Special European Logistics Report: Turbulence over Europe
Devenir du fret aérien européen.
Un article à lire...
http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/CA6668942.html
Special European Logistics Report: Turbulence over Europe
Our European Correspondent brings U.S. air shippers up to date on cargo volumes, eminent mergers and acquisitions, and the challenges ahead for carriers and shippers heading into 2010.
By Dagmar Trepins, European Correspondent -- Logistics Management, 7/1/2009
Like the U.S. market, European air cargo traffic experienced a major setback due to the collapse of financial markets, a worldwide recession, and high fuel prices. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) statistics, European carriers have seen a double-digit freight decline of 23.3 percent in April 2009 compared to the previous year’s levels; and they are expected to post losses of U.S. $1.8 billion with collapsing demand for premium services in all the major markets served by the region’s carriers.
“Freight remains at shockingly low levels,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO. “The worst may be over. However, we have not yet seen any signs that recovery is imminent. Improving efficiency everywhere will be the theme for 2009,” he says, adding that he’s anticipating a return to growth by 2010 at the earliest.
Cargo volumes drop for major European airlines
The bottom line is pretty clear at this stage: All major carriers were hit by the economic downturn and reported declining cargo volumes.
Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airfreight carrier, reported a sharp decline in cargo volume. Starting on January 1, 2009 and on through the year, the group has integrated the cargo activity of the Dutch carrier Martinair. Including Martinair, freight traffic in May 2009 fell slightly (-1.0 percent). Excluding Martinair, it fell 18 percent from the previous year. As trading conditions in the first half of the year remain challenging, the carrier group plans an 11 percent reduction in cargo capacity for summer 2009. Air France-KLM’s closest competitor, Lufthansa, has slipped into the red on account of the weak passenger and cargo business in the first months of the year. It reported a first quarter operating loss of €44 million, compared to a profit of €172 million in the same period last year.
Lufthansa’s freight segment was particularly hard hit by the economic situation, shrinking by 23 percent. An especially sharp slump in demand has been seen in the automotive industry, a major German export branch currently faced with reduced work-time, extended vacations, and plant closures. “All in all, Lufthansa Cargo pulled through in an adverse environment thanks to systematic sales, capacity, and cost management,” says Lufthansa Cargo Board Member for Finances and Human Resources Dr. Roland Busch.
In January 2009, the carrier launched a program to cut freighter capacities as well as staff and material costs. At the same time, the carrier expanded its services by commencing twice-a-week, direct-freighter flights from Milan, Italy, to New York and Chicago. From mid-June on, Lufthansa Cargo also gained additional capacity through the new Boeing 777-200LRF freighters in the AeroLogic fleet. Aerologic cargo carrier is a joint venture set up by DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo and based in Germany’s emerging air cargo hub Leipzig/Halle. It plans to use the aircraft for flights to North America and Asia.
Europe’s third largest carrier, British Airways World Cargo, also reported a decline in cargo business as freight traffic was down 9.5 percent in May 2009 compared to the previous year. The fourth quarter in particular saw a very sharp drop in volumes, with a decline of 15.5 percent from last year’s levels. Last year was also a challenge for Cargolux, Europe’s largest all-cargo airline. The company ended the year with an operational profit of U.S. $55 million. Tonnage carried grew slightly by 0.1 percent to 703,601 tons, while freight ton kilometers decreased by 2.3 percent to 5.4 million.
A battle of mergers and acquisitions
With ongoing market concentration, the big carriers are using the economic slowdown to expand their market shares through acquisitions, while smaller, troubled airlines are looking for a savior.
In December, Austrian Airlines (AUA) took off into a new future with Lufthansa. The German carrier, which also owns Swiss International Airlines, agreed to buy the 41.56 percent share in Austrian Airlines AG held by Österreichische Industrieholding AG (ÖIAG). The European Commission will extend its review of the deal until July 1.
ÖIAG has offered to cut back the AUA fleet in a bid to win EC approval, while Lufthansa also offered to cut flights to satisfy EC anti-trust regulators. In June 2009, the European Commission gave the green light for Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa’s tie-up. The decision paves the way for Lufthansa to acquire an initial 45 percent stake in SN Airholding SA/NV, the parent company of Brussels Airlines.
Clearance from the EU competition authority will also give Lufthansa an option to buy the remaining 55 percent stake in Brussels Airlines in 2011 and thereby complete the takeover of the Belgian carrier once it has secured the necessary traffic rights. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of June.
