Mark Drusch, Chief Cargo Officer, Qatar Airways, said, “Qatar Airways Cargo (QAC) will make its freighter network responsive to market conditions as part of efforts to increase profitability, with changes to its Americas network in September. The carrier was looking to adjust its freighter network quickly to changes in market demand and not be led by the passenger side of the business.
The cargo market swings much more quickly than passenger one. However, cargo networks have not responded to how quickly the market changes.” Recent figures from WorldACD show capacity based in the region is up 22 per cent YoY, while demand is up by the lower amount of 7 per cent.
“I think that is something we can also teach the cargo side of the world that you can move your assets around to respond to peaks in demand in one region and reductions in demand in another faster than the passenger side can. “I think because a lot of the freighter operations within airlines were with passenger, they still have the mindset that we cannot move as fast, but we are changing that internally to say we can move the freighters a lot faster.
We do not have to move at the same pace as passenger because we do not have the same constraints and the same requirements as passenger,” he said. The WorldACD data shows rates out of the Middle East/South Asia are up by 54 per cent compared with last year and for Asia-Pacific they are 24 per cent up.
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