Podcast: Camex, Texel, Avensis, Challenge preview CF EMEA 2024

Jeff Lee
Hello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts and it’s Monday, the 29th of January. We’re already at the end of the month, but that also means that we’re coming up quickly on Cargo Facts EMEA, our conference taking place next week, from Monday the 5th of February to Wednesday the 7th in Amsterdam.

The event will include a mix of panel discussions and presentations on the latest and most relevant topics in the air cargo and freighter aircraft market. As a sneak peek, I got some quick thoughts from a couple of my panelists. First, our narrowbody freighter session will feature speakers from two companies in the EMEA region that have selected the 737-800 freighter type: George Seturidze, CEO of Camex Airlines, which recently expanded its presence with a new AOC in Slovenia, and Michael Hamelink, CFO of Chisholm Enterprises and CEO of Texel Air, the first 737-800 freighter operator in the Middle East.

Jeff Lee
Hi George, thanks for joining us.

George Seturidze
Hello Jeff. Thank you.

Jeff Lee
So how do you think 2024 is gonna go for seven three seven 800 operators like yourselves? And you just had a new AOC too.

George Seturidze
Oh, I think 2024 will show us a lot of things regarding how the market will be improved for the future. As you know, the problems with the feedstock for the conversion so that for sure will have an effect. Also, some of classics will leave the market as well, but you will combine all this and also not very good predictions for the market group. Then we think that this year need to consider as how as it was, without very big stress.

Jeff Lee
OK. Thank you. So we’ll look forward to seeing you in Amsterdam. Thanks again.

George Seturidze
Thank you.

Jeff Lee
Hi Michael. How are you? And we’re looking forward to seeing you in Amsterdam.

Michael Hamelink
Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you.

Jeff Lee
So as a quick preview of cargo facts EMEA. How do you feel about the narrowbody freighter segment as an operator and you know, what are your thoughts on how this year is gonna go?

Michael Hamelink
Yeah, I think the the freight markets as such was a bit down last year. So that was followed by a lower demand for also narrow body body freighters. So there were delays in delivering aircraft from from Boeing and maybe the other parties as well. So, but I think going forward, the market will react on that and the demand will maybe be at a similar level, but the supply will be moved towards the demand. So then I think on top of that, there will still be classics replaced by Ngs. So I think there will be enough demand, maybe not as good as 2022, but maybe similar as 23 or better.

Jeff Lee
Right. Interesting. Because you yeah you obviously have both the Classics and Ng, so looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you, Michael.

Jeff Lee
Meanwhile, Cargo Facts EMEA will also feature a session focusing on the widebody segment. Speakers this year include, Cris Sutter, CEO of Avensis Aviation, which offers a range of cargo modifications and is developing a freighter conversion for the A340, and Or Zak, Chief Commercial Officer of Challenge Group, which took its first 767-300BDSF last year and has both 767 and 777 conversions on the way.

Jeff Lee
Cris, good to talk to you again and looking forward to seeing you in Amsterdam. For you, what’s the outlook for the conversion industry and what are you looking forward to for Cargo facts Emea?

Cristian Sutter
Hi Jeff. Thank you for having me. Well, I think that the outlook for this year and maybe for the medium term it, it shows signs of cargo demand picking up and that’s always good because it’s more demanding capacity and that means that more conversions are needed, especially the market is doing a much needed turn of what was happening last year. There was coming in continuous decline as still early days, but there are very positive indications and I think that yeah, attending cargo facts EMEA for me it’s a great opportunity to catch up with all the industry peers and share inside knowledge about our projects and what the industry is doing and take a very, very important view on market data and market intelligence. So I think it’s a must attend event for us and looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

Jeff Lee
Yeah. Looking forward to seeing you. Thanks Chris.

Cristian Sutter
You’re welcome.

Jeff Lee
And hi Or.

Or Zak
Hi Jeff, thank you for having me.

Jeff Lee
So from your perspective, what’s the wide body freighter market looking like for this year?

Or Zak
You know, I think maybe unlike some of my colleagues, I think overall this year will be will be quite good. I mean, I don’t think we can expect a major growth in terms of the total tonnage or demand in the market. But I think if we are looking at the signals at the moment, it seems like the market is stabilizing and hopefully we can see a bit more of what we used to in terms of the seasonality, unlike what we experienced since COVID started and so hopefully a little bit more stable market and but overall I think what we see from customers is that there is much more demand for long term deals and customers are looking for stability in their supply chain, which is obviously a good sign for everyone. And with the continuance of the geopolitical instability globally, we perceive that there there’s a good chance that we could continue throughout the year and into 2025.

Jeff Lee
Interesting. Good. Well, I’m looking forward to discussing this in more detail with you, so thanks, And we’ll see you in Amsterdam.

Or Zak
Same here. Thank you so much, Jeff.

Jeff Lee
Thanks again to George, Michael, Cris and Or, and look forward to hearing more from you. To all of our listeners and subscribers, it’s not too late to register for Cargo Facts EMEA, and we hope to see all of you in Amsterdam next week. And that’s all the time we have today. For more coverage of the freighter aircraft market, visit cargo facts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time.