In the battle to gain European leadership, Air France-KLM started a new strategic partnership in January by taking over a 25 percent minority stake in Alitalia. The group completed its acquisition in March of this year through the subscription to a reserved capital increase for an amount of some €323 million. At the end of 2008, KLM became full owner of the Dutch carrier Martinair, after the European Commission approved the transaction of A.P.Moller-Maersk Group’s 50 percent holdings in KLM, which already held a 50 percent stake in Martinair.
In May 2009, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines launched a new trans-Atlantic global joint venture. The airlines will cooperate on routes between North America and Africa, the Middle East, and India, as well as on flights between Europe and several countries in Latin America.
While Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are expanding, Europe’s third-largest carrier, British Airways (BA), is trying to close its deals with American Airlines and Spain’s airline Iberia. BA came under pressure after talks on a potential merger with the Australian carrier Qantas were called off in December. Some analysts predicted that the BA/AA alliance might also fail, since two past applications for anti-trust approval by U.S. authorities have already been rejected and BA has been asked to provide more information about the planned partnership, including the impact on Heathrow, cargo operations, and the service in Asian and Latin American markets.
But BA CEO Willie Walsh is optimistic: “I’m confident about both deals,” he recently announced to the press. With a strong focus on the U.S. market, a second Chicago freighter service was added in April this year to the British Airways World Cargo network. As part of the summer schedule, the additional Boeing 747-400F service doubles weekly frequency to and from Chicago and operates on the London Stansted-Frankfurt-Chicago-Atlanta route.
Despite economic slowdown, the Luxembourg-based airline Cargolux is expanding its services to the U.S. and Canada. The cargo carrier started regular services to Miami and Houston and launched a third weekly flight to Atlanta with a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft to lift an additional 70 tons of cargo to Hartsfield-Jackson airport each week. Since April 2009, Cargolux also offers a new weekly B747-400 freighter service to Toronto/Ontario.
Cargolux President and CEO Ulrich Ogiermann is convinced that the air cargo market will change shape significantly in the next few years: “Only those with a sound concept will be able to weather this storm,” he says. “Our commercial decision making process is optimized to cater for this flexibility, and this is a valuable ability in the current environment. Of course we have thoroughly prepared contingencies and are willing to make difficult decisions should these be needed.”
New challenges for European airports
European airports were also hit by the economic slowdown and saw a downward turn in cargo traffic.
Slightly less than 100,000 metric tons of cargo was transported via Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in May 2009. This represents a fall of 23.9 percent compared with the volume transported in May 2008. Total cargo tonnage transported by passenger aircraft dropped by nearly 8.8 percent, and the cargo volume transported by full freighters fell by almost 34.7 percent.
In December 2008, the Dutch airport agreed to a long-term industrial alliance with Aéroports de Paris, which recently commissioned a new cargo terminal with a total surface of 14,700 sqm at Paris-Orly airport. The two leading European airports acquired an 8 percent stake in each other’s share capital and will work together more closely in infrastructure, airport operations, international, and sustainable developments, and other projects.
After a three-month sequence of gradually declining figures, air cargo tonnage at BAA airports Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted fell by 15.1 percent in December 2008. BAA reported a drop of 9.5 percent in cargo traffic passing through its airports Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen from June 2008 to May 2009.
BAA, which owns seven of the country’s largest airports, may have to sell three of its airports because of concerns about its market dominance. The Competition Commission has reaffirmed its opinion that Britain’s largest airport owner should sell off Gatwick, Stansted, and Edinburgh. However, the government’s decision to go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow airport was good news for BAA’s Chief Colin Matthews.
Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt (Fraport), is also suffering from the weakening economy and the decline in exports. With 146,259 metric tons in May 2009, Fraport’s airfreight slowdown narrowed to 17.1 percent. Airfreight throughput reached 674,258 metric tons, down 22.5 percent for the first five months of the year 2009.
Frankfurt’s operator, Fraport AG, launched a research project together with partners to develop an “AirCargo RailCenter” and put it into operation. The project, which will run through 2010 and is being supported by the German Ministry of Industry and Technology (BMWi), is aimed at shifting air cargo traffic to rail. Environmental concerns, forced by restrictions on night flights, are becoming a big issue for Germany’s airport, giving it an incentive to come up with intermodal solutions.
