What Does the Future Hold for the Chinese Air Freight Industry?

Recent figures show that China is the fastest growing aviation market in the world. Indeed, between 204 and 2005 China's air freight volume increased by 25% and 20% respectively. Furthermore, passenger traffic also grew considerably in this period.

However, shortage of available freighters is threatening to restrict the growth of China's air freight industry. According to the vice President of China's largest air freight forwarding company,

"We want to expand as fast as possible ... But it is very difficult to find aircraft at the moment."

One way around the problem of freighter shortages is to use other aircraft, like the B777 which are new freighters with very good fuel efficiency. However, these types of freight planes are unlikely to be available for the next couple of years.

Other options that some of China's large freight forwarding companies are looking into is to expand their road feeder services. This would enable them to create a network across the country which could be integrated with their air freight services.

Furthermore, opportunities will be created by the expansion of Beijing Capital International airport along with the Simplified Customs Clearance Procedure. These two factors will combine to accelerate the growth of the air freight business in China.

Although the growth rate of China's air freight sector is expected to slow down this in 2006, it will not stop completely. According to experts in the freight industry, Chinese air freight cargo volumes are predicted to increase by 10% in 2006. If this does happen then China's air freight volume will be 3.36 million tons. This means that it will still be a dominant player in the global air freight market.

On a similar note, air passenger numbers are also likely to grow. Industry insiders estimate that air passenger numbers will rise by 15%. If this increase takes place then around 159 million people will travel by aeroplane out of China this year.

GBS Freight is a UK freight forwarding company

Air Freight Forwarding Companies Involved In Price Fixing

A worldwide investigation has been launched into alleged fuel price fixing by the air freight forwarding industry. Eleven major freight carrying airlines are being accused of trying to fix fuel price surcharges for freight forwarding flights. Amongst the airlines being accused of price fixing are British Airways, United Airlines and Lufthansa.

The airlines are being sued for fuel price fixing by a Tanzanian firm which had used KLM as a freight forwarding company to transport wood carvings to New York. The company, Sisimizi which is based in Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania, is seeking unspecified damages from a number of major airlines which act as freight forwarding companies. The complaint about fuel price fixing by leading airlines was filed on February 28 in US District Court for the Northeastern District of Illinois.

According to Julius Maldutis, the president of consulting firm Aviation Dynamics:

"This is going to be a very big issue because all the airlines increased the price of their cargo business concurrently".

According to recent reports, Lufthansa has offered to cooperate with US federal prosecutors who are investigating the claim that price-fixing is taking place in the global airline freight forwarding industry.

Legal experts claim that by offering to co-operate with the authorities, Lufthansa could protect itself from possible criminal charges. This is most likely to be the case if it provides evidence against other air freight forwarding companies.

The investigation into allegations of fuel price fixing became public in February this year. At this time, authorities in Europe, Asia and the United States raided offices of a number of the world's major airlines. They also requested information from other air freight forwarding companies. The crux of their investigations rests on the claim that air freight forwarders conspired to fix fuel surcharges and other fuel related costs. A number of airlines have been asked to provide evidence and most have said that they are co-operating with these requests.

GBS Freight is a freight forwarding company with over twenty years industry experience.

Cleaning Air Cargo Containers

If you own a pressure washing business, janitorial service or truck washing business you owe it to yourself to look into the cleaning of air cargo containers. The cleaning of air-cargo containers is a necessity and it is a consistent business. These containers must be cleaned off to protect the contents inside. In our company we have established an industrial division from our car and truck washing business, The Car Wash Guys, which specializes in unique type cleaning. The Car Wash Guys industrial division specializes in steam cleaning of air cargo containers, ground equipment and loading docks. If you wish to get into this lucrative line of cleaning there are some things you will need. We maintain excessive insurance liability coverage to work on airports, excessive worker’s compensation insurance, business licenses and state and county wastewater permits.

