directly instead of going via freight forwarders or cargo sales agents,” said Ray Lo, vice president, service and operations, for No. 11-and-steady Air China cargo. “As a result, we can learn much about their actual requirements, especially those special products like e-commence or cool chain cargoes.”
Even Garuda Indonesia, which fell hard on the Freight 50 last year, managed to rebound in 2016, jumping from No, 49 in 2015 to No. 46. By the end of 2016, the carrier’s FTKs had risen by 21.6 percent.
The rising tide of airfreight demand has been generally positive among the Freight 50 members, but not every carrier was able to translate this energy into positive growth.
Malaysia Airlines, for example, continued to feel the negative pressure from its reorganization and its decision to sell off freighters in 2016, losing just over half of its FTKs, compared to the previous year and sinking seven spots to No. 40. Delta Air Lines, in spite of its dramatic turnaround in the 4th quarter of 2016, could not overcome the poor performance of the first three quarters and saw a nearly 20 percent drop in FTKs, placing it two slots lower at No. 28.
Other double-digit FTK declines included No. 43, South African Airways (-15.1 percent); No. 25, LATAM (-13.7 percent); and No. 47, Air India (-12.2 percent).
Because of the merger of TNT into FedEx, and a decline from El Al Airlines, the Freight 50 list welcomed aboard two newcomers on the bottom rungs: No. 49, Philippine Airlines (540 million FTKs) and No. 50, Alitalia (514 million).