Another rail project is planned by Euro Carex to create a pan-European high-speed rail service for air cargo and express between the terminals at Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Liège, and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. In December 2008, the governments of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands pledged more than €90 million towards the construction of the rail terminals. The first Euro Carex trains are planned to begin operating in March 2012.
Integrators hubs expanding
Cargo volume at Cologne Bonn Airport, Germany’s second biggest cargo airport, is also on the decline. After a major customer, DHL, switched over to Leipzig/Halle, cargo volume went down to 587,000 metric tons in 2008 compared to 719,000 tons in 2007.
For the first quarter of the year 2009, the airport reported a drop of cargo volume by nearly 11 percent. “However, in 2010 at the latest, once FedEx starts operations at their new cargo hub, things will certainly pick up again,” says Airport CEO Michael Garvens, referring to the Airport’s €70 million investment in the FedEx construction project. “In 2009, the new Cargo Center will also be opened. This hall, an investment of some €25 million, will offer ideal conditions for the daily cargo business of medium-sized transport companies,” he added.
In the middle of Germany, Leipzig/Halle airport is moving ahead as an international cargo hub. This is particularly due to cargo flights operated by DHL and Lufthansa Cargo, now that the DHL hub has become fully operational. The amount of freight handled at Leipzig/Halle Airport for the first quarter of 2009 rose to 113,356 metric tons, an increase of 72 percent compared to last year.
In December, the airport operator, Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, and Lufthansa Cargo started a strategic partnership to jointly develop the airport in central Germany into a leading airfreight base in Europe. “Along with Frankfurt, Leipzig/Halle Airport is our most important freighter hub which we intend to expand gradually. Our partnership with Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding is a milestone in that policy and it underlines our long-term strategy,” says Lufthansa Cargo Board Member Karl-Heinz Köpfle.
Aside from Leipzig/Halle Airport, the strategic partnership will also benefit its PortGround affiliate company. Dierk Näther, managing director of the two subsidiaries of Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, noted: “Lufthansa Cargo ranks among the Airport’s most important customers. With its move into the World Cargo Center, PortGround will additionally take over freight handling for the cargo carrier in Leipzig. That will strengthen and further expand the existing, successful cooperation between our companies.” In an intercontinental joint venture with DHL Express, Lufthansa Cargo has connected Leipzig/Halle Airport with logistics centers in Asia and the United States.
Un article à lire...
http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/CA6668942.html
Special European Logistics Report: Turbulence over Europe
Our European Correspondent brings U.S. air shippers up to date on cargo volumes, eminent mergers and acquisitions, and the challenges ahead for carriers and shippers heading into 2010.
By Dagmar Trepins, European Correspondent -- Logistics Management, 7/1/2009
Like the U.S. market, European air cargo traffic experienced a major setback due to the collapse of financial markets, a worldwide recession, and high fuel prices. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) statistics, European carriers have seen a double-digit freight decline of 23.3 percent in April 2009 compared to the previous year’s levels; and they are expected to post losses of U.S. $1.8 billion with collapsing demand for premium services in all the major markets served by the region’s carriers.
“Freight remains at shockingly low levels,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO. “The worst may be over. However, we have not yet seen any signs that recovery is imminent. Improving efficiency everywhere will be the theme for 2009,” he says, adding that he’s anticipating a return to growth by 2010 at the earliest.
Cargo volumes drop for major European airlines
The bottom line is pretty clear at this stage: All major carriers were hit by the economic downturn and reported declining cargo volumes.
Air France-KLM, Europe’s biggest airfreight carrier, reported a sharp decline in cargo volume. Starting on January 1, 2009 and on through the year, the group has integrated the cargo activity of the Dutch carrier Martinair. Including Martinair, freight traffic in May 2009 fell slightly (-1.0 percent). Excluding Martinair, it fell 18 percent from the previous year. As trading conditions in the first half of the year remain challenging, the carrier group plans an 11 percent reduction in cargo capacity for summer 2009. Air France-KLM’s closest competitor, Lufthansa, has slipped into the red on account of the weak passenger and cargo business in the first months of the year. It reported a first quarter operating loss of €44 million, compared to a profit of €172 million in the same period last year.
Lufthansa’s freight segment was particularly hard hit by the economic situation, shrinking by 23 percent. An especially sharp slump in demand has been seen in the automotive industry, a major German export branch currently faced with reduced work-time, extended vacations, and plant closures. “All in all, Lufthansa Cargo pulled through in an adverse environment thanks to systematic sales, capacity, and cost management,” says Lufthansa Cargo Board Member for Finances and Human Resources Dr. Roland Busch.
