Guillaume Halleux
Global trade cannot survive without air cargo
H
as the present outlook of the air cargo industry entirely changing as a result of this pandemic? Before COVID-19, 60 per cent of the global air cargo capacity was in passenger aircraft bellies, so it is a mistake to look at the market just in terms of freighter capacity. The number of global passenger flights has decreased by 90 per cent. That has created a cargo crunch which has continued since the beginning of the crisis when we saw huge demand for PPE from China. Today, we see a lot less demand for PPE than what was two months ago. Meanwhile, the usual airfreight commodities are coming back into the market. Passenger flights will probably take a lot of time to resume normal schedules. That will continue to impact the cargo market. How long would you estimate it would take for air cargo industry to get back to business as usual? What will be the growth drivers? It is hard to predict cargo demand in the current circumstances. However, I feel, the entire world cannot live without commodities being exchanged. Global trade cannot survive without air cargo, and if, for a single day airfreight market demand drops drastically, then I think the world will have a much bigger problem. Going forward, I believe digitisation and transparency will be a massive disruptor in the industry. Tell us about your current state of operations. We have prepared and organised our cargo division accordingly in light of current circumstances. We are no lon12 |
september 2020
ger in a crisis mode but operating in the new normal. We currently fly 180 cargo flights per day, a mix of freighters and cargo-only passenger aircrafts. Before COVID-19 it was 60. Now, we have tripled the number of flights and for which we are fully accountable in maintaining the safety, loading and finances.
What are the areas air cargo professionals globally need to keep an eye on and put up a unified front? There are a lot of important topics on which the industry should present a united front. Air cargo is particularly fragmented and that brings real difficulties in many ways. Take digitalisation, for example. It is alleviating a historic lack of transparency in our supply chain, and that’s a very good thing. But certain stakeholders remain reluctant because this change means reinventing themselves and changing their model to bring new added value. Digitalisation will bring about massive disruption to our sector, and as a leading airline, I think it’s our duty to promote and encourage this transformation. We hope that our role as an industry leader will allow us to unite the industry and move it towards greater digitalisation, because no airline can do it alone.
Qatar Airways Cargo is one of the world’s leading international air cargo carriers, serving more than 60 freighter destinations worldwide via its worldclass Doha hub and delivering freight to more than 160 key business and leisure destinations globally on more than 250 aircraft. During this time of crisis, the cargo carrier has led the industry by maintaining a global network that never fell below 30 destinations. In doing so, Guillaume Halleux, Chief OfficerCargo, Qatar Airways says the airline collected unrivalled experience in carrying passengers safely and reliably and became uniquely positioned to effectively rebuild its network. Excerpts from his interview with Ritika Arora Bhola. Another area around which we want to unite the industry and bring it together is corporate social responsibility and sustainability. There are a lot of initiatives within our industry on these topics, but nothing really unites them. What we want with ‘We Qare’ is to put sustainability issues at the heart of our activities through concrete actions,
