The airfreight market is at last showing tentative signs of recovery after a horrendous 12 months, the Straits Times reported.
The first, faint signs of a turnaround come with the entry of another player, the fourth new arrival to set up shop here this year.
AeroLogic, a joint venture between DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo, flew its first commercial flight at the end of last month. From this week, it will operate 10 weekly flights from Leipzig in Germany to Bahrain, Singapore and New Delhi, carrying cargo for customers of its parent companies.
A DHL spokesman noted that trade between Europe and Asia is expected to see medium-term growth of about five percent annually.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) chief executive Lee Seow Hiang said that there are signs of a pick-up in business.
Lee said that while airfreight movements fell by 20 percent for the first six months of this year, the rate of decline has "somewhat slowed" in the past two months.
This tallies with developments in the global market: the more than 17 per cent decline in international cargo demand reported for May was a relative improvement compared with the almost 22 per cent drop in April.
But Lee cautioned that the market remains fragile: "The cargo community is hit not only by the drop in demand but also a shrinking of yields."
"But we remain optimistic of the medium- to longer-term prospects of the airfreight market in Singapore and the Asian region." |