In January 2009, the carrier launched a program to cut freighter capacities as well as staff and material costs. At the same time, the carrier expanded its services by commencing twice-a-week, direct-freighter flights from Milan, Italy, to New York and Chicago. From mid-June on, Lufthansa Cargo also gained additional capacity through the new Boeing 777-200LRF freighters in the AeroLogic fleet. Aerologic cargo carrier is a joint venture set up by DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo and based in Germany’s emerging air cargo hub Leipzig/Halle. It plans to use the aircraft for flights to North America and Asia.
Europe’s third largest carrier, British Airways World Cargo, also reported a decline in cargo business as freight traffic was down 9.5 percent in May 2009 compared to the previous year. The fourth quarter in particular saw a very sharp drop in volumes, with a decline of 15.5 percent from last year’s levels. Last year was also a challenge for Cargolux, Europe’s largest all-cargo airline. The company ended the year with an operational profit of U.S. $55 million. Tonnage carried grew slightly by 0.1 percent to 703,601 tons, while freight ton kilometers decreased by 2.3 percent to 5.4 million.
A battle of mergers and acquisitions
With ongoing market concentration, the big carriers are using the economic slowdown to expand their market shares through acquisitions, while smaller, troubled airlines are looking for a savior.
In December, Austrian Airlines (AUA) took off into a new future with Lufthansa. The German carrier, which also owns Swiss International Airlines, agreed to buy the 41.56 percent share in Austrian Airlines AG held by Österreichische Industrieholding AG (ÖIAG). The European Commission will extend its review of the deal until July 1.
ÖIAG has offered to cut back the AUA fleet in a bid to win EC approval, while Lufthansa also offered to cut flights to satisfy EC anti-trust regulators. In June 2009, the European Commission gave the green light for Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa’s tie-up. The decision paves the way for Lufthansa to acquire an initial 45 percent stake in SN Airholding SA/NV, the parent company of Brussels Airlines.
Clearance from the EU competition authority will also give Lufthansa an option to buy the remaining 55 percent stake in Brussels Airlines in 2011 and thereby complete the takeover of the Belgian carrier once it has secured the necessary traffic rights. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of June.
In the battle to gain European leadership, Air France-KLM started a new strategic partnership in January by taking over a 25 percent minority stake in Alitalia. The group completed its acquisition in March of this year through the subscription to a reserved capital increase for an amount of some €323 million. At the end of 2008, KLM became full owner of the Dutch carrier Martinair, after the European Commission approved the transaction of A.P.Moller-Maersk Group’s 50 percent holdings in KLM, which already held a 50 percent stake in Martinair.
In May 2009, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines launched a new trans-Atlantic global joint venture. The airlines will cooperate on routes between North America and Africa, the Middle East, and India, as well as on flights between Europe and several countries in Latin America.
While Lufthansa and Air France-KLM are expanding, Europe’s third-largest carrier, British Airways (BA), is trying to close its deals with American Airlines and Spain’s airline Iberia. BA came under pressure after talks on a potential merger with the Australian carrier Qantas were called off in December. Some analysts predicted that the BA/AA alliance might also fail, since two past applications for anti-trust approval by U.S. authorities have already been rejected and BA has been asked to provide more information about the planned partnership, including the impact on Heathrow, cargo operations, and the service in Asian and Latin American markets.
But BA CEO Willie Walsh is optimistic: “I’m confident about both deals,” he recently announced to the press. With a strong focus on the U.S. market, a second Chicago freighter service was added in April this year to the British Airways World Cargo network. As part of the summer schedule, the additional Boeing 747-400F service doubles weekly frequency to and from Chicago and operates on the London Stansted-Frankfurt-Chicago-Atlanta route.
Despite economic slowdown, the Luxembourg-based airline Cargolux is expanding its services to the U.S. and Canada. The cargo carrier started regular services to Miami and Houston and launched a third weekly flight to Atlanta with a Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft to lift an additional 70 tons of cargo to Hartsfield-Jackson airport each week. Since April 2009, Cargolux also offers a new weekly B747-400 freighter service to Toronto/Ontario.
Cargolux President and CEO Ulrich Ogiermann is convinced that the air cargo market will change shape significantly in the next few years: “Only those with a sound concept will be able to weather this storm,” he says. “Our commercial decision making process is optimized to cater for this flexibility, and this is a valuable ability in the current environment. Of course we have thoroughly prepared contingencies and are willing to make difficult decisions should these be needed.”
