Cargo rises despite SARS - Freight Forwarding - despite severe acute respiratory syndrome Dragonair reports cargo increase - Brief Article

Business Asia, June, 2003

Stories of airlines having to drastically reduce flights due to the effects of war, terrorism and SARS have been hitting the headlines for some time now, but there is a bright side to the tale.

While passenger numbers have fallen away, the cargo side of the business has risen in leaps and bounds, spurring at least one airline to consider increasing its fleet.

Hong Kong's Dragonair has reported a 54.4 per cent increase in cargo, carrying 78,075 tonnes in the first four months of this year.

On the back of this, the airline says that it is in talks to purchase Boeing 747-200 or 300 series to add to its fleet of three Boeing 747-300 planes, originally bought as passenger aircraft but converted to freighters.

The airline is considering tripling its freighter fleet to at least nine Boeing 747s by 2008.

The major growth area for demand for freight services is China, which is rapidly continuing its development as a manufacturing base.

Dragonair recently signed a deal with courier giant DHL Express that saw the launch of a new overnight air cargo route between Hong Kong and Shanghai. The service operates four days a week on a A330-300 passenger aircraft with a freight capacity of 22 tonnes.

DHL already flies to Guangzhou and Shenzen.

Chief operating officer for DHL Asia Pacific John Mullen says the new route capitalises on the growth area.

"This new development will enable DHL to capture the increasing demand for express delivery service in China and leverage the opportunities arising from growing intra-Asia traffic," he says.

DHL is jostling with rivals FedEx and United Parcel Services for a slice of China's booming parcel market.

Additional reporting from Reuters