Emirates, Turkish Airlines leaders share insights on combination carrier route planning

A volatile market requires maximized efficiency, so freighter route and passenger route development teams at combination carriers must work closely together. Panelists on the webinar “ Air cargo route networks : Strategies for improved results and greater efficiencies,” presented Sept. 16 by Cargo Facts , spoke of this need for collaboration to ensure capacity is not being exceeded or underutilized. These conversations must happen regularly, as many factors can influence network needs. [caption id="attachment_57291685" align="aligncenter" width="1206"] Cargo Facts Deputy Editor Yael Katzwer, top left, moderates a webinar about route development with panelists Oguzhan Cerrah, of Turkish Airlines, top right, and Nadeem Sultan, of Emirates SkyCargo, bottom. (Cargo Facts)[/caption] View the webinar on-demand here. “Especially with the growth in e-commerce, we started to increase our frequencies in Asia, but with full utilization of the current aircraft,” Oguzhan Cerrah, vice president of cargo network planning and development at Turkish Airlines, said on the webinar. “We have to balance the capacity in the east and the west by combining both belly capacity and freighter capacity.” Balancing act About 55% of Turkish Cargo’s cargo capacity comes from belly capacity, Cerrah said. “In order to fulfill that capacity, we have to adjust our freighter network,” Cerrah said. “It makes us dependent on our passenger network.” “Our freighter network design will always have been balanced with our passenger network, but it doesn't mean that our passenger network planning is doing it all by itself.” — Oguzhan Cerrah, vice president of cargo network planning and development at Turkish Airlines “When we open a new route, the aircraft type is being chosen by both the passenger numbers expectation and the cargo numbers expectation, because we have been operating diversified fields,” he said. Fleet considerations Aircraft type, both freighter and passenger, affects cargo capacity. Emirates’ passenger fleet primarily contains more than 250 A380s and 777s, and that belly capacity is complemented by eleven 777Fs and six 747Fs, Nadeem Sultan, senior vice president of freighters and cargo planning at Emirates SkyCargo, said. Emirates aims to add ten production 777Fs to its fleet in the next twelve months and ten converted 777-300ERSFs in the next two to four years, Sultan said. “We're looking at really more than doubling our freighter fleet,” Sultan said. “It's also a function of our growing passenger fleet that is going to more than double in the coming decade. We need to ensure that we've got the capacity on board on the freighter side to make sure we can keep feeding those bellies.” “It's absolutely hand in hand, passenger and cargo.” — Nadeem Sultan, senior vice president of freighters and cargo planning at Emirates SkyCargo A change in aircraft type on a passenger route can necessitate a change in freighter routes. “If any changes are proposed after launching a route, then those need to be internally aligned as well,” Sultan said. “It could be adding or reducing frequency. It could be changing aircraft type. So, for instance, in our case, if a 777 operation became an A380 operation, or vice versa, that impacts greatly cargo capacity.” Even swapping one 777 for another on a passenger route can affect cargo, as different aircraft “all have different configurations depending on the route and regions where they are deployed,” Sultan said. “Sometimes making those changes actually also impacts cargo space and loadability.” Fleet growth Turkish Cargo considers bellyhold capacity when making freighter fleet plans and managing freighter routes. The carrier operates eight 777Fs and ten production A330-200Fs, complementing a passenger fleet of more than 380 Boeing and Airbus jets. Turkish will increase its 777F fleet to twelve aircraft after placing an order in 2024 with Boeing for four more of the large-widebody production freighters. The carrier also placed an order with Airbus for five A350Fs in late 2023. “In fact, in our long-term fleet strategies, we calculate the passenger belly capacity dependency in order to decide how many freighter aircraft that we would have,” Cerrah said. “Our freighter fleet expansion will be according to our passenger fleet expansion. “And there are huge differences between the two types of widebodies in terms of cargo payloads,” he said. Turkish can transport about 18 to 20 tonnes in the belly of a 777 and about 10 to 12 tonnes in the belly of an A330, Cerrah said. Seasonal, regional fluctuations Seasonal variability in the passenger market influences freighter route development, as well. “When the passenger side downgrades the passenger flight, we adjust our capacity by adding freighters in that specific route,” Cerrah said. For instance, most of Turkish Airlines’ passenger flights to Europe turn to widebodies during the summer, increasing cargo capacity to the West, he said. In response, Turkish Cargo will increase freighter capacity into the East. Conversely, when Turkish Airlines is flying narrowbody passenger jets to Europe in the winter, Turkish Cargo readjusts and flies more freighters to the West. “We always have a balance between the passenger network and cargo network,” Cerrah said. Bellyhold capacity can also change by region, Sultan said, noting that in China a lot of passengers are traders who will check ten to twelve boxes of goods they bought. “That also impacts cargo availability on the day,” Sultan said. “There are quite a number of factors that potentially can impact the availability of cargo payload on a passenger flight.” Cargo Facts Symposium, the quintessential event for stakeholders and key leaders in the global freighter and air cargo industries, will take place Oct. 22-24 at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville . Learn more and register today to attend this key industry event.

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