New challenges for European airports
European airports were also hit by the economic slowdown and saw a downward turn in cargo traffic.
Slightly less than 100,000 metric tons of cargo was transported via Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in May 2009. This represents a fall of 23.9 percent compared with the volume transported in May 2008. Total cargo tonnage transported by passenger aircraft dropped by nearly 8.8 percent, and the cargo volume transported by full freighters fell by almost 34.7 percent.
In December 2008, the Dutch airport agreed to a long-term industrial alliance with Aéroports de Paris, which recently commissioned a new cargo terminal with a total surface of 14,700 sqm at Paris-Orly airport. The two leading European airports acquired an 8 percent stake in each other’s share capital and will work together more closely in infrastructure, airport operations, international, and sustainable developments, and other projects.
After a three-month sequence of gradually declining figures, air cargo tonnage at BAA airports Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted fell by 15.1 percent in December 2008. BAA reported a drop of 9.5 percent in cargo traffic passing through its airports Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen from June 2008 to May 2009.
BAA, which owns seven of the country’s largest airports, may have to sell three of its airports because of concerns about its market dominance. The Competition Commission has reaffirmed its opinion that Britain’s largest airport owner should sell off Gatwick, Stansted, and Edinburgh. However, the government’s decision to go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow airport was good news for BAA’s Chief Colin Matthews.
Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt (Fraport), is also suffering from the weakening economy and the decline in exports. With 146,259 metric tons in May 2009, Fraport’s airfreight slowdown narrowed to 17.1 percent. Airfreight throughput reached 674,258 metric tons, down 22.5 percent for the first five months of the year 2009.
Frankfurt’s operator, Fraport AG, launched a research project together with partners to develop an “AirCargo RailCenter” and put it into operation. The project, which will run through 2010 and is being supported by the German Ministry of Industry and Technology (BMWi), is aimed at shifting air cargo traffic to rail. Environmental concerns, forced by restrictions on night flights, are becoming a big issue for Germany’s airport, giving it an incentive to come up with intermodal solutions.
Another rail project is planned by Euro Carex to create a pan-European high-speed rail service for air cargo and express between the terminals at Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, Liège, and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. In December 2008, the governments of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands pledged more than €90 million towards the construction of the rail terminals. The first Euro Carex trains are planned to begin operating in March 2012.
Integrators hubs expanding
Cargo volume at Cologne Bonn Airport, Germany’s second biggest cargo airport, is also on the decline. After a major customer, DHL, switched over to Leipzig/Halle, cargo volume went down to 587,000 metric tons in 2008 compared to 719,000 tons in 2007.
For the first quarter of the year 2009, the airport reported a drop of cargo volume by nearly 11 percent. “However, in 2010 at the latest, once FedEx starts operations at their new cargo hub, things will certainly pick up again,” says Airport CEO Michael Garvens, referring to the Airport’s €70 million investment in the FedEx construction project. “In 2009, the new Cargo Center will also be opened. This hall, an investment of some €25 million, will offer ideal conditions for the daily cargo business of medium-sized transport companies,” he added.
In the middle of Germany, Leipzig/Halle airport is moving ahead as an international cargo hub. This is particularly due to cargo flights operated by DHL and Lufthansa Cargo, now that the DHL hub has become fully operational. The amount of freight handled at Leipzig/Halle Airport for the first quarter of 2009 rose to 113,356 metric tons, an increase of 72 percent compared to last year.
In December, the airport operator, Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, and Lufthansa Cargo started a strategic partnership to jointly develop the airport in central Germany into a leading airfreight base in Europe. “Along with Frankfurt, Leipzig/Halle Airport is our most important freighter hub which we intend to expand gradually. Our partnership with Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding is a milestone in that policy and it underlines our long-term strategy,” says Lufthansa Cargo Board Member Karl-Heinz Köpfle.
Aside from Leipzig/Halle Airport, the strategic partnership will also benefit its PortGround affiliate company. Dierk Näther, managing director of the two subsidiaries of Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, noted: “Lufthansa Cargo ranks among the Airport’s most important customers. With its move into the World Cargo Center, PortGround will additionally take over freight handling for the cargo carrier in Leipzig. That will strengthen and further expand the existing, successful cooperation between our companies.” In an intercontinental joint venture with DHL Express, Lufthansa Cargo has connected Leipzig/Halle Airport with logistics centers in Asia and the United States.