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Flexport access to SF Airlines’ Hangzhou-New York route

This article from the Loadstar indicates that supply chain firms such as Flexport are struggling to align themselves for the volatile tariff situation we have now. Some firms are leaving China but others are staying in and look for an alternate shipment method with more speed and smaller inventory.

SF Airlines (Wikipedia) is a Chinese cargo airline with headquarters in Shenzen, Guangdong Province. They have about 55 aircraft. SF submitted an application to the USDOT last week for a 3x per week service on the Hangzhou-New York route. We will see if approval is granted.

Flexport indicated they are seeing a dropoff in trade with China. But 3PLs like Flexport work to help companies transport goods from anywhere. Rearrangement of transport becomes the norm, and their business depends on success for their customers.

via Flexport confirms access to SF Airlines’ services between Hangzhou and New York – The Loadstar

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Posted on May 22, 2019 by just2bruce in Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chains

Tagged 3PLs, air freight, China, trade, transportation

IATA to review air cargo load factor calculations

Posted on January 18, 2018 by just2bruce | 3 comments

Project Selfie examined load factors used in reporting by major airlines. It turns out that there is a wide range of ways the load factor is calculated by airlines. Weight alone yields low load factors (the percent of utilization of the aircraft with respect to cargo weight). Most of the airlines use a combination of weight and size, and this is done differently for different carriers. Thus they report load factors on different bases, so they are not comparable. IATA, the industry group, wants to have a more consistent basis than weight for reporting its figures for the industry. Weight alone is not very significant.

“(Weight alone) poorly reflects how full the planes really are.”

In short they cube out before they weigh out. Packages that go by air are not very dense! This may partially explain why air freight rates are going up while load factors are not very high. So IATA has been misrepresenting capacity utilization of planes.

logo2 via IATA to review air cargo load factor calculations after Project Selfie revelations – The Loadstar