All Putzger perspective articles
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Is e-commerce trade under threat?
Trade legislation crackdowns in the EU and US could hamper e-commerce supply chains as the air cargo industry gears up for peak season. By early August a chorus of voices proclaimed the approaching end of the 2024 peak ocean shipping season. According to the National Retail Association, containerised imports to ...
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Insights
Putzger Perspective: Smaller freighters have fallen out of fashion
Smaller freighters are dropping out of the skies. FedEx is retiring about one fifth of its 757 freighter fleet. Next year Atlas Air will end flying eight 737 cargo planes for Amazon – one year ahead of their contract expiry. The same goes for 17 B767Fs that Atlas is currently ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: E-commerce shipments face rising pressure
These days no industry event would seem complete without at least one firm verdict from the podium that e-commerce is going to be the driver of air cargo growth. If you’re not in e-commerce, you may as well pull down the shutters and retire. On the regional scene, such predictions ...
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Insights
Putzger Perspective: Air cargo’s Mexican wave
In May, Lufthansa Cargo announced plans to expand its footprint in Mexico the following month with the addition of Monterrey to its network, serving the airport once a week with a Boeing 777 freighter in tandem with Felipe Angeles airport (AIFA), the designated freighter gateway for the nation’s capital. Other ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Cargo demand flies but can aviation keep up?
Aircraft supply chains are struggling to meet demand from airlines and the impact is taking its toll on air cargo operations. The aviation industry is struggling with a massive disconnect. Demand is robust. While air travel continues to surge, air cargo traffic has shown unexpected strength, with double-digit year-on-year increases ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Maxed out
Boeing is in hot water over the safety of its 737 Max planes, leaving the industry with many questions about the future of the plane manufacturer’s production and supply chains. If the garage that services your car operated in the same manner as Boeing, you probably would go elsewhere without ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: New alignments - to passenger aircraft
Some carriers appear to have lost their appetite for freighters with plans to scale back conversions, but is cargo still valued? Global Crossing Airlines is changing direction. The Miami-based carrier has pressed the pause button on the expansion of its cargo operations in order to fly more passengers. Furthermore, company ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Pass the duct tape!
The Boeing 737 has become a headache for the airframer following a series of issues that have emerged with the aircraft model. Yet again the Boeing 737 Max has hurled Boeing into the headlines as a 737-9 was forced to make an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon in the US ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Unmanned operations gain momentum
Momentum is building in the global drone development market, despite there being a wait still for drone aircraft to begin flying. Dronamics has been on a roll lately. After the signing of a letter of intent with Emirates Post to jointly explore possibilities of same-day deliveries within the United Arab ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: The times, they are a-changin’
The logistics landscape is changing with significant shifts in trade flows, while the structure of e-commerce business is evolving, but this doesn’t mean air cargo will be left out in the cold… As Bob Dylan sang a few decades ago, ‘the times, they are a-changin’. Take cargo flows into the ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: End to end game
Amazon Air has scaled back its freighter fleet, but parent company Amazon has stepped up its interest in end-to-end logistics, along with others in the industry. A few airline folks will have noted with satisfaction or relief that Amazon’s relentless build-up of freighter fleets has hit the buffers. This year ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Not there yet
Are we there yet? One of the hallmarks of summer are cars headed to vacation destinations echoing with this refrain issued at frequent intervals by kids anxious to reach the end of the journey. Adults waiting for an outcome usually have a more judicious approach to the distance, but some ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Engine trouble
In May, the US Postal Service did something rather startling. It announced plans to lower rates on some packages. For years parcel rates have only gone in one direction – up, at a steep angle. Year after year, e-commerce shippers have had to swallow eye-watering rate hikes (in double digits, ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Freighters lose altitude
Since late spring last year, truckers and ocean carriers have been wondering where the bottom of the market is as demand and rates continued to spiral downward.Now a growing number of players in the freighter market are concluding that it’s time to cut back.Management of shipping line NYK no longer ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: e-freighters anyone?
E-freighters offer an attractive cargo solution, but they come as freighter demand has slowed down, writes Ian Putzger.In the Superman comic strips, reporter Clark Kent would rapidly transform himself into the superhero to perform his stunning feat to avert a massive disaster and then morph back into the bespectacled journalist. ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Full steam ahead for air cargo headwinds
Industry forecasts for this year are largely pessimistic with the outlook for demand muted at best, though capacity looks set to grow, writes Ian Putzger.“Air cargo peak season has now officially failed to materialise,” wrote Freightos head of research Judah Levine on December 7, pointing to year-on-year drops of more ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Air cargo's tricky navigation
The industry’s return to normal has been postponed while we’re trying to establish what normal we are returning to.The pre-Covid normal, when half the global airfreight volume moved on passenger planes, continues to remain elusive.British Airways announced in late August that it would scrap about 5,000 round-trip flights this winter ...
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Insights
Putzger perspective: Alignment headaches
Shipping companies' thirst for end-to-end supply chain solutions has seen their interest and investment in the airfreight industry continue to grow, but airlines would do well to think about what this trend means for the future, writes Ian Putzger.Airline boards have plenty of food for thought these days. Shipping lines’ ...