Air cargo carriers

Shippers seeking damages from cargo airlines accused of price-fixing have been granted class-action status, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to seek damages against the airlines.

Lufthansa Cargo’s traffic shrank in June as the German carrier failed to sell all of its extra capacity, pushing its load factor close to a six year low as it braces for more pilot strikes.

China’s three largest cargo airlines will join forces to form the largest air freight carrier in Asia, according to a senior official at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, mainland state media reported.

Global economic uncertainty and a slowing China continues to hang over cargo markets, with air and ocean transportation providers struggling to match capacity to demand while having little visibility going into the second half of 2015.

Any suggestion that freighter aircraft would play a lesser role in the supply chains of the future was firmly put to bed with 29 the number of all-cargo planes ordered from Boeing by the time the Paris Air Show ended this week.

Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr signed a memorandum of understanding today to buy and lease twenty Boeing 747-8 freighters with a combined list price of $7.4 billion for its AirBridgeCargo Airline unit.

AirBridgeCargo’s traffic soared 16 percent in the first five months of the year as Russia’s largest all-cargo carrier continued to outperform its struggling European rivals.

EVA Air has committed to purchase five Boeing 777 freighters at a list price of $1.5 billion at the Paris Air Show as the Taiwan carrier finally moves to upgrade its all-cargo fleet that was once the pride of the airline.

Cargo carriers in the U.S. have raised concerns that action by Washington to curb open skies agreements with Middle Eastern carriers over allegations they are subsidised by their governments could become a threat to vital worldwide air freight networks.

Lufthansa Cargo’s traffic dipped 1.4 percent in May as it failed to fill additional capacity, but the German carrier continued to outperform its main European rivals.

Freighter operator Cargolux has launched a new twice-weekly air service between Chicago and Zhengzhou, China.

ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines posted mixed earnings results in the fiscal year ended March 31, even as the two biggest Japanese air carriers saw their international cargo revenues soar.

Air France-KLM Cargo remains mired in the red with the first-quarter operating loss almost doubling to 63 million euros ($70.6 million) from 34 million euros a year ago as the carrier rushes to downsize its unprofitable freighter operations.

IAG Cargo posted lower revenue and reduced volumes in the first quarter as the carrier continued to feel the impact of its exit from freighter operations.

Cargolux’s net profit was squeezed to $3 million in 2014 from $8.4 million in 2013 by a $40 million impairment on its 747-400 freighter fleet and a provision for potential anti-trust fines.

Lufthansa Cargo says it is delaying the construction of a new freight center at its Frankfurt hub “by at least two years.”

Russia’s AirBridgeCargo Airlines boosted freight tonnage by 20 percent in the first quarter as its rapidly expanding international network offset the impact of sanctions and an economic downturn in its domestic market.

Air freight carried by Asian carriers grew by a solid 12.8 percent in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2014, according to data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA).

Qatar Airways Cargo is launching a freighter service between its Doha hub and Los Angeles International Airport, its fourth all-cargo service to the U.S.

Martinair, Air France-KLM’s all-cargo unit, announced it is laying off 330 employees, including 110 pilots, as it downsizes its freighter fleet in a bid to return to profitability.

The government of Hong Kong has approved the building of a third runway at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), announcing that it would fund the $18.2 billion expansion through internal funds, external borrowings and higher user fees.

Cathay Pacific and sister carrier Dragonair carried almost 30 percent more cargo in February than during the same month last year as the Hong Kong-based airlines added capacity to cope with the lunar new year surge in demand.

Lufthansa Cargo’s operating profit surged nearly 27 percent in 2014. The German carrier remained in the black for the fifth consecutive year despite a weak global air freight market that has pushed many of its rivals into the red.

There were 221 kilograms of lithium ion batteries in the belly hold of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that vanished in March last year, according to the first comprehensive report into the disappearance of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing aircraft.

With the air cargo industry under increasing competition from ocean carriers for certain cargoes, especially perishables, more sophisticated software and technology tools are helping drive the migration from ocean to air.

DB Schenker, the logistics unit of German railroad Deutsche Bahn, has reached agreement with three airlines involved in a global price-fixing cartel but is still seeking damages from three other carriers.

The global air cargo market got off to a sluggish start in 2015, with traffic up 3.2 percent year-over-year in January as lower volumes on European and North and South American routes offset strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

International Airlines Group’s cargo revenue declined 7.5 percent in 2014 from the previous year, largely because the owner of British Airways and Iberia quit freighter operations.

Trans-Pacific air freight markets will continue to benefit from shipper demand as U.S. ports take several months to clear the backlog of containers that stacked up during the protracted waterfront labor dispute between terminals and the union.

Air France-KLM’s cargo losses widened to 212 million euros [US $242 million] in 2014 from 202 million euros in the previous year as a two-week pilots’ strike compounded the impact of a weak global airfreight market.

Solid freight demand from North American markets saw Cathay Pacific and sister airline Dragonair get the year off to a good start and allowed the carrier to operate an almost full freighter schedule in January.

It was no surprise to find air cargo executives at the WCA Worldwide forwarders conference in Hong Kong lobbying for more shippers and forwarders to send their cargo via air, but the U.S. port congestion provided a helpful marketing tool.

The highly public spat between Alibaba Group and China regulators over allegations of counterfeit or misdeclared goods being sold via the Internet giant’s online platform has again highlighted supply chain safety and security concerns faced by logistics providers and airlines transporting the e-commerce products.

Shrugging off the economic downturn in its home market, Russia’s AirBridgeCargo Airlines boosted traffic 17.6 percent in 2014, its 10th anniversary, even as leading Western airlines continued to downsize their freighter operations.

Japan Airlines reported a 3.1 percent year-over-year drop in group net profit for the first three quarters of fiscal 2014, to 119.684 billion yen (US$1.01 billion), despite a nearly double-digit rise in international cargo revenue.

ANA Holdings’ international cargo revenue surged 20.9 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of fiscal 2014, helping the largest Japanese airline group post a jump in profit for the April-December period

Cathay Pacific’s new air cargo terminal in Hong Kong handled 1.45 million tons during 2014 in its first full year of operation.

Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (Hactl) ended a solid 2014 by recording its strongest quarter of the year as Asia’s air freight sector continued its robust recovery.