Cargo Chat: Unique Logistics’ Marc Schlossberg on charter networks

After the initial shock of lost passenger capacity early in 2020, freight forwarders built up extensive networks of chartered freighters and passenger freighters to keep cargo moving for their shipper customers. Among these is Unique Logistics, a freight forwarder formerly based in Hong Kong but now headquartered in the U.S. [caption id="attachment_96865" align="alignright" width="360"] Marc Schlossberg, executive vice president for air freight and sales, Unique Logistics[/caption] Unique Logistics has maintained its strong Asia-Pacific presence and developed its charter network in support of trans-Pacific capacity. Major gateways for trans-Pacific flights into the U.S. have been congested, requiring freight forwarders to wait as long as several weeks to pick up cargo. However, despite operating at one of the more congested airports of Los Angeles (LAX), Unique Logistics has mostly avoided the worst of the congestion with its approaches to selecting less crowded airports for most of its charters and moving cargo off-airport as quickly as possible to avoid long wait times. Air Cargo World spoke with Marc Schlossberg, executive vice president for air freight and sales at Unique Logistics, about the state of the cargo charter market today and how freight forwarders are working around congestion to move airfreight as quickly as possible. Air Cargo World : Regarding your cargo charters, you worked with Cathay Pacific last year , as well as this year , on flights into Pittsburgh (PIT). How long do you expect that kind of charter service to last as it's looking like full-passenger recovery may never happen on the trans-Pacific lanes? Marc Schlossberg: I think that our commitment to the Pittsburgh area is long-term. When we view the international gateways that we can utilize for cargo to the U.S. East Coast and Midwest and Southeast, PIT presents certain geographic opportunities and advantages alongside Rickenbacker (LCK) in Columbus, Ohio, that appeal to our customer base. When we find that, while LCK is definitely an attractive alternative, as well, it has a little bit more competition and congestion, whereas PIT is a little more off the beaten path. And it's been a very supportive community for us to do business. ACW : How do those operations at PIT compare to your charters at Rickenbacker and Los Angeles? MS: We currently operate into LAX, LCK, PIT and JFK. We have four flights a week into PIT, one into LCK, one in LAX and one to JFK. PIT and LCK are fairly close in terms of speed and efficiency. We understand that there have been some challenges for other providers at JFK & LCK but we've been fortunate. We've moved most of our cargo off-airport to an offsite CFS [Container Freight Station], so it's not quite as challenging for us to recover on-airport. Similarly in LA, we're not utilizing the cargo terminals for our charters. We're bypassing them and moving the PMCs immediately off-airport to an off-site CFS, so we're not dealing with the on-airport congestion. ACW : Conventional wisdom today seems to be that we're in this kind of eternal peak, but I know many retailers have to increase some shipments and build up their inventories ahead of the more traditional holiday season. Have you secured any additional charters or have you been able to secure additional space going into the traditional holiday season? MS: We have additional charters starting Sept. 18; we'll be adding additional flights out of Bangalore, out of Ho Chi Minh City, out of Dhaka and out of Delhi. We’ll possibly add additional flights out of mainland China, though, with the current situation in Shanghai [it is] a little unclear what we'll do out of mainland. We've been approached by multiple retailers. In some cases, it's been more of a consultation regarding southern Vietnam, and we've developed quite a bit of reputation, I think, for expertise in southern Vietnam, to get our feedback and thoughts on how we see the market developing once the lockdown ends. And I think that, in short, there just won't be enough capacity. It'll be the storm to end all storms. Because you look at all the major retailers, from Nike to J. Jill, to Talbots, to J.Crew, to American Eagle, to The Gap, they're all there. It's gonna be ugly. ACW : Freighters are hitting their peak utilization. So how much availability is there for passenger freighters still in the market? Are rates still sustaining pax freighters on most of those trade lines? MS: If anything, rates right now are spiking. At the end of the day, there is not enough equipment in the marketplace and we're actually starting to see more 747 passenger [aircraft] start to enter the marketplace as passenger freighters. The latest offers, I've been getting are more on the 747P side, where some of the carriers that were not really utilizing their aircraft for cargo are now starting to strip seats. We're starting to see more of those start to come into the marketplace. And even more utilization of 777s with the seats in them. So people just utilizing the bellies, the 14 PMC [positions] in the bellies, as opposed to the Qatar or Emirates or Korean, who pulled seats out. So there's definitely an influx of additional passenger aircraft capacity into the marketplace. Because there's not enough freighter equipment in the market, not to mention the premium people are paying for freighter equipment. As an example, freighter aircraft going out of mainland China right now are in the $1.2 million to $1.3 million-per-flight range. You could probably get something comparable on a passenger freighter for the mid-$400,000s — you can run three trips, 777-300 or A330/A340 with cabin, belly, floor load, for the same price as a full freighter, and yet you'll get an extra 30 tonnes of capacity. Kind of a no-brainer.

Cargo Chat: Unique Logistics’ Marc Schlossberg on charter networks

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