K.W. Nieh Group CEO, Evergreen Group, parent of EVA Airlines’ which operates EVA Air Cargo, says that: “As we expand in China, we’re continuing to grow our market in Southeast Asia to make full use of our long-haul capacity to America and Europe.”

“A key EVA objective for 2010 is to fully utilise our airfreight capacity,” he says, adding that the airline expects to grow its air cargo throughput this year.

During the fourth quarter of 2009, EVA Air Cargo carried 190,000 tonnes of international freight, an improvement over the 39,000 tonnes the airline carried in the same period of 2008. EVA does not transport any domestic freight.

In January and February 2010, the airline carried 120,500 tonnes of international freight, an improvement over the 48,600 tonnes it carried during the same two months of 2009.

“We carried 60 per cent of our air cargo in freighters and 40 per cent in bellies of passenger flights during the fourth quarter of 2009. The proportion was the same during this period of 2008,” Nieh says. In January and February 2010, the percentage changed slightly with 70 per cent of EVA’s cargo being carried in freighters and 30 per cent inbelly holds.

Recession and recovery
In order to cope with the global recession last year, Nieh says the airline reduced its capacity by parking three freighters. “We parked two EVA Boeing747-400 freighters and one MD-11 freighter in California in 2009, reducingour capacity by approximately 20 percent.”

“At the same time, we initiated aggressive marketing strategies and flexible fleet rotations to capture the China market as soon as scheduled crossstrait service was launched,” he says.

“However, we reactivated the two parked B747-400 freighters as demand picked up, one in January and the second in March.”

One of these has been reintroduced on the carrier’s twice-a-week Vienna service on a Taipei-Delhi-Vienna route inbound and via Vienna-Brussels-Delhi- Taipei on its return to Asia. “With these two flights a week, EVA is giving freighter and logistics markets in Austria and neighboring Central and Eastern European countries a total of 36-to-60 additional tonnes of air cargo capacity,” Nieh said. At the same time, the carrier is continuing to provide 24-to-36 tonnes of belly space a week on its three passenger flights.

By adding the dedicated freighters, EVA has significantly expanded the region’s export capacity, according to Nieh. “We’ve re-launched freighter flights to Vienna to meet demand in the air cargo business that began to rise during the fourth quarter of 2009 with the start of worldwide economic recovery.”

“Demand from the Central and Eastern European region is especially promising and our target for the next few months is to meet these airfreight needs with increased capacity. These freighter flights enhance our EVA Air Cargo market share in the Central and Eastern European Region. We’ll build on this service to optimise our opportunities for future growth in Austria and its neighboring countries.” EVA will reactivate the MD-11 freighter in the second half of this year, he adds.

“We are continuing to optimise our freighters in the lucrative US, Northeast Asia and Mainland China markets. And in addition to expanding our air cargo market in Mainland China, we’re growing it in Southeast Asia,” says Nieh.

Fleet growth
EVA Airways expects to complete acquisition of its 15 Boeing 777-300ERs by the end of 2010. “And we are continuing to monitor market demand to evaluate potential opportunities for fleet expansion. As of 1 March 2010, the average age of our passenger aircraft was 7.02 years and our freighters, 13.05 years. Combined, the average age of aircraft in EVA’s fleet is 8.8 years,” Nieh says.

While other airlines are practicing a strict policy on hiring, EVA Airways plans to hire this year as freighter capacity is added.

In all, EVA plans to hire 30 pilots and 100 flight attendants this year, while Taiwan’s largest airline, China Airlines (CAL) will also hire 80 pilots and 100 flight attendants over the same period, both expanding while their counterparts in other parts of the world are sticking to head-count freezes and cuts.

Regarding cross-straits services, EVA operates one freighter service per week to Guangzhou and three to four per week to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, making a total of 4-5 flights per week in total. EVA also operates a total of 30 combi flights to Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

EVA Airways’ largest market is the US, followed by China and Europe.

EVA Air Cargo recorded an 86.1 per cent growth in cargo sales valued at NT$2.6 billion (US$86.1 million) in January, and a 98.5 per cent growth in February to NT$2.55 billion compared with the corresponding period last year.