The Freight 50: A strong finish to 2016

Building on momentum

As the good times continue to roll, some still caution that a cooling-off period is coming before the peak season kicks in this fall. Others, however, are gambling that the hot streak will continue. Regarding cargo demand, “we are quite confident that it will last till this year’s end, as normally performance in the second half of each year is better,” said Air China’s Lo.

David Kerr, senior vice president of No. 19, Etihad Cargo, said he sees “the strength from the first half of 2017 continuing and, indeed, peaking in the second half of the year,” but added that 2017 “will not be exceptional in the end as capacity is largely contracted in advance. At the moment, it is a case of demand for capacity still outstripping supply, particularly to Europe and North America.”

At ABC, Lazarev said he was “quite optimistic about the longer-term future,” citing the economic recovery in many countries, the growth of cross-border e-commerce, and high rates of consumption in China, which could help balance the Asia-Europe and North America trade lanes. “We believe that demand will grow for the next two to three years with a compound average growth rate of not less than 3 percent.”

Sultan, at Emirates, also noted a “deeper change in consumer behavior,” in 2016 and early 2017. “Consumers are more demanding,” requiring a high level of personalization, he said. “The airfreight world is slowly changing from B2B to B2B2C. The growth and change has been slow in absolute numbers, but it is certainly happening, and we will see a larger impact in the years to come.”

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