Room to roam for a ‘cash cow’
Even an expert as experienced as Michael Laschet, Emirates SkyCargo’s cargo manager for Germany, hasn’t lived through times such as these yet. Before he took his present post in 2015, he worked for South African Airways in Frankfurt, Continental Airlines in the USA and for SkyCargo’s Emirati competitor Etihad Cargo for four years. In a conversation with ITJ editor Andreas Haug, Laschet explains how important the air cargo industry is today – and tomorrow.
Have you had enough of the volatility in the airfreight industry yet, Mr Laschet?
Quite the opposite! The most fascinating factors ruling the sector, for me, are the fast pace and the flexibility of the industry, as well as the broad variety of cargo that we transport. In the airfreight sector, you have to adapt permanently to nonstop changes in the market. There’s simply no downtime in the segment – at the moment we’re once again particularly aware of this in our everyday work.
How has business developed in terms of volume in recent months?
Before the pandemic, a large part of airfreight was actually transported on passenger flights, as we know. Emirates SkyCargo’s full-freighters carried about 30% of our tonnage, for example, and served around 40 international destinations a week. Our passenger aircraft, in turn, carried about 70% of our cargo and flew to more than 140 destinations. As a result of reduced capacities our volumes are lower than last year – as is the case with other cargo carriers too, of course. We nevertheless boast a rather high capacity-utilisation rate; volumes have gradually increased again in recent months.
How has the cargo business been coming along in Germany, overall?
We now serve Frankfurt twelve times a week with regular passenger flights, on which we also transport cargo. In addition, there are five weekly passenger connections that we operate as freighters, as well as a pure freighter service, five times a week to Dubai, and once a week to Mexico City.
In October, we’re set to extend these connections by three further cargo flights, via Frankfurt to Dubai and Mexico City. We currently operate regular passenger flights to Munich four times a week; on these we transport freight, too. We serve Düsseldorf and Hamburg once a week each, deploying a passenger freighter – an aeroplane without passengers, loaded only with cargo.
What have you noticed concerning the mix of goods transported?
At the beginning of the pandemic, when airfreight capacities were limited drastically, we naturally had to prioritise vital cargo, including medical supplies, PPE and foodstuffs. We mainly imported PPE, whilst exports were heavily dominated by medical goods. We’ve registered a nigh-on normal structure in the export segment by now, however, – with the exception of the automotive industry. In the import sector too, we’ve reached a point where less PPE has been transported for some weeks now, and regular traffic is gradually returning.
In which fields has Emirates SkyCargo done better than others?
After the drastic loss of cargo capacities at the beginning of the pandemic, our headquarters in Dubai (UAE) reacted quickly and developed a reliable and safe passenger-freighter route network. So we managed to serve 50 destinations again as early as April, and by early July, no less than 100 destinations had returned to our overall network. We now serve about 75% of our pre-pandemic routes again. At Emirates SkyCargo we also succeeded in ensuring that we actually generate revenues from our operations.
How has the cargo business changed in importance on account of Covid-19?
Freight activities were already an important part of the Emirates Group’s business before the pandemic. Their importance has nevertheless further increased for us, because cargo has developed into aviation’s ‘cash cow’ in recent months. We’ve converted ten Boeing B777s, removing the economy class seats, to transport up to 15 t of freight in the cabin per flight. This represents a major advantage, especially in the Asian market. The crisis has shown us that airfreight is absolutely essential to the global economy, connecting many places around the world and ensuring a reliable supply of vital goods.
