Emirates Skycargo pins hope on Asia for its freight growth

While the global airfreight industry continues to suffer from a volume crunch, carriers operating in Asia remain optimistic due to the high level of economic activity in the region.

Emirates Skycargo, which has large operations in Asia, is hoping Asian countries, especially China and India along with the Middle East, will help counter the slowdown experienced in other regions.

While Asia has not escaped from the global economic woes, Skycargo is expecting the region's airfreight movement traffic to gain steadiness and grow further, especially that governments are lending a helping hand to their economies.

"The move by China to step up export rebates clearly signifies the importance of governments coming in to help reverse a sliding trend in exports," said Emirates Airline Cargo Divisional Senior Vice-President Ram C Menen.

Despite the current economic situation, the Asian market has remained strong due to airfreight movements within Asia, more especially between the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

The large populations in Asia and the rising number of middle class also help to keep demand steady.

Emirates Skycargo is planning to increase its cargo capacity from India to 2,647 tonnes by February 2009 following the carrier's increased number of flights to various destinations in India.

Cargo movement between Dubai and India is expected to gain momentum due to increased capacity to support the export of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, garments, chemicals, meat, fruits and vegetables to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and America.

The current cargo capacity of Emirates from Mumbai is 572 tonnes, which will be increased to 641 tonnes. While cargo capacity from Delhi will be increased to 389 tonnes from the present 306 tonnes every week.

Menen said the company had experienced steady growth in other Asian markets such as Malaysia in the last one-and-a-half-year despite the slack in the global air cargo market. "Overall, we have seen a slowdown in the industry but for Malaysia, we still grew between seven and eight per cent during the 2007-08 fiscal year," said Menen.

Emirates SkyCargo is ranked eighth biggest in terms of freight tonnes carried. Last year, the carrier's cargo traffic rose 11 per cent to 1.3 million tonnes to generate $1.8 billion (Dh6.6bn) in revenue or 19 per cent of the airline's total revenue.

The carrier hopes to maintain the same level of growth and believes Asia will continue to contribute almost half of its freight business, with Hong Kong and China as the main markets.

Menen said he was optimistic that the current drop in global freight movement will begin to recover next year as more governments would come to the rescue of their economies.

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