Although this sounds like a lot of paperwork it is not as difficult as it sounds and due to all these requirements it means these barriers to entry deter competition. Luckily for some businesses the government’s intense bureaucracy helps you beat your competitors. Of course, we know that “price is king”. Unless we have the lowest price or a very fair price, all the credentials in the world are meaningless. So here are some suggestions on cleaning prices for Cargo Containers:

Small – On maintenance program $2.00 each

Small – Very dirty $5.00 each

Large – On maintenance program $5.00 each

Large – With corrosion and dirty $10.00 each

Loading Docks Steam Cleaning is also a great business in that in a given industrial area there may be over 500 loading bays available for cleaning. We suggest a low cost high volume pricing strategy:

One Stall $10.00 each

Multiple Stalls $8.00 each

Ground Equipment at airports is parked all over the ramp, many pieces of equipment and if you charge by the unit you may find yourself cleaning hundreds of pieces of equipment in a single visit.

Small Units $3.00 each

Pick-ups/Vans $ 8.00 each

Bobtails/Scissor Trucks $15.00 to $25.00 each

Yes, those are low prices, but that’s how you secure large accounts, which will lead to more work around industrial areas and airports. Before your pressure washing company or cleaning service will be chosen to do such accounts you must convince your potential customer that you believe in:

Strict adherence to scheduling

Consistency of quality

Image of equipment and crew

Safety procedures

These are nearly as important as price. We really believe that because in the service business you either give good service or perish. So for twenty years that’s what we’ve done. I hope you’ll take this advice and follow it, as it uplifts the industry the more professional companies there are out there and together we also add a safety net to the new Homeland Security paradigm. Think on this.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Tips When Choosing Air Cargo Service

The definition of air cargo service is simple. It is simply the extra advantages that a cargo transportation service will offer to their customers. Many of these companies have a large list of services that they offer, depending on the type of airline. If a company is responsible for transporting passengers, then their service list will look different than that of a company involved in transporting goods.

Each company decides what services to offer to its customers. Some companies offer more services than others. Services offered to passenger airlines can include: baggage handling, ticket verification, skycap, unaccompanied minor escorts, wheelchair services, and many more. Services offered as part of freight shipping services can include things such as, road feeder services between different airports and airport to inland container depots, air cargo clearance centers, centers for perishable cargo, and warehousing for bonded and non bonded air cargo.

Another important service for these companies is document control. If documents for it are not always one hundred percent in line, then things are much more likely to go wrong. A good air cargo company will ensure that all the documents for their cargo are in order.

With the increased safety requirements imposed on this industry and the world in general since 2001, it has been harder and more expensive to ship goods by air. Containers can only be a certain size, weight limits are different, only so many toxic materials can be sent on a plane at once; it is astonishing how many new restrictions the industry has received since then. With these newer restrictions on cargo airlines, it is more important than ever to choose a company that offers reliable air cargo service options to the client, for whom they are hauling cargo.

A very important service that a cargo airline should offer is the service of air cargo tracking. Being able to track a shipment, and knowing where it is at any given time is invaluable to the business or company that is shipping the goods. Knowing what fees are charged for what goods is also important before picking a shipping airline. Additionally, it is extremely important to be aware of what goods are legal to ship through the air and which are not. A cargo agent will usually handle these kinds of issues if the business has one employed.

It is important when choosing a cargo airline to ensure that they give appropriate air cargo service. The little extra features that a company offers can really make the difference between a pleasant shipping experience and a horrible one. Also, always be aware of the airport security laws, what is legal to ship by air, and what type of containers are necessary to ship certain goods by air. Good companies will aide you greatly in these decisions.

Visit Mike Selvon portal for more information on air cargo service, and leave a comment at our air freight services blog. Don't forget to claim your FREE gift.

Learning About Air Cargo Carriers

If you want to do business with air cargo companies, then it is necessary to be informed about the different types of air cargo carriers that they might be using. There are many things to learn about cargo planes; things such as, how much space each plane has, what kind of prices are charged when shipping using the planes, what kinds of planes they use, and many other things. With all the information available, it is good to know at least a little about cargo airlines and their operations.

Air transport is essential to manage and control the flow of goods, energy, information, and other vital resources needed for commerce and other types of services. Without air cargo services, it would be impossible to do any kind of global trading, import/export processes, or repositioning of raw materials and products, unless using the services of ocean freight.

