Changi looks for growth amid flat cargo year

While cargo tonnage moving through Singapore Changi Airport was flat through the first nine months of 2014 — 1.37 million tonnes for a growth rate of 0.3 percent — cargo officials at the airport are generally optimistic.

“We are generally pleased,” said James Fong, Changi’s assistant vice president, cargo/logistics development, during a recent interview with Air Cargo World. “We have seen some markets that are lively compared to earlier this year. “In August, we saw a good 4 percent increase in volume.”

Cold chain products, such as pharmaceuticals and perishables, continue to be a strength for Changi, growing at a rate of about 5 percent over the past few years.

“We are helped by Singapore being one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturing centers,” Fong said.

Other cargo segments having potential, according to Fong, are live animals, express cargo and oil and gas. Singapore is one of the world’s top oil and gas refining and trading hubs. It is a base for serving offshore oil and gas operations in the region.

New freighter services have been added during the past year. Turkish Airlines began a weekly Singapore-Karachi-Istanbul service while ANA Cargo launched a six times weekly service serving Okinawa-Singapore-Narita. Also, Since September of 2013, Malaysian cargo carrier Transmile Air increased its Singapore-Subang services from three to four times weekly. As of September, 340 weekly freighter flights served Changi.

Fong said Changi’s top priority is to continue to innovate and find new capabilities and new cargo segments to serve. He said the airport works closely with its two cargo handlers, SATS and dnata, to pinpoint the next wave of growth in order to target future investments.

“We plan to stay ahead of the game and find new trends,” Fong said. “Overall, we are quite optimistic about cargo growth in the region.”

Fong is also optimistic that the planned ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) Economic Community (AEC), due to be implemented in 2015, will have great benefits for airfreight.

“It will be something like the EU, integrating economies in to a single market,” Fong said. “We believe it will help boost airfreight demand.”