Beyond Baku: Cargo carriers reach past the Caspian

Georgia on their minds

Seeking to avoid the higher handling charges at Baku and border restrictions found elsewhere in the region, carriers have lately shown more interest in the nation of Georgia. Coyne Airways was the first to develop the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, as a gateway for the region. “Tbilisi is a pretty efficient airport, and it has a more liberal regime as far as traffic rights are concerned,” Coyne said.

Coyne Airways flies from Tbilisi to points in Kazakhstan, while its business in Azerbaijan goes by road from Tbilisi to Baku. “We don’t have a very big stake in Azerbaijan,” said Coyne, adding that the competition there has been aggressive.

Yields in Tbilisi have sunk as a result of an influx of capacity, both maindeck and belly lift, leading Qatar Airways to stop its freighter flights to Georgia. But other carriers are showing interest. “Tbilisi is in our sights,” said Lufthansa’s Becker. “We are watching developments there.”

Cargolux has been flying to Tbilisi twice a week since 2008. Ilhan describes the cargo infrastructure there as very good and says that demand for the carrier’s road feeder service to nearby Yerevan has increased. Becker also said he is looking forward to the opening of a new airport at Ashgabat, although the setup at the Turkmenistan capital’s existing airport is not on a par with European standards. While this does not create any problems, he added, it does mean that more time has to be allocated to loading and unloading.

Observers have stressed the likely impact of growing overland logistics links from the Asian Pacific Rim – notably China – to Europe through Central Asia. This is bound to undermine some airfreight flows but could arguably open opportunities for transit points in the region. However, Becker doubts that these flows would come far south enough to benefit the Caspian region. “We see China overland mover via Kazakhstan,” he said. “We’ve had inquiries about capacity for Kazakhstan, but not over Baku. We are going over Almaty.”

While no single hub may emerge from this thriving crossroads of the world, it is clear that air cargo carrier interest in the Caspian Sea basin will remain high. “In the future,” said Cargolux’s Ilhan, “we are looking at increasing our footprint in the region.”

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