CharterSync’s Watson discusses charter market trends, capacity outlook

Charter services remain in high demand as ongoing supply chain disruptions continue to impact airfreight capacity. In turn, charters have provided much-needed additional capacity, proving to be an alternative mode for stakeholders who formerly considered them specialty or time-critical methods of transport. [caption id="attachment_57065588" align="alignright" width="300"] Simon Watson, director and co-founder of CharterSync[/caption] At the same time, digitalization continues to be an opportunity and a challenge for the air freight industry as stakeholders learn to plug into new technologies with hopes of optimizing operations for themselves, their partners and customers. This includes digital booking capabilities , which have continued to enable greater accessibility and visibility for forwarders seeking available capacity. CharterSync, a U.K.-based on-demand charter broker service, is seeking to change the traditional charter market and modernize charter booking Its platform first went live in 2019 and has now completed more than 3,000 charters over the past three years. The company aims to continue to enhance its digital booking platform through new, streamlined processes alongside regional expansion. Air Cargo World spoke with Simon Watson, director and co-founder of CharterSync, to discuss changes in market trends and accessibility in the air charter market amidst a challenging geopolitical environment. What follows is an edited version of the conversation. Air Cargo World : The rise in digital booking has enabled freight forwarders to more easily access capacity . Is there a similar trend being seen in charter e-bookings? Simon Watson: Technology has made things more accessible, and it's made things easier, and accessibility in the cargo charter market has just never existed. It’s been mainly controlled by a few large, traditional brokerages [and] they work by pen and paper, fax machines, emails and phone calls whereas now we have this system. When our clients come to us, we can then use the system to find the best option for them. We focused on those clients who aren’t so experienced in the charter market, and that really has led our growth. Our client base are [among] the top 10 global freight forwarders down to a number of SMEs and mid-sized businesses. ACW: Charter services have played a major role over the last few years as global supply chain challenges have led to capacity loss. Paired with the loss of Russian capacity and the aftermath of the Shanghai closures , what changes in charter trends are you seeing? SW: Traditionally, charters wouldn’t be booked too far in advance because it’s a distressed purchase — the client wants the cargo there as soon as possible — whereas now what we’re seeing is a change in the trend, where clients are getting used to the idea of a charter. Pre-pandemic, clients, shippers and forwarders didn’t necessarily look into charters, but now they are looking at it as an alternative mode so we’re seeing a lot of forward bookings. At the moment, we have bookings out to July or August, which is quite far ahead. ACW : Do you foresee any changes in long-term charter agreements, especially as supply chain disruptions and capacity dislocation persist? SW : Yes, I guess I have seen that trend where clients are looking to secure six to 12 months in advance, long-term projects which never really used to be the case pre-pandemic. That’s probably going to stay for quite a while — 2022 to maybe the end of 2023. ACW : To what extent have the recent changes in regulations, like the China lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war, posed issues for charter bookings? How have you navigated these challenges? SW : Operationally, it’s been very difficult. We have our own ops team as well to keep track of the changes. We’ve had a lot of stuff out of Shanghai recently; Shanghai then went into local lockdown, and we then used alternative airports to depart from. So, we were looking at alternative routings. We did a really large project of just over 250 charters … for a very large client … and we were also doing [a project] for the French government as well. That has been quite difficult, but it’s kept us on our toes. I think the main thing is communication and relaying information to our clients, and really thinking ahead.

CharterSync’s Watson discusses charter market trends, capacity outlook

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