Aircargo Club Sees Location Disadvantage in E-Commerce Boom

Chinese online retailers are currently delivering thousands of tons of goods daily at record speed directly from China to the whole world. This has serious consequences for air freight: the rapid development of e-commerce is now causing bottlenecks in global air transport and driving freight rates to new record highs. However, German air freight companies have so far been at a disadvantage.

(Frankfurt) Although many packages from Chinese online shops are sent to Germany, most shipments – partly due to less strict customs handling – primarily fly to the cargo airport of Liège in Belgium. At the last event of the aircargo club deutschland, members discussed a common European customs handling.

As global companies search for alternative logistics options due to disruptions in the Red Sea, air freight capacities are becoming increasingly scarce. The reason for this is the rapid growth of Chinese online retailers such as Shein and Temu, who claim space in cargo planes for their shipments. So far, the majority of products are shipped in individually addressed packages directly from factories in China by air to buyers in Europe and the USA.

“A crucial success factor for online trade is the resilience and speed of the supply chain, as the requirements for transporting e-commerce shipments are very complex. To keep pace with this growth rate, we need to closely monitor and adjust the capacities in the planes and available services as necessary. This also applies to all additional processes and IT capabilities in the context of e-commerce transports. These can help ensure that goods are transported faster and more reliably,” explained Boris Hueske, Managing Director at heyworld, at an event of the aircargo club deutschland.

Conditions in Other European Countries Better

E-commerce could become the most important commodity in air freight, accounting for over 30 percent. However, so far, this has primarily benefited European air freight locations outside Germany, such as Amsterdam Airport or Liège. The reason for this is that the conditions for freight traffic in Liège, for example, seem significantly better than at many German locations. The Belgian airport has a 24-hour permit, sufficient handling capacities, adequate air traffic rights, available slots, and flexible charter permits. Moreover, the Belgian customs are considered more straightforward within the industry – even though customs regulations in Europe are actually the same everywhere.

Prof. Dr. Christopher W. Stoller, President of the aircargo club deutschland, points to the danger for the German air freight location: “It is not fair competition if European customs rules are interpreted and handled differently. Politics must take action to enforce this and help the air freight location Germany regain its attractiveness.”

Expansion to 24-Hour Operation

The logistics service provider specializing in online trade, heyworld, was founded in 2019 by Lufthansa Cargo to actively promote the expansion of e-commerce business at Frankfurt Airport and to develop the hub into one of the most important e-commerce hubs in the world in the future. In October 2022, heyworld put its own fully automated parcel sorting facility into operation. Since the end of 2023, capacities have been expanded to a throughput of up to 200,000 parcels in 24-hour operation.

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