“Ex-Australia to Asia, the market bucked global trends for the first half of the year, recording strong growth particularly in perishable exports,” Qantas Freight executivemanager Stephen Cleary said, adding that there is a good mix of manufacturedgoods, perishables and time definiteproduct travelling in both directions onthe Tasman.

The cargo division of Qantas has also seen a modest demand growth between Australia and New Zealand in the first half of 2009 while volumes ex-New Zealand were in line with the widely reported global decline.

Boosting the cross-Tasman
In order to strengthen its New Zealand service as Australia is currently a net exporter by air to that country, Qantas Freight recently introduced a new Boeing 767 freighter operation between Australia and New Zealand on June 15, 2009. “For the first time customers in Christchurch will also have access to main deck freighter capacity,” Cleary said.

The B767-200 freighter has been wetleased from global carrier Air Transport International (ATI) and operates between Sydney-Auckland -Christchurch -Sydney four times a week.

“The aircraft will have a payload of approximately 42 tonnes and will also be made available for charter work and weekend rotations when demand exists,” Cleary said.

He said Qantas Freight operates five weekly B767 freighter services from Auckland and Christchurch to Sydney and a weekly B747 freighter from Auckland to Melbourne. “Bothports are well utilised and offer easy through connection to other Australiandestinations, Asia and Europe,” he said.

Dealing with the downturn
Regarding impact of global financial crisis on Qantas Freight, Cleary said as with all airlines, the airline’s business has been impacted by the global financial economic situation in terms of reduced demand and intense price competition.

He pointed out that the Qantas Group focus remains on leveraging its two brand strategy, based around Qantas and Jetstar, and positioning the business to take advantage of opportunities when market conditions begin to improve.

“We have been fairly successful in redirecting air freight capacity and resources from underperforming routes to take advantage of markets where volumes and yields are relatively resilient. We are also concentrating on improving our business processes in conjunction with a significant investment in new technology to better service the needs of our customers,” Cleary said.

Qantas Freight’s most important routes are China to the US, the US to Australia, Asia to Australia and the trans-Tasman.

Regarding Qantas Freight’s strategy in the present economic environment, Cleary said: “In the current environment, the expansion strategy we were following in 2007/08 has taken a back seat, and we are focussed on building strength in key markets and regions independent of the Qantas Group’s passenger operations.”

Strengthening Asian routes
In recent months, Qantas Freight has made numerous changes to its freighter network, both into and out of Australia. “We have added Melbourne, Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Auckland to our B747 freighter network and have started up a new freighter operation across the Tasman in response to customer demand for wide body capacity,” Cleary said.

Qantas Freight recently commenced a direct weekly Boeing 747-400 freighter service between Australia, Vietnam, China and the United States. The new service is a direct flight from Sydney to Tan Son Nhat International Airport approximately six kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s economic hub. The service departs every Thursday from Sydney and Ho Chi Minh City, arriving in Shanghai and New York.

“Vietnam is one of the few countries in the region that continues to see export growth, and we are very pleased to be able to support initiatives to grow trade between Australia and Vietnam and between Vietnam and the rest of the world,” he said.

Qantas remained focused on its existing China and Asian passenger networks. In addition to offering freight capacity on passenger flights to mainland China and Hong Kong, Qantas Freight operates six weekly B747 freighter aircraft into China.

“In recent months we have added a number of new destinations in Asia. At this stage our network and capacity is appropriate to demand in the region and we have no plans to change this further,” Cleary added.

As well as passenger and freighter aircraft capacity into both mainland China and Hong Kong, Qantas Freight offers scheduled trucking services to 30 destinations throughout China from Shanghai.

Aircraft deferrals
In another move to adjust to the current global economic downturn, Qantas recently announced that it had reached mutual agreement with Boeing to defer the delivery of 15 B787-8 aircraft by four years, cancel orders for 15 B787-9s scheduled for delivery in 2014/2015 but retain the option to buy up to 50 more aircraft.

Qantas said the changes to the Group’s B787 orders were appropriate in the current climate, and that discussions with Boeing, which commenced some months ago, had not been influenced by the announcement this week of a design issue and further delay to the aircraft’s first flight.

The airline said the revised Qantas- Boeing deal will provide greater certainty going forward in fleet renewal terms, growth strategies as well as broader resource planning and matching capacity with demand.