Cargo volumes cause operators to park equipment

December 15, 2008 by Splatty  
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Thanks to the global economic meltdown, many operators of ocean vessels and aircraft are making the difficult decision to park equipment. Aircargonews Asia has a couple of interesting articles that discuss some recent steps that some companies are taking due to global decreases in international trade.

On the airfreight front, Kalitta Air has recently made the decision to ground one-third of its all freighter fleet.

According to unconfirmed reports, the US all-cargo airline is going to park as many as eight of its 20 747 freighters and lay off more than 200 employees. Management has not commented on the issue.

Kalitta is not the only freighter airline to ground planes. According to the article, Cathay Pacific is parking two of their 747’s for a year in the United States.

Airlines are not the only companies struggling in the current economic environment. Last week I posted on the difficulties many steamship lines are facing and the free fall in ocean imports rates into the U.S. According to the Aircargonews article, ocean carriers are also making the decision to ground vessels.

Maersk Line has mothballed eight ships and “K” Line and Cosco, both members of the CKYH alliance, have set up a schedule to lay up nine and six vessels respectively, due to a sharp drop in cargo volumes.

Definitely not great news for those us working in this current environment. When it will get better is anyone’s guess. From many of the articles I have been reading on the subject, recovery time frames have been all over the board. The earliest I have heard is the latter half of 2009; however, I personally believe that might be overly optimistic.

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Hong Kong air traffic and cargo volumes decline

More pressure on overall freight costs for the future

ATA Reports Sharp Decline in Air Cargo