Air transport has also streamlined several business processes, such as making it easier to receive information, the speed of transportation, faster exchanges of inventory, and many others. There are many different kinds of cargo planes out there. Some of these include the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, Ilyushin Il-76, and Douglas DC-3. Some air cargo companies are starting to modify turboprop planes to be used as cargo carriers as well.

The Boeing 747-400 is one of the most often used air cargo carriers. It can hold most types of cargo with ease and has an area available to hold around 26,000 cubic feet of freight and/or cargo. While these planes are used to move most types of cargo, when larger payloads need to be transported, even bigger cargo planes are used by the air cargo companies.

These super transporters can carry around 47 tons of freight, but believe it or not, there are even bigger cargo planes. The largest cargo plane is the Antonov AN-225 and it is used to haul items, such as helicopters or tanks. It is very useful in this application as it can hold around 250 tons.

Now you know a little something about air cargo carriers that you might not have known before. It is interesting to find out the importance of something that you might not otherwise think about.

It is also very important for a freight shipping company to know all this transport information to run their businesses. Now, whether you are looking to ship something by air cargo, gain a position at a cargo airline or perhaps answer trivia game questions, you will have some of the answers.

Visit Mike Selvon portal for more information on air cargo carriers, and leave a comment at our air freight services blog. Don't forget to claim your FREE gift.

Future Growth of Air Freight in the World Markets

As we study the future of world markets, we see a very nice future for air freight. By 2025 we will most likely see an 85% increase and that will mean converting older aircraft and retrofitting them. And it will mean good things for Boeing and Airbus.

I expect many current aircraft flying passengers and taken out of capacity as this current sector rotation rounds out (fuel prices will increase that) and new more efficient aircraft come onto the scene. I predict that 66% of the growth will come from conversion of current passenger aircraft while there will be 33% new aircraft which do not require pilots at all. Flying freight around the world.

This will mean a market of over 170 Billion in retrofits and new aircraft for people like Pimco and Timco and others. If you look at these numbers you can see a future for laid off aerospace workers from Everett, Wichita, Dayton, Long Beach and other locations. With these aging aerospace workers it will most likely mean a need for newer entrants into that labor force. We would also say that 40% of such growth would be to service North America and her growing middle class as they partake in products from world markets.

With this increase we could expect the current 1700 plus air freight fleet to grow to over 3200 by 2025. Although these are long-term predictions they do account for normal cycles such as 15 year cycles or 2-3 year economic cycles. Also GE will benefit along with component makers of aircraft parts.

Even with the competition from Airbus we will see factories on US soil as well as components being made in other Asian markets, meaning the entire world will benefit from this sector in the next two-decades.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

New Advances for the UK Air Freight Industry

As with so many other sectors, it seems that the future of freight forwarding is online. The internet has long been hailed for the convenience it offers. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that the UK air freight industry has decided to explore the potential it offers by introducing new electronic processes.

E-freight, as it is being called, is all about replacing traditional paper documents with electronic ones for the transportation of cargo. The aim is to streamline and simplify air fright forwarding. Using electronic processes will of course also offer considerable cost savings.

In the short term, the companies taking part in the trial will actually lose rather than save money. This is because they will have to run electronic and paper processes in conjunction with one another. However, in the longer term, using e-methods will cut down on the considerable amount of paperwork required for air freight transportation.

The other advantage of using electronic documenting methods is that there is less room for error. It also helps cut down on the level of administration required. In fact, it is expected that billions of pounds could be saved in terms of administration costs alone.

Of course e-ticketing is already widely used by passengers traveling around the world. Most people now arrive at an airport with an ‘e-ticket’ that they have printed off their home or work computers. As a result airlines do not have to send out paper tickets in advance of travel which costs them money and of course run the risk of getting lost in the post.

In fact over 90% of all passenger tickets issued in the UK are electronic (although this figure is much higher for some carriers) and they cost the airlines considerably less than paper tickets. The average paper ticket costs an airline £5 whilst an e-ticket only costs it 50 pence!

GBS Freight runs an air freight forwarder service and also transports cargo around the world by sea and road.