Pleased with its cargo business between Miami International Airport (MIA) and Seoul, Korean Air has increased its initial direct, twice-weekly Boeing 747-400 freighter service in one year’s time to fi ve times per week. The offering is regarded another milestone for MIA, which seeks to expandits route structure into Asia.
“It has worked particularly well for Korean, and has been a successful component to balance the backhaul to Asia,” states Chris Mangos, MIA marketing manager. He expects the service to soon become daily. Besides Korean, China Airlines Cargo now offers fi ve weekly freighter fl ights between MIA and Taipei.
Inbound cargo primarily consists of high-tech goods, including telecommunications equipment, computers and peripherals, offi ce machinery andhousehold consumer goods.
Outbound cargos include medicines and drugs, computer chips and integrated circuits, medical equipment, commercial and industrial machinery, and parts, as well as dry cargo goods and perishables originating from allpoints in South America.
Overall, cargo volumes at MIA are up. At 2,018,291 tonnes, an increase of 4.3 percent over 2005, last year was its best year for cargo since pre-9/11. Of that, the international component was 1,696,037 tonnes, an increase of 6 percent. Mangos especially sees MIA obtaining a stronghold in the Asian market thanks to top carriers like KoreanAir and China Airlines.
MIA traditionally fares well in the Latin American/Caribbean market, a region that dwarfs any others at MIA at this time. “However, Asia, as a whole, or analysed by the leading markets there, continues to show high double digit growth rates year over year,” he reports. “It will be only a matter of time before Asia trade is a signifi cant component of our bigger picture atMIA.”
He sees MIA’s ability to connect Asia to and through the Americas and the Caribbean as a huge asset. That’s because MIA offers service to an unusually high number of destinations.“We are presently handling 80percent of the air imports and 77percent of the air exports betweenthe Latin American/Caribbean andUS markets and are the largest pointin the Americas in the handling ofperishable products,” he states. “Wework very hard to retain those highnumbers and as such have a decidedadvantage for any carrier, European,Asian, European or African lookingfor cargo in the Americas.”
To attract more business, MIA now offers fi nancial incentives to carriers that offer freighter service originating in Asian, European and African markets. The incentives are available during their fi rst year of operating anew service.
“We want to call attention to the fact that Miami offers a good cargo business model and that those who have chosen this airport have not had to retreat,” he says. “The incentive is an added extra for carriers to consider during their fi rst year of operating a new route. We encourage carriers to contact us for full details of the new incentive programme.” – Karen E. Thuermer
