#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE
|
#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE |
|
| Vol. 14 No. 64 | Tuesday
August 11, 2015 |
 |
|
| No New Freighters
For Jet Cargo
|
  When
the Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways decided to start dedicated long-haul freighter,
the news was greeted with enthusiasm by air cargo stakeholders. The carrier
was going to create history by being the first from India to start long-haul
cargo services and everyone in the cargo fraternity was awaiting the services.That was around March-April this year. And with the Prime Minister’s Make in India campaign gaining momentum, the environment looked good for Jet Airways to lease an Airbus A330F from its partner Etihad Airways to transport goods. Six months into the year and all the enthusiasm and optimism seems to have vanished: Naresh Goyal’s carrier has changed plans. It no longer wants to carry on with the dedicated freighter services because its management believes that the market conditions are not ripe yet and also due to commercial and operational issues. However, the carrier will continue with bellyhold cargo. According to reports, an unnamed official who was familiar with Jet’s cargo moves was quoted saying that, "internal processes and framework are in place at Jet Airways and our strategic partner Etihad Airways to allow the initiative to progress at a later date.” While many in the air cargo industry in India feel that Jet has taken the right course, others point out that the main reason for not starting dedicated freighter flights was the turmoil within the ranks. Readers might remember the appointment of Martin Drew, an Etihad executive, as Vice-President, Cargo. In fact, he seemed to have been well-settled in Mumbai before this correspondent heard that he had gone on vacation. That was sometime in the middle of March this year. In the next month or so, Drew quit Jet to go back to Etihad as Vice-President for the Americas – on the passenger side. Meanwhile, James Gilliard, Manager – Cargo Asia Pacific, who had incidentally been appointed before Drew, was given the responsibilities of the cargo division till a person was found for the job. All this happened even as Jet was ready to launch its first freighter service, operated by Etihad. Around March this year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had granted in-principle approval to Jet Airways to wet lease an Airbus A330-200 freighter from Etihad. The ministry’s okay was for a period of six months. Martin Drew’s move appeared to be rather sudden. In fact, soon after he took over, he spoke to a trade publication and mentioned that his mandate as Jet Airways’ cargo head was “to enhance revenue, leverage the strong Jet Airways brand and strengthen the position of Jet Airways Cargo. A particular focus area is to improve cargo revenues from the domestic market. Jet Airways’ domestic network is vast, serving 50 Indian cities with around 400 flights each day. The overall capacity per day is huge at around 650 tonnes. So the main focus is to better optimize this capacity and enhance the revenue this generates. Another key part of my mandate is to work on the strategic partnership with Etihad, and other interline partners by identifying opportunities to work together and capitalize on the synergies” Drew had said. He had also mentioned that the “induction of the freighter is further evidence that cargo is a serious growth priority at Jet Airways”. Does that mean that Jet no longer believes cargo is important? This, despite the fact that “a lot of hard work and effort has gone into making this (the freighter operation) happen and it really was a team effort”. Almost seven years ago, in 2008, Naresh Goyal had thought of starting a cargo airline – possibly in partnership with an European carrier. Around that time, the Jet boss had said that around 12 per cent of the carrier’s revenue came from cargo and that he wanted to increase that share to 30 per cent. Then came news about Jet’s code-sharing with Brussels Airline. The move was aimed to increase cargo traffic using the Brussels hub not only for European destinations but also to connect Indian cities with North America. Since then, however, Jet has seen many ups and down and now with Etihad Airways becoming a strategic partner, the launching of freighter operations was seen as a step forward. Cramer Ball, Jet’s Chief Executive Officer had said that India was now “the second fastest growing air cargo market in the world and this growth is expected to continue in line with the country's economy and we look forward to cargo making a strong contribution to the annual revenues of Jet Airways”. He had even pointed out that the dedicated freighter operations would enable the airline to provide, for the first time, cargo services for customers in India and around the world. Jet was also looking forward to cash in on Narendra Modi's Make in India campaign that would depend on logistics links and the coming boom in the domestic e-commerce sector. It was also believed that the long-haul freighter services would take head-on the challenge posed by Emirates which was the top freight carrier transporting 131,748 tonnes in 2013-14. In the same financial year, Jet Airways transported 120,821 tonnes of cargo (67,186 tonnes was international cargo). Air India, which no longer has freighter aircraft, lifted only 95,473 tonnes. In the midst of all this, in the beginning of May this year, Jet launched Fast-Track, a premium express cargo service on its domestic network for customers needing urgent shipment of air cargo in a defined timeframe. The carrier said that Fast-Track would provide priority access to capacity, later bookings and guaranteed uplift with a money-back guarantee in case of non-delivery of service. “With our extensive domestic network, Jet Airways is focused on delivering greater value to our customers by providing customised solutions aimed at swift and reliable transport of cargo,” according to Raj Sivakumar, Jet’s Chief Commercial Officer. Tirthankar Ghosh |
If
You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers |
