Analysis of air cargo with respect to green measures

 Department of Economics and Social Sciences
Institute of Production and Logistics
Head of the Institute: Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr.
Manfred Gronalt
Supervisors:
Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Manfred Gronalt
Ass.Prof. Mag. Dr. Patrick Hirsch
Master’s thesis:
Analysis of air cargo with respect to green measures
and future paths
For graduating the master program
Environment- and Bioresourcesmanagement
Author:
Stephanie Bernhard, BSc
Vienna, June 2015
Affirmation in lieu of an oath
This is to declare my master thesis was independently authored by myself, using
solely the referred sources and support. I additionally assert that this thesis has not
been part of another examination process.
Place: Vienna
Date: 01th of June, 2015
Signature of the Author:
2 Abstract
Considering the enormous lots of emissions and the consumption of natural resources aircraft
are accountable for raises the importance of a holistic approach to better understand
background processes and their development in the air cargo industry.
Air cargo has been enjoying high popularity being able to deliver goods faster and more
reliably than any other transport mode. Yet it has been subject to criticism due to its negative
externalities and other disadvantages like high costs. This thesis seeks to get to the bottom of
those aspects, highlighting major facts and methods to deal with negative consequences or to
mitigate them. Moreover, it is revealed how effective and efficient air cargo is and what the
most prevailing branches and goods are in the air cargo industry. The potential to achieve
emission savings is revealed and, thus, air cargo’s contribution to Green Logistics is
elucidated.
Development and future prospects of air cargo are dealt with in the scope of sustainability, the
ecological and economic aspect having the main emphasis. The sustainability of air cargo can
be assessed by a set of different criteria, which might be turned into indicators if they become
measurable.
Air cargo makes up only about 1 % of the weight traded, however, with regard to the value its
share is about 35 %. Hong Kong has been taking the lead in air cargo activity, having had
over 4,000,000 tonnes of cargo handled in 2013. In Austria, over 200,000 tonnes of cargo
were handled in that year having Vienna International Airport ranking number 1, followed by
Linz.
This transport mode is expected to rise by 4.7 % annually until 2033 even though it has been
facing major competitors, sea freight being the most significant threat. Air-shipped goods are
either carried by passenger aircrafts or dedicated freighters, which are designed either for the
transportation of containerized freight or for bulky goods.
Air cargo lost market share to ocean trade over the last years, which mostly is attributable to
the costs.
Air trade has been under scrutiny for the last years due to its negative impacts on the
environment, CO2-, NOx- and H2O-emissions being the most relevant externalities as well as
noise. To reduce these emissions the International Air Transport Association (IATA) together
with major airlines committed to achieving emission savings by means of four different
mitigation measures, which in this thesis refer to the green measures, called the Four-PillarStrategy. These mitigation strategies consist of technological measures like airframe design
and alternative fuels. Furthermore, they include infrastructure-based measures, such as
infrastructure for the airports as well as structures of the airspaces. Additionally, market-based
measures are dealt with which inter alia include emission trading schemes and kerosene taxes.
Last but not least operational measures play an essential part most importantly referring to
route optimization, efficient loading, and fleet assignment. Whereas technological measures
create the expression of being almost exhausted, operational measures seem to have much
3 space to develop and, thus, are considered to have the highest potential in achieving emissions
savings. To stress the importance of airfreight in supply chains exemplary multimodal
transport chains of papayas and mangoes are presented, showing its steps from the country of
the origin to the end-consumer. A well-functioning supply chain depends on interacting
transport modes. In inter or multimodal transport the pre-, main- and end haulage need to
work together to make the commodities arrive on time.
A case study about the freight-forwarding company DB Schenker shows its goals and
commitment to save CO2-emission with regard to airfreight. It is also dealt with the most
prevailing difficulties, which have to do with the non-existence of a standardized
measurement system for CO2-emissions for the carriers. DB Schenker also fosters the
complementary transport of air- and sea freight to benefit from advantages of both transport
modes. Another case study about Stuttgart Airport shows how the airport has set an example
to become one of the most sustainable airports of Europe.
Concluding this thesis, a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Constraints) analysis
provides a balanced view of the characteristics the air cargo industry comes with in terms of
strengths and weaknesses and the conditions the environment provides in terms of
opportunities and threats. Subsequently, a set of strategies was derived from the analysis.
Several suggestions for an S-O and S-T strategies were derived and explained in the thesis to
make the most of the industry’s strengths by using the opportunities and mitigating the
threats.
It was found that air cargo despite all negative externalities and high costs can still be seen as
efficient; the industry has been focusing on a range of innovative measures to reduce its
environmental impacts. Due to the major advantages of air trade – speed, reliability and
security – the high costs are offset. Thus, air cargo will remain an essential transport mode, at
least for time-sensitive and valuable goods. The high costs mostly seem to be offset by the
advantages coming from air cargo. The mitigation measures to reduce emissions to be taken
by the industry, however, might lead to a Rebound-Effect against which measures to be taken
could only be done by superior authorities.
This thesis provides detailed insights and enables to see the bigger picture of air cargo within
a sustainable context.
4 Zusammenfassung
Die enormen Emissionen und der Verbrauch an natürlichen Ressourcen, welche Flugzeuge
mit sich bringen, verlangen nach einer ganzheitlichen Betrachtung der Luftfrachtindustrie.
Luftfracht erfreut sich seit Jahren großer Beliebtheit, da es sich hier um einen Transportmodus
handelt, der schneller und verlässlicher ist als jeder andere. Nichts desto trotz ist der
Lufttransport von Gütern aufgrund der negativen externen Effekte oft Kritik ausgesetzt. Die
Masterarbeit geht dieser Thematik auf den Grund und erklärt Methoden, um die
Konsequenzen der negativen Auswirkungen zu minimieren. Das Potential
Emissionsreduktionen zu erzielen wird beleuchtet und, daraus folgend, der Beitrag von
Luftfracht zu Green Logistics festgestellt. Im Rahmen der Nachhaltigkeit werden darüber
hinaus die Zukunftsaussichten der Luftfracht behandelt mit besonderem Augenmerk auf den
ökologischen und ökonomischen Aspekt.
Luftfracht ist für nur ungefähr 1 % des Gewichtes der weltweit transportierten Güter
verantwortlich, jedoch für etwa 35 % deren Wertes. Hong Kong hat weltweit gesehen den
höchsten Umschlag an Luftfracht. In Österreich steht der Flughafen Wien an erster Stelle,
gefolgt von Linz. Im Jahr 2013 verzeichnete Österreich einen Cargoumschlag von über
200.000 Tonnen. Prognosen sagen ein Wachstum der Luftfracht von jährlich 4,7 % bis 2033
voraus, obwohl die Luftfracht immer schon die Seefracht als größten Konkurrenten gehabt
hat. In der Tat hat die Luftfracht gegenüber der Seefracht in den letzten Jahren an Marktanteil
verloren, was vorrangig auf die hohen Kosten des Flugzeuges zurückzuführen ist. Luftfracht
wird sowohl in Passagiermaschinen als auch in reinen Frachtflugzeugen transportiert. Letztere
sind entweder dediziert für genormte Fracht in Containern oder für den Transport sperriger
Güter.
Aufgrund der negativen externen Effekte, die Luftfracht mit sich bringt, darunter vorrangig
CO2-, NOx- und H2O-Emissionen sowie Lärmbelästigung, ist diese Form von Fracht oft
Kritik ausgesetzt.
Diese Masterarbeit bietet einen Überblick darüber, welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, um die
Luftfracht umweltfreundlicher zu gestalten. Die IATA (International Air Transport
Association) setzte sich gemeinsam mit bekannten Fluglinien das Ziel, unter der Verfolgung
einer Vier-Säulen-Strategie bedeutende CO2 Einsparungen zu erzielen. Die Strategien
beinhalten zum einen technologischen Maßnahmen welche eine effizientere Gestaltung der
Flugzeugaußenhülle oder der Einsatz alternativer Kraftstoffe ist. Des Weiteren zielen
Infrastruktur basierte Maßnahmen auf bedarfsgerechte Ausstattung der Flughäfen sowie
effiziente Strukturierung der Lufträume ab. Markt-basierende oder ökonomische Maßnahmen
sind z.B. Emissionshandel und Kerosintaxen. Operative Maßnahmen beziehen sich vorrangig
auf Routenoptimierung, angemessene Zuteilung der Flugzeuge an die jeweiligen Flugstrecken
und Menge der transportierten Fracht und effiziente Beladungsweise. Technologische
Methoden haben schon sehr viel in Bezug auf Kraftstoffeffizienz erreicht und die
Möglichkeiten, zur weiteren Verbesserungen beizutragen, scheinen ausgeschöpft. Die
5 operativen Maßnahmen hingegen scheinen die größte und schnellste Wirkung zu erzielen und
erwecken den Anschein, noch viel Entwicklungspotential zu haben.
Um die Rolle der Luftfracht in einer Lieferkette zu demonstrieren, werden Beispiele
multimodaler Transportketten von Papayas und Mangos dargestellt. Es wird ersichtlich, dass
in inter- oder multimodalen Lieferprozessen die Luftfracht stark von dem Vorlauf und
Nachlauf abhängig ist, um einen pünktlichen und zuverlässlichen Transport der Güter vom
Ursprungsland zum Endverbraucher zu ermöglichen.
Um die Luftfracht in Bezug auf ihre Nachhaltigkeit zu beurteilen, wird die Anwendung eines
Kriteriensystems empfohlen. Einige der vorgellten Kriterien können als Indikatoren dienen,
wenn sie messbar gemacht werden.
Eine Fallstudie über die Speditionsfirma DB Schenker erläutert die Methoden des
Unternehmens, welche im Bereich Luftfracht eingesetzt werden um CO2-Einsparungen zu
erzielen. Außerdem werden die größten Herausforderungen erwähnt, welche darin bestehen,
dass es in der Luftfracht noch kein global standardisiertes Messsystem für Einsparungen gibt.
Aufgrund fehlender Normen bedienen sich die Airlines unterschiedlicher Methoden, wie CO2
Reduktionen erfasst werden.
Ein beispielhaftes Verhalten in Bezug auf Nachhaltigkeit von Flughäfen zeigt der Flughafen
Stuttgart. Bezugnehmend auf alle drei Säulen der Nachhaltigkeit hat sich der Flughafen zum
Ziel gesetzt zu einem Top-Performer unter den Flughäfen Europas zu werden.
Anhand einer SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) Analyse werden die Vorund Nachteile der Luftfrachtbranche in Form von Stärken und Schwächen demonstriert,
sowie die externen Gegebenheiten als Chancen und Bedrohungen oder Risiken dargestellt.
Anschließend wird eine Auswahl von SO- und ST-Strategien empfohlen, welche einerseits
auf die Nutzung der Stärken zur bestmöglichen Realisierung der Chancen abzielt und
andererseits durch den Einsatz der Stärken versucht, mögliche Auswirkungen der Risiken zu
mindern.
Die Masterarbeit führte zu dem Ergebnis, dass Luftfracht trotz ihrer Kosten und negativer
externer Effekte als effektiv und effizient angesehen werden kann. Die hohen Kosten werden
durch die wichtigsten Vorteile – Schnelligkeit, Verlässlichkeit und Sicherheit des
Gütertransports – ausgeglichen. Durch die vorgestellten Methoden, welche in der
Luftfahrtindustrie eingesetzt werden um Emissionen zu reduzieren, zeigt sich, dass die
Kraftstoffeffizienz der Flugzeuge immer höher wird.
Dennoch sollte man bedenken, dass die gesetzten Maßnahmen zum Beitrag der
Nachhaltigkeit auch zu einem Rebound-Effekt führen könnten und Gegensteuerungen in
weiterer Folge nur über übergeordnete Behörden möglich wären. Diese Masterarbeit bietet
faktenbezogene Erkenntnisse über die Luftfracht, welche besonders im Rahmen der
Nachhaltigkeit beleuchtet werden.
6 Index
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................. 9 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ 11 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 12 2. INTERNATIONAL OUTLINE OF AIR CARGO ..................................................................................... 16 2.1. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AIR CARGO ............................................................................................. 16 2.2. ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF AIRFREIGHT ............................................................................................... 17 2.3. CONSTRAINTS OF AIRFREIGHT ................................................................................................................. 19 2.3.1. LIBERALIZATION ........................................................................................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 CUSTOMS AND CORRUPTION .................................................................................................................................... 24 2.4. COMMODITIES AND MOST RELEVANT BRANCHES IN AIRFREIGHT .......................................................... 25 2.4.1. TRANSPORT OF SPECIAL GOODS .............................................................................................................................. 27 2.4.2. HUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS ..................................................................................................................................... 29 2.5. SUPPLY CHAINS OF FRUITS ....................................................................................................................... 31 2.6. COST STRUCTURE OF AIRFREIGHT ........................................................................................................... 35 3. ASSESSMENT OF CARGO AIRPORTS .................................................................................................. 38 3.1. ATTRIBUTES FOR CARGO AIRPORTS ........................................................................................................ 38 3.2 AIR CARGO IN HONG KONG ........................................................................................................................ 39 3.3. AIR CARGO IN REMOTE REGIONS .............................................................................................................. 43 3.3.1. EXAMPLE: ALASKA .................................................................................................................................................... 43 3.3.2. EXAMPLE CANADA .................................................................................................................................................... 45 3.4. AIRFREIGHT IN AUSTRIA .......................................................................................................................... 47 3.4.1. SHARE AND DISTRIBUTION OF AIRFREIGHT .......................................................................................................... 47 3.4.2. ASSESSMENT OF SUITABILITY OF AUSTRIAN AIRPORTS FOR CARGO ACTIVITY .............................................. 48 3.4.3. CHARGES AT VIENNA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ............................................................................................... 57 4. AIRFREIGHT FROM AN ECONOMIC AND OPERATIONAL POINT OF VIEW ............................ 59 4.1. CURRENT STATUS OF AIR CARGO IN THE FACE OF SEA FREIGHT’S COMPETITION .................................. 59 4.1 EFFECTIVENESS & EFFICIENCY .................................................................................................................. 61 4.2 VULNERABILITY ......................................................................................................................................... 63 4.3 CRITERIA AND INDICATOR SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABILITY ....................................................................... 64 4.3.1 CRITERIA BECOMING INDICATORS ........................................................................................................................... 65 4.3.2 INDICATORS FOR INTERMODAL TRANSPORT ......................................................................................................... 68 4.4 AIR CARGO OPERATIONALIZATION ........................................................................................................... 69 4.5 MOSTLY USED CONTAINERS ....................................................................................................................... 70 4.6 ON-­‐LOAD AND UNLOAD OPERATIONS OF AIR FREIGHTERS ...................................................................... 72 4.7 MOSTLY USED CARGO AIRCRAFT ............................................................................................................... 73 4.7.1 AIRBUS BELUGA .......................................................................................................................................................... 74 4.7.2 ANTONOV AN-­‐225 MRIYA ...................................................................................................................................... 75 4.7.3 BOEING 747/8 F ....................................................................................................................................................... 78 4.7.4 AIRBUS A 300-­‐600F ................................................................................................................................................ 80 4.8 FORECASTS OF AIRFREIGHT’S DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................... 82 7 5. NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES RESULTING FROM AIRFREIGHT ................................................... 84 5.1 MAJOR EMISSIONS FROM AVIATION AND WAYS TO QUANTIFY THEM ...................................................... 84 5.1.1 CO2-­‐EMISSIONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 85 5.1.2 ACCOUNTING FOR NON-­‐CO2 EMISSIONS ................................................................................................................ 86 5.1.3 NOX-­‐EMISSIONS .......................................................................................................................................................... 88 5.1.4 H2O-­‐EMISSIONS .......................................................................................................................................................... 88 5.2 NOISE POLLUTION ...................................................................................................................................... 89 5.3 ACHIEVEMENTS AND ADDRESSING MAJOR CHALLENGES IN AIR CARGO EFFICIENCY ............................... 92 5.4 MITIGATION STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES ........................................................................................ 93 5.4.1 TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES .................................................................................................................................... 95 5.4.1.1 Alternative fuels ................................................................................................................................................. 95 5.4.1.1.1 Biofuels ............................................................................................................................................................... 95 5.4.1.1.2 Hydrogen ........................................................................................................................................................... 96 5.4.1.2 Aerodynamic options .................................................................................................................................... 100 5.4.2 OPERATIONAL MEASURES ...................................................................................................................................... 102 5.4.2.1 Continuous descend approach .................................................................................................................. 105 5.4.2.2 Free Route Concept ....................................................................................................................................... 108 5.4.2.3 Fleet assignment ............................................................................................................................................. 109 5.4.2.4 Efficient loading .............................................................................................................................................. 110 5.4.3 MARKET-­‐BASED MEASURES .................................................................................................................................. 111 5.4.4 INFRASTRUCTURE-­‐BASED MEASURES .................................................................................................................. 112 5.5 ACCELERATING PENETRATION OF EFFICIENCY MEASURES .................................................................... 113 5.6 THE ISSUE OF MISSING LIBERALIZATION ................................................................................................ 113 6. EMPIRICAL STUDIES ........................................................................................................................... 116 6.1 CASE STUDY: DB SCHENKER AND THEIR APPLICATION OF GREEN LOGISTICS FOR AIR CARGO ......... 116 6.1.1 GOALS IN EMISSION SAVINGS ................................................................................................................................. 116 6.1.2 MAJOR PROJECTS IN AVIATION TO REDUCE EMISSIONS .................................................................................... 119 6.1.3 FORECASTS ON AIR CARGO’S DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................................... 120 6.1.4 COOPERATION WITH ACADEMIC FACILITIES ....................................................................................................... 121 6.2 CASE STUDY: AIRPORT STUTTGART – AN EXAMPLE OF A SUSTAINABLE AIRPORT .............................. 121 6.2.1 GENERAL FACTS ABOUT THE AIRPORT ................................................................................................................ 122 6.2.2 SUSTAINABILITY AT STUTTGART AIRPORT ........................................................................................................ 123 6.3 SWOT ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................................... 124 7. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 129 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 135 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................... 136 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................... 148 8 List of figures
Figure 1
Air cargo market share by airline domicile
19
Figure 2
1st Freedom of the Air
20
Figure 3
2nd Freedom of the Air
20
Figure 4
3rd Freedom of the Air
21
Figure 5
4th Freedom of the Air
21
Figure 6
th
22
th
5 Freedom of the Air
Figure 7
6 Freedom of the Air
22
Figure 8
7th Freedom of the Air
23
Figure 9
8th Freedom of the Air
23
Figure 10
9th Freedom of the Air
24
Figure 11
Share of air-shipped commodities
25
Figure 12
Supply chain of papayas
33
Figure 13
Supply chain of mangoes depending on the growing seasons
34
Figure 14
Development of airfreight in Hong Kong
42
Figure 15
Development of airfreight in KLU
50
Figure 16
Development of airfreight in LNZ
51
Figure 17
Share of airfreight of Austrian airports
52
Figure 18
Share of airfreight unloaded in 2013
52
Figure 19
Share of airfreight loaded in 2013
53
Figure 20
Development of airfreight in Austria since 1990
55
Figure 21
Cargo Center at VIE
56
Figure 22
Approximate position of the planned runway 11R / 29L
56
Figure 23
Existing runways and tower VIE
57
Figure 24
Price development of kerosene
58
Figure 25
Cumulonimbus
63
Figure 26
LD-1 container
71
Figure 27
Half pallet with net
71
Figure 28
LD-3 container
72
Figure 29
Airbus Beluga
75
Figure 30
Antonov An-225 Mryia in flight action
77
Figure 31
Antonov An-225 Mryia in loading action
77
9 Figure 32
Boeing 747-8F
80
Figure 33
Airbus A 300-600 F
81
Figure 34
Payload / Range chart with respective cargo aircraft
81
Figure 35
A380 Emirates
82
Figure 36
Sources of sound with their sound pressure levels
90
Figure 37
Measurements of noise
91
Figure 38
Four Pillar Strategy
94
Figure 39
Phantom Eye
97
Figure 40
Winglets
101
Figure 41
X-48C
101
Figure 42
Honda Jets
102
Figure 43
Sketch of an exemplary stepwise descend
106
Figure 44
Sketch of a CDA
107
Figure 45
Free Route Concept
109
Figure 46
SWOT analysis
125
10 List of tables
Table 1
Cost structure of airfreight
35
Table 2
Amount of airfreight in kg in 2013
47
Table 3
Depiction of airmail in kg in 2013
48
Table 4
Number of flights in 2013
48
Table 5
Criteria for sustainability in airfreight
65
Table 6
LD-1 container
71
Table 7
Half pallet with net
71
Table 8
LD-3 container
72
Table 9
Airbus Beluga
75
Table 10
Antonov AN-225 Mriya
76
Table 11
Boeing 747 / 8F
79
Table 12
Airbus A 300-600F
80
Table 13
Mass and impacts from combustion of 1kg kerosene
85
11 1. Introduction
Air cargo shows an extensive history and comes with many major developments. Having had
its debut in 1910 transporting silk it has been transforming and contributing to fostering
global trade all over the world. While being responsible for just roughly 1 % of the worldwide
transported weight (expressed in absolute numbers: 42 million tonnes) with regard to the
value being transported it makes up around 35 % (Boeing, 2014). This highlights air cargo’s
leading role in transporting precious goods. Apart from being an essential transport mode for
valuable goods, it is a preferred method to resort to for time-sensitive and perishable goods, as
they need to be delivered to the end-consumer as fast as possible. Last but not least, the
introduction of the Just-in-Time inventory has provoked a rise in air cargo’s development. It
is seen as an important factor to boost the economy, as in many countries air cargo comes
along with great global trade and, thus, significantly supports the economy.
Even though air transport of goods has been experiencing an increase over the last years it has
slowed down losing market share to the only competitor regarding intercontinental cargo
transport, which is sea freight. Sea transport comes with the advantage of being less costintensive at the expense of being slower and less reliable.
Furthermore, air cargo has come under scrutiny because it is considered to be detrimental to
the environment. This thesis seeks to get to the button of this view providing a glimpse into
air transport’s major emissions and measures to minimize them.
Since Hong Kong International Airport has been the biggest cargo airport worldwide specific
attention is given to air cargo development there and important attributes are shown which
make a well-functioning cargo airport.
Additionally, the situation of air shipments in Austria is illuminated, as Vienna International
Airport has been experiencing a significant increase in air-shipped goods. Besides, it is dealt
with prevailing constraints and difficulties of air cargo as well as possible ways how to deal
with them. The economic perspective focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of air cargo,
moreover, an explanation of the cost structure is provided.
Since air cargo is a very broad topic this thesis does not feature the social dimension in most
parts, as its inclusion would go beyond the scope.
12 Research questions that are dealt with are:
•
What are the pros and cons of air cargo with respect to sustainability and what are
prevailing arguments for air shipments?
•
How effective and efficient is air cargo?
•
What are possible ways of reducing the negative externalities caused by air cargo?
•
How big is air cargo’s potential to reduce air pollutants and, as a consequence, to what
extent is air cargo able to contribute to Green Logistics?
•
How does the future of air cargo look like, considering the currently transported goods?
The methods for this thesis for a significant part consisted of literature research. Desk
research was carried out by use of journals found on the literature database of the University
of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna as well as of the University of Vienna.
Moreover, websites of specific organizations served as a valuable information source.
Interviews and personal enquiries played another crucial part. A personal conversation was
carried out with an air traffic controller at Austro Control. Another one was made on the
phone with Investor Relations at Lufthansa Group. Furthermore, two semi-structured
interviews were completed with DB Schenker Vienna; one with a Quality-, Security-and
Environment Manager and another one with the Head of Product Management Airfreight.
Two written inquiries were sent to the Business Cargo Development department at Vienna
and Linz International Airport, which both were replied thoroughly and turned out to be a
very helpful source of information.
In order to answer the research questions a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities
Constraints) analysis is applied at the end of the thesis, which is supposed to find a possible
strategy to increase air cargo’s efficiency and to cope with its disadvantages. The SWOT
analysis, being a very helpful and popular strategic planning tool, is applied to
comprehensively evaluate prevailing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with the
goal to enable finding an appropriate decision. Strengths and weaknesses are respectively
seen helpful and harmful to achieving the objective and represent the internal attributes of the
organization, so they depend on the industry or entity (Hay and Castilla, 2006 as cited in
Winer, 2006).
On the other hand, opportunities and threats are also respectively helpful and harmful;
however, they are external attributes of the environment.
This is stressed by Houben et al. (1999), who state that weaknesses and strengths are the
results of the investigation of the internal environment while the investigation of external
13 environment leads to opportunities and threats. The external environment consists of variables
outside the company or industry, as such in the short term they are not under the control of the
company. These variables portray the context in which the industry exists and functions.
Furthermore, Houben et al. (1999) distinguish between direct and indirect environment being
subdivisions of the external environment. The direct environment includes groups or
elements, which are directly influenced by the company’s actions. Typical examples are the
shareholders, the government, local authorities, clients, creditors etc. In contrast, the indirect
environment comprises more general factors, which have an influence on the long-term
decisions of the company (Houben et al., 1999). More specifically, they are economic, sociocultural, technological political or juridical influences. The SWOT analysis is supposed to
serve as a strategy-finding tool with the aim of responding to threats and making use of the
strengths. “The formulation of a strategy is a process for the development of long-term plans,
to effectively respond to environmental opportunities and threats in the light of the strengths
and weaknesses of the company“ (Houben et al., 1999). Since the performance of a company
is always dependent on the correct interaction of the company’s management with its internal
and external environment, operating successfully requires the recognition of internal strengths
and weaknesses. Additionally, it is important being familiar with the external opportunities
and threats as well as knowing how to respond to them (Houben et al., 1999). Consequently,
the SWOT analysis is an essential tool to effectively run a strategic management process. The
thesis is divided as follows:
Chapter 2 deals with the beginnings of air transport and provides some background
information about its development. It also points out the major constraints and difficulties of
air cargo and shows the most important branches and goods transported in the air cargo
sector. The vital role that air cargo plays is shown by an example of supply chains of papayas
and mangoes, visualizing their way from the country of origin to the end-consumer.
Chapter 3 provides an assessment of most striking cargo airports pointing out their
importance on the basis of attributes for cargo airports. Specific attention is also given to
Austria and the role of air cargo there. In Chapter 4 air cargo is illustrated from an economic
and ecological point of view, emphasizing its effectiveness, efficiency and vulnerability.
Criteria which might be turned into indicators are shown to measure air cargo’s sustainability
and, moreover, methods to load cargo aircrafts are shown as well as a glimpse is given into
the most significant existing cargo aircrafts. The negative externalities resulting from air
transport are pointed out in Chapter 5, giving a major emphasize on CO2-, NOx- and H2Oemissions as wells as noise pollution. Furthermore, measures are explained to mitigate those
14 negative impacts pointing out their prospects on success. In the context of this work a fourpillar strategy is illuminated to reduce negative externalities consisting of operational,
technological, market-based and infrastructure-based measures.
Chapter 6 provides the empirical studies, which on the one hand is a case study about the
logistics company DB Schenker, explaining their dealings with air cargo in the context of
Green Logistics; within the scope of the thesis two semi-structured interviews were carried
out and the results are presented in this chapter. Furthermore, Stuttgart Airport in Germany is
illuminated as it sets an example of being an environmentally friendly airport and, thus,
fosters sustainable growth of air traffic. Chapter 6 ends with a SWOT analysis, which casts
light on the air cargo industry’s advantages and disadvantages as well as on their chances and
risks resulting from the environment. To deal with the chances and risks, an example for a set
of strategies is deviated from the SWOT.
The end of the thesis comes with a conclusion in Chapter 7 answering the research questions,
providing an overview of the most significant findings as well as an outlook for possible
future research.
15 2. International outline of air cargo
This chapter deals with the origins of air transport with respect to cargo and the economic
background. Also highlighted are air cargo’s constraints, which limit airfreight operations and
their potential. Important commodities and branches in airfreight are illuminated, explaining
the reasons of their outstanding position. Furthermore, supply chains of both papayas and
mangoes are portrayed, including the transport from their country of origin to the endconsumer, which in this case is Austria. The supply chains also aim at demonstrating air
transport’s importance of the inter- and multimodality, as different kinds of transport modes
are used. Moreover, attention is given to humanitarian logistics, which also plays an essential
part in airfreight.
At the end of the chapter, the cost structure of airfreight is dealt with to portray the main
elements contributing to the total costs.
2.1. Historical development of air cargo
Airfreight initially was triggered by the transportation of silk in 1910. Philip Orin Parmeleet
was piloting the aircraft, produced by the Wright brothers, from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio.
However, this did not mean a revolution yet, as aircraft then were hardly faster than trains.
What made air transport rise was World War I, when the beginning of airmail started and the
first airships and balloons were developed (Air France, 2013). In Germany the first transport
of airmail took place on June 12th 1912, which initiated the commercial air traffic in the
country (Littek, 2006 p54).
At the end of World War 1, there was a surplus of airplanes and military pilots. However it
was realized that subsidies by the government are essential for the airfreight development as
military aircraft were not appropriate for commercial air service due to the high maintenance
costs (Allaz, 2005).
Both in the United States and in Europe, postal service initiated air cargo service. In the US
the founder of airfreight was the first ever dedicated air postal service carried out by the US
Army in 1918 between Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City. In 1924 the first
transcontinental postal service, connecting New York to San Francisco took place. In July
1919 between Paris and Lille the first cargo-only company began to provide its service and
Lufthansa started dedicated airfreight in 1926 (Keskinocak et.al, 2010). In the early 1990s
some European countries still had colonies overseas, which made the continent realize the
16 importance of a quick connection between the countries and gave rise to the importance of
major subsidies for airfreight (Keskinocak et.al, 2010).
A major event in humanitarian transport, moreover, was the Berlin Air Bridge from 1948 –
1949. Two million people in the then split city of Berlin were supplied by English and
American air forces, which has been the biggest logistical achievement in history (Lufthansa
Group, 2014). Air cargo at this time was focused on military and humanitarian transports, its
rise as commercial transport came after World War II as before there had not been any
government subsidies (Keskinocak et.al, 2010).
Two major events made air cargo rise and gain importance. First, the 1978 adopted Airlines
Deregulation act, which was signed by the then president Jimmy Carter. It was enacted to
remove the governmental control over fares, routes and market entries from commercial
aviation and resulted in an increase of competition among carriers (Avjobs, 2014).
The second major event was the “Open Skies” agreement established in 1992. The basis of
commercial air traffic between countries had been set in 1944 by the International Civil
Aviation Organization in Chicago, for this reason also called the Chicago Convention. The
Chicago Convention had been based on bilateral agreements to permit flights between
countries and through those countries to third countries. However, these agreements limited
the number of flights, the size of aircraft and participating airlines. “Open skies” was meant to
eliminate these restrictions within a bilateral context (World Bank, 2014 p 8). Thus, countries
got the opportunity to expand into new markets, especially for exports that are of high value
or time-sensitive (World Bank, 2014 p 9).
2.2. Economic background of airfreight
The air cargo industry has experienced an enormous growth over the last two decades. From
1981 to 1991 it scored an average annual growth of 6.9 % of RTKs (revenue tonnekilometers, freight transported for which the carrier gets commercial remuneration), from
1991 to 2001 it dropped to 6.1 % and from 2001 to 2011 it scored only 3.7 % of growth,
having slowed down significantly (Boeing, 2013). By 2006 it had accounted for roughly 35 %
of global merchandise trade by value (Yuan et.al. 2009 as cited in IATA, 2008).
“Air cargo is a crucial enabler of the global economy. In 2013, airlines transported 49.8
million metric tons of goods valued at $6.4 trillion”, (IATA, 2014).
17 The main reason why air cargo has gained huge importance is because of its ability to
transport goods faster and in a more reliable manner than other transport modes. Especially
regarding to perishable goods this feature is very essential.
Another reason is the shortening of product life cycles and the increasingly deployed Just-intime manufacturing method making speedy transportations necessary to ensure quick market
launches and deliveries (Yuan et al., 2009). The growth of JIT manufacturing processes
resulted in the fact that more and more particular parts have to arrive for assembly at specific
times. This has led to a tremendous increase of demand for air cargo. For instance, car
manufactures often air ship critical components to make sure they are available on time for
their final assembly (Tanger 2007).
According to Kassarda and Green (2005), seen from an economic point of view, air cargo
connectivity gives nations a competitive advantage over those without. This leads to a better
economic development, which can be measured by gross domestic product. Air cargo is a
crucial contributor to economic growth, as for instance, in the US GDP expanded by 38 %,
trade value increased by 57 % and air cargo value by 83 % between 1992 and 2002. In Hong
Kong air cargo even tripled in value between 1992 and 2003 and resulted in pushing Hong
Kong’s overall trade upward (Kasarda and Green, 2005).
Generally, Asia is an important hub for air cargo as more than a third of long-haul air cargo
(routes longer than 4,500 km) is shipped from Asia to North America and in total more than
80 % of air cargo flows on the east-west trade lines which connect Asia with Europe, Asia
with North America and Europe with North America (Boeing, 2014).
Due to its coupling with the GDP airfreight can be considered to be able to stimulate growth
in existing markets as well as it allows companies to enter into new markets without having to
make a commitment to large and fixed investments in warehousing and inventories.
On closer examination of the air cargo market share by airline domicile it is striking that
Asian carriers are taking the lead, scoring 36 % of the traded commodities by air.
Figure 1 illustrates the market share of air-shipped commodities by airline domicile in terms
of Revenue Tonne Kilometers (RTKs).
18 Air cargo market share by airline domicile 2013207.8 billion RTKs
3%
3% 1%
Asia
North America
11%
36%
Europe
Middle East
21%
CIS*
Latin America
25%
Africa
* Commonwealth of Independent States
Figure 1: Air cargo market share by airline domicile (Boeing, 2014)
2.3. Constraints of airfreight
This subchapter deals with major difficulties and challenges in the air cargo sector. Nonexistent liberalization is still an issue for it hinders seamless air cargo transportation in many
air spaces. Furthermore, customs and corruption have turned out to be a major obstacle in air
transportation.
2.3.1. Liberalization
One major constraint on air cargo in some countries is missing liberalization. Many air
markets between Africa and outside Africa have seen liberalization; however, most of intraAfrican countries continue to stay closed. This remains an issue because it limits the potential
for aviation to develop and thus, hinders economic growth. Restricting bilateral agreements
also has a negative impact on travel and tourism.
Missing liberalization is also a prevailing constraint between European and US airspaces as
well as Asian ones. Essential to liberalization in aviation is the existence of the Freedoms of
the Air, which are traffic rights for airlines developed by ICAO (International Civil Aviation
Organization). They were originally formulated in 1944 at the Chicago Convention with the
aim of establishing uniformity in worldwide commercial aviation. Up to now nine distinct
Freedoms of the Air have been established (Boeing, 2009). Traffic rights are negotiated by
19 two countries concerned; thus, they are also called bilateral air service agreements (ASA)
(IATA, 2009).
Figures 2-10 visualize the nine existing Freedoms of the Air:
•
1st Freedom of the air:
The right for an airline to overfly another county (B), originating from its home country
(A).
Figure 2: 1st Freedom of the Air (Boeing, 2009)
•
2nd Freedom of the air:
The right for a commercial aircraft from home country (A) to land and refuel in country
(B), commonly also called a technical stop, while being on the way to a third country.
Figure 3: 2nd Freedom of the Air (Boeing, 2009)
•
3rd Freedom of the Air:
The right for an airline to transport revenue passengers or cargo from the airline’s home
country (A) to another country (B).
20 Figure 4: 3rd Freedom of the Air (Boeing, 2009)
•
4th Freedom of the Air:
The right for an airline to carry revenue passengers or cargo from another country B to the
home country A.
Figure 5: 4th Freedom of the Air (Boeing, 2009).
•
5th Freedom of the Air:
The right for an airline to take passengers or cargo from its home country (A), deposit
them at the destination (B) and then pick up new passengers and cargo carrying them to
other international destinations (C) (Boeing, 2009).
In other words, it is about the transport of passengers or goods between a signatory state
and another state provided that the flight starts or ends in the carrier’s home country (A)
(Lufthansa Group, 2008).
21 Figure 6: 5th Freedom of the Air
•
6th Freedom of the Air:
The right that passengers or cargo can be carried between two foreign countries (B & C)
provided that the aircraft touches down in the airlines’ home country (A) in between.
Figure 7: 6th Freedom of the Air
•
7th Freedom of the Air:
This right is for flights having originated in a foreign country (B) transporting passengers or
cargo to another international destination (C) while bypassing its home country (A). Thus,
without having to land in the home country, airlines are allowed to transport people and cargo
between to foreign countries.
22 Figure 8: 7th Freedom of the Air
•
8th Freedom of the Air:
The right for an airline to carry passengers or cargo from one point in the territory of
another country (B) to another point within the same country on a flight that originates in
the airline’s home country (A). This right is also referred to as Cabotage and is extremely
rare outside Europe (Boeing, 2009).
Figure 9: 8th Freedom of the Air
•
9th Freedom of the Air:
An airline from a particular country (A) operates a flight that originates in a foreign
country (B) has the right to carry passengers or cargo from one point to another within the
respective foreign country. The right is commonly also called the Stand Alone Cabotage.
It differs from the true Cabotage in that it does not directly relate to the carrier’s home
country (Boeing, 2009).
23 Figure 10: 9th Freedom of the Air (Boeing, 2009).
The first and second freedoms are the most common ones to be exchanged between nations.
The granting of both the 8th and the 9th Freedom of the Air is very rarely found. Also the
application of the 7th right is not so common yet.
Since the 3rd and the 4th right is the contrary to each other they are always granted mutually
(Boeing, 2009).
2.3.2 Customs and corruption
Moreover, Kasarda and Green (2005) state that apart from aviation liberalization, customs
reforms and lower corruption are issues that need to be tackled. They found out that in many
developing countries customs inefficiencies and corruption might result in weakening global
circle logistics. Customs alone are able to make a well-functioning supply chain or destroy it
because of its time-sensitiveness.
Corruption is a very delicate issue, as it impacts air cargo development and also country
competitiveness and thus, economic growth as well as foreign investment. Among the other
constraining factors missing aviation liberalization and lack of customs quality, corruption
turned out to be the most complex one, as it has no direct measure. The most used and best
comprehensive measure is the Corruption Perception Index established by Transparency
International. It scores 177 countries on a scale from 0 to 100 with 0 being highly corrupt and
100 very clean (Transparency International, 2014).
It is essential to examine both the unique and the combined effects of aviation liberalization,
customs quality and corruption, as corruption has the most persistent impact and can
influence the two other factors as well (Kasarda and Green, 2005).
24 2.4. Commodities and most relevant branches in airfreight
The most common commodity groups to be air-shipped are: capital and transport equipment,
perishable and refrigerated goods that are prone to spoil and intermediate goods for
distributed manufacturing. Furthermore, air transport is also favored for time-sensitive
products that suffer from obsolescence, like computers, MP3 music players and cellphones,
which have a high demand and only a short marketing life. Being a very secure mode it is also
often used for products threatened by theft (Tanger, 2007).
Figure 11 shows the share of commodities in percentage in terms of FEU (forty feet
equivalent units) worldwide in 2007. The term FEU refers to containerized cargo equal to one
forty-foot (40x8x8ft) or two twenty-foot (20x8x8ft) containers. Both container types meet the
requirements by the International Standard Organization (ISO) and hence, are called ISO
containers (Lowe, 2005).
Share of commodities in FEU kilometers in 2007
Primary Products
High-tech Products
Non-refrigerated Products
Intermediate materials
Apparel, textiles, footware
Refrigerated foods
Capital equipment
Consumer Products
2% 16% 28% 19% 12% 5% 1% 17% Figure 11: Share of air-shipped commodities
(Data source: adapted to MergeGlobal, 2008).
To begin with, it is essential to introduce some definitions related to air cargo. Wensveen
(2011) distinguishes between airfreight, air express and air mail. Whereas airmail is selfexplanatory, defining air express is a bit more complex. Air express commonly refers to small
packages that usually have a higher priority of carriage than airfreight. Within the last years,
however the distinction between air express and airfreight has become less clear and therefore
is often considered to go together (Wensveen 2011, p 337). Additionally, general freight,
25 another important term in air cargo, covers shipments of heavy cargo, including larger
volumes of product, larger-sized product or just freight that is less time-sensitive. For
example, large loads of electronics, automobile parts and medical devices or jet engines are
typically considered general freight (Tanner, 2007).
Whenever in this thesis the word airfreight comes up, goods excluding airmail are related to.
In contrast, when mentioning air cargo, both airfreight and airmail are referred to.
Moreover, it is crucial to consider the differences in carriers prevailing in the cargo sector: It
needs to be distinguished between all-cargo carriers and combination carriers. All cargo
airlines are carriers transporting cargo only. Known examples are Cargo Lux and Asiana.
Combination carriers, in contrast, consist of both passenger and cargo fleets. Examples are
Lufthansa & Lufthansa Cargo, Emirates & Emirates Cargo as well as China Southern &
China Southern Cargo.
Furthermore, the term of integrator needs to be introduced, which means logistic companies
providing door-to-door service. Consequently, they take care for the whole supply chain of a
commodity, ranging from its country of origin to its arrival at the final destination. The three
most known integrators are FedEx, UPS and DHL.
There are two different categories of airfreight, express and general freight, where express
freight usually focuses on high priority documents and materials as well as small packages.
Express service providers are often fully integrated, which means they do not only provide air
services but also door-to-door services.
FedEx is the world’s largest express transportation company, delivering to more than 220
countries. It was established in 1971 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The
company’s own air fleet consists of 656 aircraft including Airbus, ATR, Boeing and Cessna
and McDonnell Douglas. FedEx has a workforce of more than 160,000 employees worldwide
(FedEx, 2014). The reason for Fed Ex’s home base in Memphis lies in its central location in
the US making it possible to deliver to any North American location within 24 hours and
most major global cities within 48 hours (Inbound Logistics, 2008). Furthermore, Memphis
disposes of a huge distribution center and many factories, making it convenient to deliver
from this city. Another crucial factor is the climatic condition dominating, due to its
landlocked location Memphis is not exposed to the risks of hurricanes or blizzards, neither are
long icing conditions a hazard.
The World Bank has a similar diversification of airfreight. They distinguish between
emergency freight, which includes time-critical shipments like financial documents, high-
26 value freight, which includes gold, jewelry, currency, computers, luxury vehicles etc. and
perishables, which include fresh seafood, fruits, vegetables, pharmaceuticals and cut flowers.
Among these categories they highlight rapid replenishment shipments and related to these,
missed shipments.
The first are used to limit the amount of inventory when demand is unstable, which often
happens with markets for fashion garments with short seasons. It often happens to be part of
the JIT process where a short lead-time is combined with a flexible production line. The aim
is to keep inventory flowing and prevent costs for overstocking.
The latter mean cargoes that normally use a slower and less costly mode of transport. Still,
they are transported by air because of delays in production or other problems to meet the
agreed delivery dates (World Bank, 2009 p 9-10).
Summarized, it can be said that shipping by air is the preferred form of distribution if one or
more of the following characteristics apply:
•
The good is perishable
•
Subject to quick obsolescence
•
Required on short notice
•
Valuable relative to weight
•
Expensive to handle or store
Moreover, it is the most desired method to transport goods if the demand is:
•
Unpredictable
•
Infrequent
•
In excess of local supply
•
Seasonal
(Wensveen, 2007 p 329).
2.4.1. Transport of special goods
As the above already shows, relevant branches in airfreight are importers of perishables, and
high tech industry. Furthermore, airfreight is also crucial to pharmaceutical companies, as
medicine needs to be transported as quickly and reliably as possible due to its limited shelf
life. Online retailers also resort to airfreight most of the time to provide a fast delivery for the
customers. Furthermore, air cargo is crucial to the music industry, as musicians or orchestras
touring the world need to get around fast together with their stage equipment and instruments.
Some instruments are quite sensitive to a change of temperature, so it is also essential to keep
the temperature in a certain range as otherwise they are prone getting damaged. In general,
27 musicians and orchestras when touring need to stick to a stringent time table, so air transport
often turns out to be the only reliable transport mode to get around. For musicians travelling
by air also the pre- and end haulage of the transportation need to be considered so that the
whole transport chain is covered: It has to be taken care for visa arrangements, further ground
transportations (Abd Rahim and Daud, 2012).
It is also important not to disregard the transport of life animals. This kind of transport takes a
lot of consideration and preparation, as for instance some breeds are not appropriate to air
travel during hot season due to difficulty of maintaining a normal body temperature in hot
weather. Furthermore animals have to be shipped in specialized right sized containers (IATA,
2014a).
An issue that needs to be dealt with great caution is the transport of dangerous goods.
Transport of such goods, also called hazardous materials, is very delicate as specific rules
apply which are regulated by the Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) by IATA.
According to IATA (2014b) dangerous goods are defined as “…items that may endanger the
safety of an aircraft or persons on board of the aircraft. Dangerous goods are also known as
restricted articles, hazardous materials and dangerous cargo...“
Carriage of dangerous goods onboard of aircraft is governed by the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) or by the local Civil Aviation Authority Regulations.
The ICAO (2014) defines dangerous goods as “…articles or substances which are capable of
posing a risk to health, safety, property or the environment, and which are shown in the list of
dangerous goods in the technical instructions or which are classified according to those
instructions“ and distinguishes between nine classes of hazardous goods:
•
Explosives
•
Oxidizing substances
•
Radioactive materials
•
Flammable liquids
•
Dangerous gases
•
Corrosive materials
•
Flammable solids
•
Toxic & infectious
•
Biological & dry ice
It has to be taken into consideration that cars also belong to the dangerous goods because of
their content of fuel. Another aspect that requires airfreight as transport mode is the transport
28 of valuable objects like silver, gold etc. They need to be delivered as fast and reliably as
possible as they are prone to lose value. Materials like these therefore are treated as perishable
goods (Littek, 2006 p 52).
In order to elucidate this process in further detail the example of silver transport from
Kazakhstan to Germany was chosen. Kazakhstan is a large country in Central Asia, having a
surface of 2,699,700 km2. It disposes of a lot of mineral resources like for instance major
deposits of petroleum, coal, iron, copper, zinc, gold etc. (CIA, 2014).
It is a long and logistically lavish way to get silver from its mine to the end-consumer in form
of cutlery, other consumer objects or merely as the initial material for the bullions trade. In
the latter case it is important to deliver the material as fast as possible as sometimes silver is
sold via option warrant for a specific price, still being in Kazakhstan on the way to the airport.
So, transport of valuable goods is very time-sensitive. One of the responsible carriers for this
kind of transport is Lufthansa Cargo, which air-ships every year several hundred tons of silver
to Europe. The biggest mining areas of Kazakhstan are in Oskemen and Zhezquazghan on the
outskirts of the Kazakh steppe where silver is exploited and refined.
The delivery is carried out from the airport of Almaty, the former capital of the country. For
safety reasons the transport to the airport occurs in a massively armored truck and is
accompanied by security service. It is a time-consuming way from the mining to the airport as
roads are partially unpaved and in a bad condition full of potholes. Another lavish aspect is
the customs checks as silver belongs to the precious metals. Thus, customs are a delicate issue
and can take up to several hours. Having arrived at the airport, the palette of silver is loaded
into the aircraft under supervision of a Lufthansa Cargo agent. As soon as the aircraft is
completely loaded and the silver is fixed with belts and racks the plane takes off heading to
Frankfurt (Littek, 2006 p 52ff). From there it is delivered to the final destination, usually by
truck again after passing the customs procedures.
2.4.2. Humanitarian logistics
Another vital role in air transport play humanitarian logistics. In general, this kind of logistics
lags behind the commercial ones due to difficult circumstances in disaster areas. Fields of aid
for disaster victims mostly lack of accessibility as they often are in remote regions, which are
difficult to access.
The needs for humanitarian transports are either caused by human or nature, as causes can be
wars, crisis situations, terror attacks, industrial accidents etc. or natural catastrophes, like
29 droughts, wildfire, heat waves, hurricanes etc. The particular challenge comes from the fact
that despite of modern technology, natural catastrophes are still not controllable by human
beings. The risk can be minimized but not avoided. One main difference between
humanitarian logistics and commercial logistics is the very focus, which in case of the first
one is on location, amount and time. Two major subjects humanitarian transport in disaster
areas has to come to terms with are the lack of resource availability and missing mobility
(Abidi et.al, 2011); in that context the aim of delivering goods in the right number to the right
time to the right place, obtains an especially delicate level of importance in comparison with
commercial logistics.
Nevertheless, it is still essential not to overlook the factors costs and quality. Especially, as far
as costs are concerned, efficiency is of high importance. Years ago several development
agencies had their own aircraft only partly loaded all flying to the same locations in disaster
areas at similar times, which turned out to be very inefficient (ICAO, 2011). Furthermore, the
presence of humanitarian staff in catastrophe areas, which are often remote and isolated,
implies the availability of costly air service. Since many disaster areas are in landlocked
countries, fuel prices are often high and thus, many humanitarian carriers rely on donations
and seek to improve efficiency through route optimization, enhancing aircraft load factors and
chartering the most appropriate aircraft for the operation (ICAO, 2011).
Since in crisis zones and regions of natural catastrophes effects and consequences often turn
out to be tricky to assess it is key to resort to a well-functioning logistics system including a
reliable air transport network to be able to react and help as quickly as possible. Goods
transported in humanitarian air transport always depend on the needs of the respective disaster
area. They can reach from food supplements to medicine and water treatment plants; to
summarize, anything dealing with disaster control.
30 2.5. Supply chains of fruits
To highlight the importance of airfreight in a complete supply chain from the production to
the end-consumer, the examples of papayas and mangoes were chosen. Papaya is an exotic
fruit, which grows in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia. The short shelf life
of the fruit makes air transport key, this is why 90 % of papayas are air-shipped. In the case of
NV Special Fruit, an international importer of fruits and vegetables, specialized in exotic
species, papayas are harvested in the Linhares region of Brazil. From there they are trucked to
the pack house where the fruit is cooled, graded and packed for the further transport. This step
is followed by a 600 km journey by refrigerated truck to Rio de Janeiro Airport, from where
the fruits are air-shipped to Amsterdam or Brussels. There the papayas are collected and
transported by truck to the company’s warehouse in Mer. At the warehouse phytosanitary and
customs procedures take place as well as quality controls and possible extra handling like
repacking or labeling. Depending on the customers’ demands the fruit is then transported to
the regional or national distribution centers from where it will be trucked to the shops
subsequently. This delivery takes place one to two times per week (NV Special Fruit, 2014).
With mangoes, the situation is a little different: Most of the mangoes are transported by sea,
only approximately 10 % need to be air shipped. The reason for air shipping is that some
mangoes are just left longer on the trees to ripen there and some kinds of mangoes do not
survive a journey by sea and therefore have to be transported by air. Unlike the papaya tree,
which produces 12 months a year, mangoes are only harvested once a year. This is why
Special Fruits NV switches from one producing country to the next, following the seasons. As
a consequence, every two to three months the company has a different logistical line as Figure
13 shows later on. In July 2014 mangoes were collected from Senegal. The following pattern
of the supply chain is very alike to that of papaya: The fruit is harvested in the area of Dakar
than trucked to the airport of Dakar from where it is flown to Amsterdam of Brussels. Then
after being transported to the warehouse, customs, quality controls and phytosanitary take
place. After that it is transported to a distribution center and from there to the retailer (NV
Special Fruit, 2014).
31 Delivery of mangoes is carried out one to three times per week (NV Special Fruit, 2014).
In the case of the company Spar Austria, which obtains the fruits from Special Fruits NV, the
end haulage to Austria is carried out by truck to a partner company in Styria, which serves as
a national logistics center for Spar and that kind of fruits. Mangoes are delivered by Special
Fruits in specific 4 kg cartons and the partner company repacks the carton to each four pieces
or nine pieces. A quality control is performed and the fruits are provided with Spar brand
stickers. Spar runs six regional logistics centers and each of them orders the fruits from the
partner company on a daily basis. One more quality control is carried out by the regional
logistics center. Subsequently, the Spar retail outlets request the goods from the regional
logistics center and receive it by truck (Spar Purchase Department, 2014). In total the supply
chain from the harvest to the customer takes about four to seven days (NV Special Fruit, 2014
and Spar Purchase Department, 2014).
These supply chains show the importance of a well-functioning inter- and multimodal
transport. While intermodal refers to the movement of goods within the same loading unit by
successive modes of transport, in multimodal transport goods are handled when changing the
transport modes (Posset et al., 2010). Thus, when including air cargo in supply chains it is
mostly referred to multimodality as goods from the containers from the pre haulage usually
need to be transshipped into special containers for air transport (unit load devices). Exceptions
to this might be the transport of dangerous goods or animals, as they usually are not
transshipped into other containers due to safety reasons.
The aircraft, being the main haulage within this supply chain, of course plays a key role.
However, the arrival of the goods also depends on the pre- and the end haulage. This is
stressed by Posset et al. (2010), “Intermodal transport requires synchronized and seamless
schedules of different transport modes (…) in order to avoid costly intermediate storage and
to guarantee frictionless transshipments during the journey from the origin (consignor) to
destination (consignee).”
32 Figure 12 shows the supply chain of papayas visually. One can see the transport from the
harvest in Brazil to the retail in Austria. This illustration is a sketch of the transport way and
thus, is not precise. Since the exact location of Spar’s partner company in Styria is unknown,
Figure 12: Supply chain of papayas
(Source: Adapted from Google Maps, 2014) it was chosen to draw the supply chain via Graz, as it is the capital of Styria.
33 Figure 13 shows different supply chains of mangoes from their countries of origin to Europe,
depending on the respective growing seasons. Having arrived in Belgium, the further
(Source: Adapted Omnia-verlag, 2014).
Figure 13: Supply chains of mangoes depending on the growing seasons
transport to Austria occurs like in the case of the import of papayas.
34 2.6. Cost structure of airfreight
Costs for air cargo operations are quite a complex and delicate issue because they result from
different factors.
According to the World Bank (2008), those factors are aircraft technology, route
characteristics, structure of operations and the sensitivity to energy prices.
In Table 1 the cost structure of airfreight being made up by different types of charges is
portrayed.
Table 1: Cost structure of airfreight (Source: Adapted from World Bank, 2008 and Batal,
2009).
Cost structure of air cargo
Direct operating costs (DOC)
fixed costs
•
•
•
⎯
crew
insurance
capital costs
in case of purchase:
depreciation & amortization;
in case of leased aircraft:
rentals
Indirect operating costs (IOC)
variable costs
•
•
•
⎯
⎯
⎯
fuel
maintenance
airport fees:
landing & parking fees
navigation fees
Ground handling
charges
•
•
•
•
•
Administration
Service & Dispatch
Advertisement & Sales
Further training
Costs of headquarters / branches
It can be differentiated between direct operating costs and indirect operating costs, whereas
direct operating costs refer to costs dependent on the aircraft and indirect costs are costs
which are independent from the aircraft. The sum of direct and indirect operating costs results
in the total operating costs (Batal, 2009 p 11). Indirect costs are not paid attention in this
thesis, as with regard to airfreight they do not play a vital part.
According to the author’s approach, direct operating costs are differentiated into fixed and
variable costs. In this context fixed costs do not depend on the actual use of the aircraft,
whereas variable costs depend on actual aircraft operation (number of take-offs, landings,
flown miles, etc.).
In case of purchase, capital costs are presented by depreciation and amortization while the
first one refers to the costs of tangible assets (Accounting Tools, 2015), like the aircraft itself
or parts of it. In contrast, amortization mean costs of intangible assets, like rights,
certifications etc. According to Wensveen (2011 p 322) many airlines amortize any kind of
developmental and pre-operating costs related to the development of new routes or the
introduction of new aircrafts, including the flight crew training.
35 Consequently, such costs are spread out over a number of years instead of being debited in
total to the year in which they occur. Depreciation usually is calculated on a straight-line basis
over a useful life from 20 to 25 years. In case of Lufthansa Cargo, for instance, air freighters
are subject to a linear depreciation over 20 years with a residual value of 5 % (Lufthansa
Group – Investor Relations, communication by telephone, 10th of December, 2014).
Navigation fees are based on the aircraft’s weight and on the length of flight over the country
levying the fee. They are charged by each ATC Unit (Air traffic control) resulting from the
distance along a great circle between the entry point into the respective state to the point of
exit, being measured in terms of nautical miles.
The costs of administration depend on whether the airline is a dedicated freighter or a
combination of freighter and passenger transport and whether it provides a scheduler or
charter service or both (World Bank, 2008 p 36).
Furthermore, the World Bank divide costs for air cargo into exogenous costs and endogenous
costs. Over exogenous costs, like fuel or airport charges, carriers have only little or no
influence. In contrast capital, labor and maintenance are deemed endogenous costs and can be
controlled by the carrier’s procurement and operating procedures.
Some costs of operating an aircraft entail economies of scale, in particular labor and
maintenance costs (World Bank, 2008 p 33). Factually, aircraft capacity has no influence on
the size of the crew and costs for crewmembers do not change with the load factor of an
airplane. For instance, no matter if the aircraft is 70 % or 100 % loaded, these costs remain
the same. As a consequence, the more weight is transported the lower the average costs for
labor become in relation to the actual load factor. The same applies for maintenance, as its
costs have not got anything to do with capacity or load factor either. Costs for maintenance
increase with the size of the aircraft, number of engines and number of hours of operation,
which are always given in terms of block time (note: block time refers to the time from
starting the engine to the engine shutdown).
Fuel costs have the most significant impact on total operating costs but show less significant
economies of scale, as there is a minor dependency on the loaded weight. The main factor for
fuel consumption results from the distance traveled.
Concerning long distance flights, it has to be taken into account that aircrafts need to carry
additional fuel which makes them reduce their payload and as a consequence, create a tradeoff between payload and maximum range.
In addition come external costs, which have an impact on the block hour costs, like airport
congestion and weather en route, which can force aircrafts to fly detours (World Bank, 2008 p
36 37). Since fuel costs contribute a lot to the operating costs of aircraft, fuel efficiency is
something that needs to be tackled and has to be kept improving. This issue, both from an
economic and ecologic point of view, is given more specific attention in a later chapter.
In contrast, crew costs have the smallest influence, as the number of crew in freighter usually
is very low; so, a variation of labor costs in different regions does not affect operating costs of
aircraft significantly.
Assessing the average unit cost per tonne-kilometer, one can see that they depend on the type
of operation, the route and the load factor. Whereas cargo carriers, no matter if offering
scheduled or chartered transports, include both the direct operating and capital costs in the
calculation of their cargo costs, for passenger airlines the freight carried in the aircraft’s belly
is limited to the incremental cost for ground handling and fuel (World Bank, 2008 p 34).
Considering the route, the length of the route affects the unit costs in terms of varying freighttonne kilometer for capital and crew costs. Moreover, fuel costs per kilometer for a specific
trip depend on actual consumption needed for taxiing, climbing, cruising, descending and
waiting in holding patterns.
Determining the average unit cost, the load factor plays a crucial role because there is a
significant amount of fixed costs. Charter flights tend to have lower unit costs than scheduled
ones for a similar number of operating hours because charter flights achieve higher load
factors. This has resulted in cargo airlines’ using both scheduled and charter services in order
to maximize their fleet’s load factor (World Bank, 2008 p 34). Average load factors are
typically between 63 % and 73 % however, have been declining for the last years with an
increase of the proportion of scheduled services.
As most information about operating costs and cost structures are published by passenger
airlines while cargo airlines publish just little information, the only reliable source for cost
structures seems to be passenger airlines’ information, even if passenger airlines have to deal
with larger administrative overhead for passengers on the top of cargo airliners’ costs.
Thus, it can be shown that a great proportion of costs refer to passenger services on ground
and in flight. Direct operating costs make up only a half of the total airline costs. Another
30 % accounts for ground operations and the remainder refers to general management and inflight services (World Bank, 2008 p 35ff).
Capital costs for air freighters portray only a small part of the operating costs due to the age
of the aircrafts used. It is common for all-cargo airlines and combination carriers to purchase
used passenger aircraft and convert them into freighters by adding loading ramps. For this
37 reason, cargo aircraft have a high depreciation, having lost 50 % of its value after 10 years
and 65-70 % after 15 years (World Bank, 2008 p 36).
3. Assessment of cargo airports
This chapter deals with striking aspects, which make a favorable cargo airport. Essential
attributes are listed and given specific attention when introducing some cargo airports later
on. Hong Kong’s international airport Chek Lap Kok is highlighted explicitly and given
considerable attention as it has been taking the lead being the Nr.1 cargo airport in terms of
freight tonnes handled. Furthermore, Austria’s airports are portrayed as well as their
contribution to airfreight. Since Vienna has by far most freight handled, this airport is given
the most attention. Neither negligible is air cargo in remote regions which is why this topic is
also dealt with. Air transport in isolated regions often turns out to be the only way to get from
A to B as roads are often unpaved, in a bad condition or non-existent at all.
3.1. Attributes for cargo airports
A favorable cargo airport results from a range of different factors. Among the contributors the
most important ones are:
•
Geographic location
It is vital for a cargo airport to be able to reach a wide area of industrialized countries
within a reasonable flying time, as speed and reliability play a key role in air transport.
Zhang (2003) states, “If all other factors are equal, the ideal hub location is one that
minimizes the total flight kilometers within its network, and allows services with larger
aircraft.” This cements the importance of a strategic geographic location of a cargo
airport.
•
Infrastructure
This factor covers airport facilities concerning cargo handling. Logistic systems and
terminals are crucial to have the airfreight processed and prepared for further
transportation. Maintenance service and devices also contribute to the availability of
infrastructure.
Furthermore, it is essential for an airport to dispose of enough airport land to be able to
have on-airport assembly and warehouse facilities.
38 Moreover, technological facilities like ILS (Instrument Landing System) and high
performance weather radars are the preconditions for a state of the art infrastructure of an
airport as they provide for safe operations.
•
Intermodal / multimodal transport
Since most cargo is moved via inter- / or multimodal transport, connection and links to
other modes are crucial to enable a reliable and speedy connecting transportation. This is
why an airport’s location nearby a sea port, well-developed road network and railway
stations is preferable and beneficial for airfreight.
•
Costs
Costs at an airport include airport charges, terminal and ground-handling costs as well as
other operational costs of the logistics facilities (Zhang, 2003). Cost aspects have always
been a decisive factor contributing to the choice of an airport as logistics service providers
generally seek to operate at airports at lowest possible charges.
•
Customs
Customs are often a delicate matter when it comes to the assessment of freight airports, as
they are prone to be laborious and time-consuming. Zhang (2003) states that just like
intermodal transportation, customs modernization or simplification has a huge impact on
an airport’s competitiveness. According to the authors, customs aim at two functions,
trade facilitation and customs control, such as the prevention of the import of illegal drugs
and other hazardous substances and, particularly, tariff collection.
Raising revenues also used to be a major function of customs but most industrialized
countries do not resort to this aspect anymore because tariff barriers have come down
more and more. However, for developing countries it even remains the main function of
customs (Zhang, 2003).
•
Aviation policy and regulations
These factors refer to the bilateral air service agreements, which facilitate air transport
between countries. Among others, they also refer to special rules that apply for airports in
particular, like operating hours, night curfews etc.
3.2 Air cargo in Hong Kong
According to IATA 2013, Asia Pacific is the biggest market for air cargo service, accounting
for 40 % market share of freight tonne kilometers (FTKs).
39 Hong Kong International Airport (abbreviation by IATA: HKG) has been taking the lead
when it comes to airfreight, having been the busiest airport for air cargo since 1996. Busiest
airport in this case means imports, exports and transshipments. The air cargo that passes
through HKG contributes to the city’s trade to a huge proportion, having handled 4.12 million
tonnes of freight in 2013.
The main reason for Hong Kong’s crucial role in air cargo lies in the states’ strategic
geographical location. Being able to reach half of the world’s population within less than five
flying hours (Hong Kong Airport, 2014), HKG’s advantage is clearly obvious in relation to
the attribute of “Geographic location”.
Furthermore, also Singapore as well as many other Asian cities and states act as an important
air cargo hub and gateway, shipping goods via the Pacific Ocean to the US or Europe both via
air and sea. Considering the factor “Infrastructure” HKG’s development as a hub and
transshipment position shows a disadvantage when it comes to the on-airport land. In contrast
to Singapore or Taipei, which have got a lot of on-airport assembly and warehousing
facilities, Hong Kong lacks of airport land (Zhang, 2003).
With respect to the attribute “Costs” HKG is not preferable. Even though costs used to be
much higher and were decreased, which also contributed to DHL’s decision to transfer its
regional hub from Manila back to Hong Kong, airport charges remain 10-15 % higher than at
other Southeast Asian airports. This also goes for cargo handling charges, which together with
the landing fees keep being a complaint by freight forwarders and airline clients (Zhang,
2003).
According to Zhang and Zhang (2002) it is necessary to distinguish between three elements of
air cargo in Hong Kong. Local (domestic) airfreight made up 7.2 % of air cargo trade in 2000.
Gateways business of HKG, meaning cargo either origins in or is destined for Hong Kong,
accounted for 78 % of total air cargo trade, being the predominant air cargo activity. Hub
cargo or also called transshipment refers to cargo flying from another country to Hong Kong
and then flying out to its final destination and accounted for roughly 15 % of total air cargo.
The three strongest competitors that Hong Kong faces as a hub are Singapore, Shanghai and
Taipei. Singapore scored significant air cargo traffic in the 1980s and 1990s with a larger
share of transshipment business compared to HKG. This is mainly because of Singapore’s
high technology manufacturing in Southeast Asia region. However, they also complement
each other as Hong Kong is an air cargo base for China and Taiwan, whereas Singapore
mainly hubs for Malaysia and Indonesia. Moreover, transpacific routes nowadays are still too
long for aircrafts to fly directly from Singapore to the west coast of the US. This makes
40 carriers require a secondary hub in Asia from which they get to ship cargo to North America
which often turns out to be HKG (Zhang, 2003).
Yuan et.al (2009) found out that also the airfreight and sea freight sectors within the Hong
Kong and Singapore logistics industries complement each other, as one transport mode can
offset the disadvantage of the other. For instance, air transport on the one hand is more
reliable and speedier than sea transport but on the other hand costs more. By combining the
two transport modes one can achieve a supply chain with the lowest cost, which is still
reliable and has a short transit time.
Further competition for hub traffic also comes from Mainland China, the airport of Shanghai.
Two major events have been facilitating air cargo’s growth in China: China’s entry into the
World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and the establishment of San Tong, which now
allows carriers to fly directly from Taiwan to Mainland China and vice versa fostering the
establishment of more cargo hubs in China and, thus, boosts the country’s economy (Tanger,
2007).
Hong Kong used to be essential for trading between Taiwan to Mainland China, as it was not
allowed for airplanes to fly directly between these two countries. So, both cargo and
passengers travelling across the Taiwan Strait had to go through a stopover, which often was
Hong Kong (Zhang and Zhang, 2002).
In 2008 “San Tong” convention between Taiwan and China came into force, which enabled
direct links in mail, transportation and trading between these two states (CCTV International,
2008).
Compared to China however, whose megacities have also been gaining importance as an air
cargo hub; HKG has the advantage of having a better infrastructure and being more
liberalized. Moreover, it does not face as many constraints as China. Mainland China lacks of
efficient logistic-related infrastructure including not only airport capacity but also road
networks and technological capacities. Even though significant progress has been made in
China’s communication technology and transportation network it is still underdeveloped
(Zhang and Zhang, 2002).
Shanghai, being the most significant national and international air cargo hub for Mainland
China, is definitely a competitor for Hong Kong. Shanghai is the only Chinese city with two
airports with the quite new Pudong Airport having a substantial cargo capacity. Due to limited
international air traffic rights and complex customs regulations Shanghai’s position as a hub
is not that well developed yet, however, it is expected to rise up as an international cargo hub
in the medium term (Zhang, 2003).
41 Despite the introduction of “San Tong” Hong Kong’s Nr. 1 ranking in international air cargo
has remained. On closer examination of the airports cargo statistics it seems that the airport
has not had any major losses caused by the introduction.
Figure 14 shows a fluctuating increase of loaded and unloaded freight from 1998 till 2007,
where it reaches a peak. In 2008 one can see a slight decrease in unloaded freight till 2009
and a more considerable drop of loaded freight, which can be explained through the world
economic crisis and most likely through the introduction of “San Tong”. However, right after
2009 both unloaded and loaded freight show a recovery and rise again. Unloaded freight in
2010 levels off, remaining more or less constant and loaded freight slightly falls off till 2011
from where it steadily grows again. The figure of the cargo throughput clearly indicates a
continuing upward trend in the following years.
Development of airfreight in Hong Kong
4,500,000
4,000,000
Freight in tonnes
3,500,000
3,000,000
2,500,000
Unloaded
2,000,000
Loaded
1,500,000
Total
1,000,000
0
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
500,000
Year
Figure 14: Development of airfreight in Hong Kong
(Author’s illustration; data source: Hong Kong Airport, 2014)
One further possible reason for HKG’s ongoing popularity is that the airport has been
enjoying good relations with airports from the mainland, for instance, in 2008 the Hong Kong
- Shenzhen Airport link was launched. This introduction has facilitated infrastructure for
passengers and improved the road connection which also helped creating a sea-land
transportation network between the two airports and thus, fostered multi modal transports
(Hong Kong Airport, 2008). In 2010 HKIA and Beijing Airport became “Sister Airports”.
42 This arrangement was signed to benefit from an experience sharing cooperation. It is
supposed to establish new collaboration opportunities in order to boost the economic
development of both airports (Hong Kong Airport, 2010).
Another reason for HKG’s still being Nr 1 in international cargo airports is the fact that the
airport keeps investing in modernization and improvement of its infrastructure for cargo
transshipment. In February 2013 a new cargo terminal was opened which has enabled an
increase of the airport’s cargo handling capacity by 50 %. Furthermore, a lot of new carriers
and destinations were added to HKG’s airport to keep expanding and improving the airport’s
cargo status (Hong Kong International Airport, 2013).
3.3. Air cargo in remote regions
In many rural and remote areas air transport often turns out to be the only mode for both
passengers and cargo to travel from one point to another, as those regions often lack of
infrastructure and access to towns. For instance, Canada and Alaska dispose of wide, rural
regions that are sparsely populated and do not have the necessary connection between towns.
This makes air cargo key and indispensable in isolated areas.
3.3.1. Example: Alaska
Alaska disposes of many thinly populated regions, containing 586,000 mi2 (1.5177E6 km2) of
land. In 2012 its population was 731,449, out of which nearly half of the residents lived in
Anchorage. The population density is roughly 0.48 per km2, which is more than 2 km2 for
each person. Compared to New York, which has only 0.00777 km2 per person, one can see the
extremely low density of the state (State of Alaska, 2014).
When it comes to the attribute “Geographic location” Alaska’s Ted Stevens Anchorage
International Airport (ANC) is ideal. Being located within nine hours of flying time to
approximately 95 % of the world’s industrialized nations and within a radius of 2000 – 4000
miles of the world’s air cargo centers, the airport disposes of a strategic location. Roughly
40 % of the landings per day are air cargo and the airport operates 24 / 7 without any curfews
(Prokop, 2002).
Another aspect, which makes Ted Stevens a profitable cargo airport, is the factor
“Infrastructure” as it has excellent snow removal programs, which enable the runways to be
43 kept open under adverse snow conditions. This is something the airport maintenance place
huge importance on (State of Alaska, 2011).
Due to the location on the periphery of the industrialized world, it has become a key
transshipment hub for Asian, North American and European markets. Since the economy of
China and the Pacific Rim keep growing ANC’s strategic location is expected to grow in
importance (Inbound logistics, 2004).
With respect to the factor “Aviation policy and regulations” the airport can also be assessed
positively as further deregulation was also brought to air cargo operations by co-mingling.
This means air cargo is transferred to another airplane, no matter if it is in the initiating
carrier’s fleet or not (Prokop, 2002).
In the 1980s UPS and FedEx started to distribute and sort cargo operations to develop new
markets in Asia; thus, giving the airport more credibility and recognition as an air cargo base.
Anchorage has been an essential cargo hub, having ranked Number 6 of the world’s busiest
airports when it comes to total cargo traffic (Airports Council International, 2014).
The factor “Costs” can be seen as a unique selling point of ANC. Compared to other
international airports, the costs for a landing is low with $ 0.58 / 1000 pounds (lbs), which
would mean $481.40 for a standard Boeing 747-2000. The landing fees for the same type of
aircraft would be around $1281 at a different US hub airport.
Moreover, with regard to the attribute “Intermodal transportation” ANC is special and well
qualified for air cargo operations. It hosts or is at least situated near several freight companies
and is located close to a rail terminal and intermodal center, as well as an inland waterway
port and interstate highway (Prokop, 2002).
The importance of air travel reaches an even higher level getting away from the city and into
the remote and isolated regions. In many communities, especially in Alaska’s west and
interior, air travel happens to be the only means to get in or out. Since there are no roads and
ferry service, these villages rely on air travel, not only for the transportation of supplies but
also for emergencies, family visits, work related travel as well as social- and vacation trips.
Some communities do not even offer medical services, so residents need to travel for all
medical visits (Alaska Aviation System Plan, 2008).
Aviation plays a key role for Alaska’s economy generating over 47,000 jobs, which was
approximately 10 % of the total jobs in Alaska’s economy (Alaska Aviation System Plan,
2008). Other important airports are Fairbanks and Bethel Airport. The town of Bethel is
located about 340 miles west of Anchorage (approximately 547 kilometers) and about 40
miles (64 kilometers) inbound from the Bering Sea. With only a few miles of paved roads and
44 no connection to any highway it lacks of ground transportation. The 6000 residents highly
rely on air travel to get around. Bethel Airport (BET) also happens to be the third busiest
airport in Alaska after Anchorage and Fairbanks and is a major hub for air transportation in
the state in spite of the fact that it is a small town. The airport provides two runways, one
paved and one gravel, and had more than 330 aircraft operations a day between 2006 and
2007. Within that year 232 airplanes were based on the airport, out of which 90 % were single
engine, 7 % multi engine, 2 % helicopters and 1 % military (Parker Brown, 2010).
Alaska Airlines is the most important airline for the state of Alaska and the airport of Bethel,
providing both cargo and passenger transportation within Alaska and to international
destinations.
3.3.2. Example Canada
Regarding air travel, Canada shows a lot of similarities with Alaska. Being also an extremely
wide and huge country and very sparsely populated, air transport is key and indispensable. In
2013 Canada had a population of 35,163,430 with a population density of 3.41 people per
km2 (8.3 / mi2) (Canada Population, 2014).
Especially northern communities are very isolated and only accessible by air. Those airports
often provide a poor infrastructure and face regulatory restrictions, which increases costs and
fosters uncertainty.
The value added by Canadian air cargo was $110 million in 2011 and the 200.000 jobs that
are linked to the operations of Canadian airports highlight the economic importance of air
travel in this country (Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communication, 2013a).
However, Canada does show key differences compared to Alaska (or other markets), as
competitiveness of air transport is extremely weak (Standing Senate Committee on transport
and Communication, 2013b). Especially, regarding the factors “Costs”, “Infrastructure” and
“Aviation Policy and Regulations” Canada’s remote airports lag behind the Alaskan ones. For
instance, considering the factor “Costs”, fuel prices are much higher than in the US thus,
boosting the costs of aviation industry.
Concerning the attribute “Aviation Policy and Regulations” Canada’s air industry lacks of a
coordinated direction regarding regulations. In the 1990s the local communities were given
the task to develop aviation in Canada, as this was expected to be economically better
(Standing Senate Committee on transport and Communication, 2013b). However, it later was
found that it is important to create a national air strategy that takes into account the special
45 needs of the regional and isolated airports and that it is key to improve the infrastructure of
those airports (Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communication, 2013a).
Canada’s isolated regions, moreover, are facing climatic challenges. Many runways are built
on permafrost and since the Arctic warms, it has started to soften which, as a consequence,
has led to the development of hazardous fissures and bumps. Since many northern terminals
were built on steel piles driven into the permafrost, melting permafrost could become
problematic. Some fear that these piles could conduct heat into the permafrost and thus,
destabilize infrastructure.
There is also the fact that most of those airports were built near the water and for this reason
are improbable to withstand a significant rise in sea level. At one airport in the Northwest
Territories the runway is already eroding and struggling with stability issues as a consequence
of increased wave action (Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communication,
2013c).
All these facts stress the importance of creating ideas to improve infrastructure. It was found
key to increase the use of GPS technology and automated weather observation system
(AWOS). The main obstacle of putting these ideas into action are costs which for the
materials and construction at northern and remote locations are much higher than in the rest of
the country (Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communication, 2013c). Since
aviation development in Canada is a community issue they often do not have the necessary
tax bases to support projects to enhance infrastructure. However, the federal government has
recognized the importance of improving infrastructure and has made key investments in
northern remote airports (Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communication,
2013c).
When assessing the contributor “Infrastructure” it is worth mentioning that many airports lack
of the necessary facilities and devices not being equipped with a modern instrument approach
system, which makes it impossible to land there under foggy conditions.
An important air cargo company operating in the remote regions of the north is the in 1970
established Buffalo Airways Ltd., stationed in Yellowknife, one of the Northwest Territories.
They are specialized in both cargo and passenger charters and also have got a division with a
specialization in fire suppression (Buffalo Airways, 2014a).
Buffalo Air Express, Buffalo Airways’ daughter company has been in operation since 1982. It
is the largest courier service in the Northwest Territories and is specialized in door-to-door
service (Buffalo Airways, 2014b). The company operates from Edmonton to Northern Alberta
46 and the Northwest Territories and owns 15 aircrafts that are used for the freight division
(Buffalo Air Express, 2014).
3.4. Airfreight in Austria
This sub chapter presents the situation of air cargo in Austria. Emphasize is especially given
on the share and distribution of air cargo according to each airport in Austria. The reasons for
the busiest cargo airports, VIE and LNZ are explained according to the introduced attributes,
which make a well-functioning cargo airport.
3.4.1. Share and distribution of airfreight
Regarding the total transports of Austria air transport is by far the smallest share, making up
only 0.03 % in 2012. The biggest share has been land transportation with a share of 71.2%
followed by railway with 16.7 % and pipelines of 10.3 %. The inland waterway Danube
contributed to the total transports with 1.8 % (Verkehrsstatistik, 2012 and Statistik Austria,
2013).
In this chapter, all Austrian airports will be abbreviated according to the three-letter code
introduced by IATA.
Table 2 shows the amount of airfreight in 2013 at all Austrian airports. These data do not
include mail.
Table 2: Amount of airfreight in kg in 2013 (Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014a).
Amount of airfreight in kg in 2013
Airport
IATA
Unloaded
Loaded
Transit
Vienna
VIE
99,791,120
79,034,896
21,379,002
Graz
GRZ
83,083
228,525
0
Innsbruck
INN
128,574
109,673
0
Klagenfurt
KLU
0
0
0
Linz
LNZ
2,175,430
3,438,670
3,917,004
Salzburg
SZG
74,882
107,406
0
102,253,089
82,919,170
25,296,006
Total
Table 3 shows the amount of airmail unloaded, loaded and transshipped in 2013.
47 Table 3: Depiction of airmail in kg in 2013 (Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014a).
Depiction of airmail in kg in 2013
Airport
Unloaded
Loaded
Transit
VIE
4,731,922
6,959,255
30,645
GRZ
0
0
0
INN
0
260
0
KLU
0
36
0
LNZ
119
256
0
SZG
0
0
0
Table 4 shows the total number of commercial flights arriving and departing at each Austrian
airport.
Table 4: Number of flights in 2013 (Data Source: Statistik Austria, 2014a)
Number of flights
Airport
Arriving
Departing
VIE
115,587
115,590
GRZ
7,389
7,389
INN
5,766
5,769
KLU
2,349
2,347
LNZ
5,114
5,113
SZB
9,035
9,033
3.4.2. Assessment of suitability of Austrian airports for cargo activity
Considering VIE, most of all with regard to cargo airport attribute “Geographic Location” the
airport shows advantages. Being located in the center of Europe, the airport has a strategically
favorable position, as it borders to or is at least close to many economically important central
and southeast European countries. Furthermore, VIE provides a quick connection to all parts
of Europe both by flight connection network and by direct access to motorways network.
The main reason why VIE takes the lead in airfreight in Austria is its advantage of not having
night flight restrictions for category III aircraft (Umwelt und Luftfahrt, 2014). Note: Category
III means every type of subsonic aircraft of which initial registration occurred after October
6th 1977, whereas category II refers to subsonic jets of which registration was until 1977 and
category IV applies for all subsonic jets that were initially registered from 2006. These
48 statements refer to all aircrafts that dispose of an MTOM (maximum take-off weight more
than 5,700 kg (ICAO, 2004).
VIE, moreover, disposes of modern freight facilities close to the apron, which enable rapid
and flexible handling (Vienna Airport, 2014).
Apart from VIE only Linz has been carrying out transit cargo within the last years (Statistik
Austria, 2014a).
Out of all controlled international airports in Austria KLU has had the lowest freight transport
amount, having had no cargo transport at all in 2013 and merely 7 kilograms of incoming and
127 kilograms of outgoing cargo in the previous year. One can see KLU’s development of
airfreight from 2000 to 2013 in Table 3. In general, commercial utilization at KLU has been
extremely low for the last years. Currently the only direct flights going outbound KLU are
flights to Vienna, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin (Klagenfurt Airport, 2014). The major part
of utilization at KLU is made by general aviation. However, KLU does host carriers
responsible for airfreight. Freight is transported by truck to VIE or GRZ where it is loaded on
the plane to be air-shipped to its final destination or it is carried to other airports like FRA
(Frankfurt), AMS (Amsterdam), CDG (Paris) or LUX (Luxemburg) and, as a consequence,
air freighted from there (Schenker & Co AG Klagenfurt, 2014).
In Figure 15 one can see KLU’s air cargo development graphically. What is striking is the rise
of loaded freight in 2001and the immediate drop right after. It hits a low in 2002 to rise more
or less steadily till 2005. After 2005 the amount of loaded freight decreases in a fluctuating
way, having its last amount of freight in 2012 with 127 kg.
The development of unloaded freight is quite similar with the difference of the amount of
unloaded freight dropping steadily from 2000 to 2002 and then going up again till 2004. From
there it fluctuates and decreases, having only 7 kg of freight in 2012.
49 Development of airfreight at KLU
45,000
40,000
Freight in kg
35,000
30,000
25,000
Unloaded
20,000
Loaded
15,000
Transit
10,000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
5,000
Year
Figure 15: Development of airfreight at KLU
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014b and 2014c)
The reason for KLU’s non-existent air cargo activity and low airport utilization lies in the
missing demand of the customers. In the immediate vicinity of KLU the airport of Ljubljana,
Slovenia is located, which customers or passengers often resort to. GRZ is not far away from
KLU’s either which disposes of a much higher utilization.
Furthermore, it has to be borne in mind, that Klagenfurt has been experiencing a significant
emigration of young people. It has been suffering a huge indebtedness and unemployment,
which is why many people leave for Vienna or Graz to get a job or to study there.
In the total province of Carinthia every day nine young, educated inhabitants emigrate
(Wirtschaftskammer Kärnten, 2014).
When it comes to the contributors “Intermodal Transport” and “Geographic Location” LNZ is
without doubt an ideal airport for air cargo in Austria and can definitely keep up with Vienna.
LNZ provides a significant junction for road traffic, rail transport and shipping as it is located
by the river Danube and by the motorway junction A1, A7 and A8 which serve as the main
transit route between eastern and western European markets and also the north and the south.
The city is also situated at an important railway network connecting Munich to Vienna.
Moreover, the fact that Linz is an industrialized town cements the importance of air cargo
transshipment in this city. It is located in the vicinity of Germany, which is an economically
important country in the EU. Figure 16 shows LNZ’s airfreight development visually. It is
apparent that both the amount of loaded and transit freight drop in 2001, which is caused by
50 9 / 11. This terror attack made UPS break off the freight activities out of LNZ, which
explains the decline of freight in that year. Furthermore, one can see a striking rise of loaded
freight in 2006 as the amount rises up clearly till 2007 where it reaches a peak and later goes
down till 2009 to subsequently start to rise up again in a fluctuating way. The incline in 2006
can be explained by DHL’s beginning to airship freight ex LNZ, which made the amount of
cargo rise significantly (Cargo Management Airport Linz, 2014).
Airfreight at LNZ
4,000,000
3,500,000
Freight in kg
3,000,000
2,500,000
Unloaded
2,000,000
Loaded
1,500,000
Transit
1,000,000
0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
500,000
Year
Figure 16: Development of airfreight at LNZ
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014b and 2014c)
Figure 17 shows that airfreight for the most part in Austria is made up by VIE. The chart
shows the percentages of each airport in Austria contributing to unloaded, loaded and
transshipment airfreight in 2013.
Figures 18 and 19 show a more precise depiction of the share of airfreight comparing VIE
with the rest of Austrian airports for both unloaded and loaded freight in 2013. These graphs
cement the importance of VIE for Austrian airfreight. The only other airport, which
considerably contributes to Austrian airfreight, is LNZ. SZG, INN, GRZ and KLU can be
disregarded as their share of airfreight is pretty much non-existent compared to VIE and LNZ.
Moreover, it has to be borne in mind that airfreight of airports like INN and SZG often arrive
via Munich as it is nearby.
51 Share of airfreight at Austrian airports
100%
98%
96%
94%
92%
90%
88%
86%
84%
82%
80%
Airport SZG
Airport LNZ
Airport KLU
Airport INN
Airport GRZ
Airport VIE
Arriving
Departing
Transit
Figure 17: Share of airfreight of Austrian airports in 2013
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014a)
Share of airfreight unloaded in 2013
0.08% 2.13% 97.59% 0.28% 0.13% 0.07% Airport VIE
Airport GRZ
Airport INN
Airport KLU
Airport LNZ
Airport SZG
Figure 18: Share of airfreight unloaded in 2013
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014a)
52 Share of airfreight loaded in 2013
0.276% 4.277% Airport VIE
Airport GRZ
95.316% 0.132% 4.147% Airport INN
Airport KLU
Airport LNZ
Airport SZG
0.130% Figure 19: Share of airfreight loaded in 2013
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014a)
According to Statistik Austria (2013) 2012 machinery, intermediate goods and vehicles made
up the biggest share of airfreight, accounting for 93.4 % of air-shipped goods.
To make the most of an airport’s potential, it is necessary to act for the future, seeking to
boost economic development and keep the airport competitive in Europe. This is why VIE has
had the aim of constructing a third runway. The runway is planned to be in operation by 2025
(Vienna Airport, 2014). There has been a lot of controversy about the construction due to
environmental issues, like noise pollution.
According to an interviewed air traffic controller of the Austrian air service navigation
provider (ANSP) Austro Control, air traffic in VIE for freight, most importantly for parcel
services, on the one hand has increased due to the online retailers as people expect their
parcels to arrive within three to four days. On the other hand, passenger service providers tend
to resort to bigger aircrafts, resulting in frequenting the air traffic routes less intensively but
with heavier aircraft (oral communication, 10th of December, 2014).
Having a third runway would also create new departure routes over areas that previously did
not suffer from air traffic. This is why many locals are afraid that their life quality would
begin to suffer and, thus, are strictly against the third runway.
According to the air traffic controller, noise protection measures are quite a delicate matter, as
they tend to hinder aviation. He reports that due to the stringent conditions, Austro Control’s
hands are tied, as they have to satisfy a range of criteria and requirements.
53 Putting it more precisely, he states that in his opinion requirements for noise protection foster
environmental impacts, like e.g. CO2-emissions as they slow down or delay traffic. Some
communities may not be flown over directly due to noise nuisance. Furthermore, in times of
departure peaks, a runway distribution plan requires the controllers to alternate the runways in
use at specific times in order to distribute the noise or to offset the noise pollution. For
instance, often one runway is in use for take-offs and landings and the other one only for takeoffs. So, to enable a safe landing for an aircraft there has to be made gap between two take
offs, which makes departing aircrafts wait on the ground. Conversely, also the departing
aircraft has to wait longer on the holding point when there is a landing aircraft. Consequently,
requirements force departing or landing aircraft to either fly detours or to wait longer for their
take-off which leads to a higher consumption of fuel and, thus, to a higher emission of CO2
and other environmentally harmful emissions.
As already shown above, VIE has an over 95 % share of both loaded and unloaded freight at
Austrian airports. For this reason the freight development of VIE by itself is not dealt with.
Most important and known cargo airlines or integrators flying to VIE are: Cargo Lux, Asiana,
China Southern, FedEx and UPS and the main business concerning freighters happens during
night (oral communication by an air traffic controller at Austro Control, 10th of December,
2014).
Stepping away from single Austrian airports, Figure 20 depicts Austria’s airfreight
development since 1990. The graph shows a slightly fluctuating course of the transit
airfreight, which sharply rises in 2003 and peaks out in 2006. Transit freight then drops to
2007 and remains more or less stable till 2011.
The line of the loaded freight shows a steady rise till 2000 and then drops and hits a low in
2003. In 2004 it recovers and rises again till 2006 from where it drops gradually till 2009. In
2009 loaded freight goes up significantly to reach its peak in 2011.
Subsequently, it slightly goes down and levels out in 2012. 54 Very striking is the development of unloaded airfreight. The chart shows a permanent rise till
2000 and then a decrease till 2003. In 2004 one can see a significant growth till 2009.
According to a written statement of Cargo Business Development Vienna Airport (2014) this
rise can be explained by an increase in commercial aviation due to a positive development in
the VIE core markets in Asia and North America. Besides, several carriers increased their
frequencies to Vienna and some others took up links to VIE for the first time. The main reason for the rise in 2010 lies in a short-term recovery of the financial crisis and
the reason for the unloaded freight’s drop after that year lies in a deteriorated worldwide
economic situation and, consequently, in a decrease of global trade (Cargo Business
Development Vienna Airport, 2014).
Development of airfreight in Austria
160,000,000
140,000,000
Freight in kg
120,000,000
100,000,000
Unloaded
80,000,000
Loaded
60,000,000
Transit
40,000,000
20,000,000
0
Year
Figure 20: Development of airfreight in Austria since 1990
(Data source: Statistik Austria, 2014b and 2014c)
According to Verkehr (2015) VIE scored success having had an increase of airfreight in 2014
of 8.3 % compared to the previous year (WKO, 2015).
55 The figures 21-23 show VIE with its two existing runways, which are 11 / 29 and 16 / 34
including the planned runway 11R / 29L, which is drawn approximately (note: 1.5 km south
of the runway 11 / 29).
Cargo Center
© 2014 Stephanie Bernhard
Figure 21: Cargo Center at VIE
29L
11R
© 2014 Stephanie Bernhard
Figure 22: Approximate position of the planned runway 11R / 29L
56 34
29
Tower
11
16
© 2014 Stephanie Bernhard
Figure 23: Existing runways and Tower at VIE
Note: Runway headings are always indicated in terms of degrees (the last decimal place is
omitted) meaning the direction in which the aircraft lands or takes off. Normally, a runway
can be used into both directions, so they always differ in 180°. Consequently, runway 11 / 29
means 110° and 290°.
One important point that has to be borne in mind when assessing VIE is its risk exposure for
aircrafts taking off or landing due to the near-by refinery. Of course, having an engine failure
in this area would cause severe problems, which is why no departure routes are carried out via
the refinery. According to the interviewed air traffic controller, aircraft departing in direction
of the refinery (runway 29) have to make a left turn in 500 feet above ground to be clear of
the refinery. Propeller aircraft may also make a right turn, as it was found that their turning
radius is too small to overfly the refinery. The air traffic controller in the interview from 14th
of December 2014 for this reason states, that “…the probability of an aircraft crashing into
the refinery is so low that the danger is insignificant.”
3.4.3. Charges at Vienna International Airport
Landing fees at VIE depend on the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of the aircraft. For
freighters with an MTOW from 5 to 45 tonnes, there is a fixed part per landing of EUR
266.30. Above 45 tonnes an additional fee of EUR 6 per tonne of MTOW is added.
The MTOW always needs to be rounded up to the next full tonne to calculate the correct
landing charges (Austro Control GmbH, 2013).
For instance, a Boeing 747-400er freighter has a MTOW of 412,775 kg, which is rounded up
57 to 413 tonnes. The aircraft’s fixed part per landing is EUR 266.30 plus the 413 tons minus 45
tonnes multiplied by EUR 6 equal a landing charge of EUR 2474.3.
Parking at VIE is free of charge for the first four hours. For every period of 24 hours or part
of it a parking fee of 20 % of the landing fee applies for aircrafts with an MTOW up to 4000
kilograms. For aircrafts above an MTOW of 4000 kg 15 % of the applicable landing charges
apply (Austro Control, 2013).
These costs come in addition to handling fees for the freight and costs for refueling.
The composition of the fuel costs is quite complex, as the price of JetA1 (Kerosene) strongly
correlates with the stock exchange listings, which on the other hand correlate with the oil
prices. For this reason prices within the last months have dropped significantly. The relevant
listing for the market of VIE is the Rotterdam listing and commonly monthly average values
are used to limit volatility.
Figure 24 shows the course of the mean monthly values per tonne for Rotterdam in 2014.
Price development of kerosene in 2014
1200
USD / T
1000
800
600
400
USD / TO
200
0
Figure 24: Price development of kerosene
(Data source: OMV, 2014)
The price has kept decreasing and for the next months in 2015 an average monthly value of
below 600 USD / T is expected (OMV, 2015).
These values are than converted into EUR by fixings of the European Central Bank. For
instance, the August average of all daily Rotterdam fixings (there exists one daily fixing each
day) corresponding to the daily ECB EUR / USD fixing is converted. This results in the basic
price or also called product price. To the basic price, consequently, various supplementary
58 charges are added, like mandatory supplements by authorities as well as fees related to the
airport and service (refueling).
Additional charges concerning the service also depend on the customer’s demands, meaning
which amount is required in total, which amount is needed per flight and the current state of
the airlines (financially good, stable, unstable, state-run). The contracts are than negotiated
similarly to credit agreements. Instead of Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate) plus
interests, Rotterdam listings plus supplementary charges are applied. Within the contract
duration only listing of the commodity changes monthly (OMV, 2014).
4. Airfreight from an economic and operational point of view
With regard to the prevailing economic situation an insight is gained into the status of
airfreight. The current share of airfreight compared to ocean freight is examined including
reasons having led to the situation.
Apart from that it is dealt with effectiveness, efficiency and vulnerability of airfreight. Being
important aspects to consider, a detailed description is given about these terms with regard to
air transport. Since it is important to be able to measure the efficiency of airfreight a system is
introduced to measure aviation with respect to sustainability, which includes economic,
ecologic, social aspects and operational ones. Later on information is given about the most
common, containers and the way their use is managed of loading as well as a short
presentation of famous air freighters.
4.1. Current status of air cargo in the face of sea freight’s competition
According to findings by Seabury Group (2014) airfreight has lost market share to ocean
freight since 2000, having dropped from 3 % of total international containerized trade in 2000
to approximately 1.7 % in 2013. This gives rise to the assumption that a modal shift has been
responsible for this weight loss.
Air cargo has come under scrutiny within the last years and investigations revealed that modal
shift has in fact been contributing to the loss of market share. Modal shift in this case means
that goods, which used to be air-shipped are now transported by sea. Perishable goods have
found to be affected the most by this phenomenon but also high tech and machinery party
have been hit a lot. With regard to country specific trade lines, Asian ones have experienced
the most significant shift. IATA & Seabury survey of industry revealed assumptions of both
59 shippers and forwarders about what has led to the increase of modal shift. According to both
shippers and forwarders, cost differences between air and sea freight have played a key role.
Among the answers, the most relevant reasons are that firstly ocean services have become
more reliable and airfreight is often seen as being complex. Secondly, sea freight is perceived
as more environmentally friendly and thirdly, it is seen as less risky than airfreight (Seabury
Group, 2014).
As a consequence, these three issues, transportation costs, reliability and environment need to
be tackled to stop, limit or reverse the mode shift. Modal shift has been responsible for a third
of the drop of air share; however, there are still two other key factors that need to be borne in
mind.
One reason is the commodity mix effect, meaning that industries relevant for air trade like
high tech and fashion have seen a slower growth over the past 13 years compared to those
industries less important to air trade like raw materials and chemicals which are usually
transported by sea. So, the high growth and demand of the products with low air share like
raw materials and chemicals have made the overall air share decrease.
Another phenomenon is called the value effect, which signifies that there has been a shift to
low-grade goods that are usually sea-shipped. For instance there has been a higher demand for
low-quality integrated circuits and t-shirts of poor quality (Seabury Group, 2014).
It needs to be considered that the maritime industry is much larger than the air cargo industry
because, as already noted, regarding the weight of goods air transportation is only used for a
very small share. A comparison between the amounts of cargo transported by the two
transport modes shows the huge difference: in 2013 the world maritime industry shipped 9.5
billion tonnes of cargo whereas only 42 million tonnes were air-shipped. Considered the
weight, more than 80 % of carried goods are raw materials and other bulk items like oil or
metals ores. Most of those items are low of value and therefore shipping them by sea is the
preferred option (Boeing, 2014).
A further challenge that air cargo needs to address is an economic trend to on shore or closerto-home manufacturing and markets, making airfreight less essential (IATA, 2014).
Especially in the US there has been the phenomenon of moving factories onshore. Companies
pursue the goal of being close to developers and suppliers to reduce the time from design to
production and having proximity to their consumers. They also seek to be near technology
development to be able to take advantage of process innovations and facilitate product
variety. Other key criteria are low transportation costs to suppliers and markets as well as a
place with low production costs (Rosenfield, 2014).
60 Another significant challenge air cargo is facing is the delay in shipping time or prohibition of
transportation of definite goods by air due to the need for greater safety and security.
These aspects highlight the importance of enhancing airfreight’s competitiveness by
improving reliability of air cargo shipments, mitigating environmental impacts and raising air
cargo safety (IATA, 2014).
Measures to be taken, especially with regard to the environmental aspects, will be explained
in a later chapter.
4.1 Effectiveness & Efficiency
Effectiveness usually describes if an aim is achieved or not. The term can also be defined as
“The degree to which objects are achieved and the extent to which targeted problems are
solved” (Business Dictionary, 2015). The aim in this case is making commodities arrive fast
and in a reliable manner at their destination. Taking this into account, airfreight is definitely
effective, as goods get to be delivered on time and faster than via other transport modes,
which is a major aim in airfreight. Considering this, requirements to achieve effectiveness can
be seen as fulfilled.
Efficiency however describes an economically more specific term, which compares the
resources that one has to allocate in order to achieve a certain goal with the benefits gained.
Considering this, answering the question about the efficiency of airfreight not that simple
anymore. As a matter of fact, when talking about efficiency it is not questionable anymore, if
exogenous effects like environmental influences should be taken into consideration.
Apart from the environmental effects one mainly has to take into account how many costs
result from the whole process of airfreight including the upstream and downstream processes.
Costs of airfreight definitely are the highest among all existing transport modes, which mainly
results from the high fuel consumption of aircraft.
Assessing the degree of efficiency depends on the significance of the gained benefit, which
for airfreight primarily is the time required to deliver goods. To put it simply, by using
aircraft as transport mode, one can achieve significant savings of time, which are crucial to
the JIT logistics. Other benefits are reliability and security. Reliability means how dependably
the transport is carried out via air and how accurately the estimated and planned time of
arrival matches the actual time of arrival of the transported goods. Reliability for this reason
is closely connected to the factor of time and, as a consequence, can be seen as high. No other
transport mode is able to achieve this degree of reliability or delivery time. For this reason it
61 might give rise to the assumption that airfreight is efficient. However, as already explained in
a prior chapter airfreight has lost market share, which has largely been owing to increasing
cost differences between air transport and sea transport mode. This leads to the conclusion
that efficiency seen from a worldwide point of view has declined and will continue to do so if
is not counteracted soon.
Opposing this trend requires improving both fuel and noise efficiency. According to TIACA
(2014a) significant progress has been made within the last 40 years when it comes to improve
the environmental impact of airplanes. “These advancements in technology have resulted in a
70% reduction in fuel consumption and therefore CO2-emissions (…). In addition, today’s
airplanes are 30 dB quieter (…) when compared to original commercial jets”, (TIACA,
2014b) (note: commercial aircraft have a noise level ranging from 120 dB, depending on the
type of engines, Umweltbundesamt, 2014). Nevertheless, improvements need to continue to
be made.
Since the loss of market share has primarily affected perishable goods like fruits, this raises
the question if very delicate fruits with a short shelf life can also be transported via sea
instead. As explained earlier in Chapter 2.5 when presenting the supply chains of exotic fruits,
papayas are mostly transported by air because of their short shelf life. In fact, it would indeed
be possible to transport them by ship, which would be less cost intensive. The considerable
difference is in the preparation and the elaborative process that it takes to transport these
fruits. To be able to sea-ship fruits those kinds of mangoes, they either need to be harvested
very unripe, controlled by temperature or low oxygen during transport or even a combination
of both. Fruits then will ripen during the shipment via sea and will still taste good when they
have ripened after their arrival in Europe. However, regarding papayas, conditions to
transport them by sea are different, as they need to be harvested so unripe that they will not be
tasteful anymore and will suffer a bad condition due to their short shelf life (NV Special
Fruits, 2014).
Another disadvantage as a matter of fact is that the transport takes much longer by ocean than
by air. So, regarding mangoes, shipping them by sea is definitely possible and carried out by a
lot of companies. With respect to papayas, sea transport is also feasible. However, it is not the
preferred transport mode because of the quality that papayas lack of after their transport (NV
Special Fruits, 2014).
Security is also an important aspect in freight transport. Since 9 / 11 the aviation industry
worldwide has begun to take further measures to improve safety of air transport. As already
mentioned, for dangerous goods apply specific regulations. However, also the rest of the
62 commodities need to stick to certain regulations, being screened prior the transport.
According to TIACA (2014a) (The International Air Cargo Association) a variety of
technologies are already in use to screen and many new technologies are being developed.
The problem, however, is that most of the currently used equipment is more appropriate for
passenger screening environment and does not work well in the cargo environment, where
mostly palletized and other consolidated shipments are common.
For this reason it is essential for government authorities to accelerate development of
screening technologies towards an air cargo environment. New technological options are
important to be made available soon in order to prevent disruptions in air cargo commercial
flows according to TIACA (2014a). However, newer cutting-edge technologies also mean
higher costs, which can result in making efficiency decrease.
4.2 Vulnerability
Vulnerability means how delicate airfreight is to deteriorations of the current state and, thus,
how stable the course of economic development is. The market loss of airfreight to sea freight
shows that air cargo is quite vulnerable to customers’ demand compared to sea freight.
Customers obviously are not willing to make use of this transport mode at the expense of
significantly higher costs, unless they are not offset by its advantages or there is no other
possibility like e.g. in humanitarian logistics or air transport in remote regions.
When assessing vulnerability one has to include most importantly circumstances like crisis
situations, strikes, terror attacks, natural circumstances like bad weather conditions and
volcanic eruptions. Bad weather conditions like hurricanes or just simple thunderstorms often
cause delays or cancellations of flights or make aircrafts have to detour, which results in
higher fuel consumption and might also
extend the time of delivery for the goods.
Figure 25 shows isolated thunderclouds
(technical jargon: cumulonimbus).
Volcanic eruption has to be paid specific
attention, as it is a very delicate issue. As a
matter of fact, volcanic ash getting into the
aircraft’s
engines
can
cause
serious
problems resulting in engine failure. The
© 2014 Stephanie Bernhard
Figure 25: Cumulonimbus
63 main danger results from the fact that it is tricky to detect small concentrations of ashes by
radar. Ash can be seen by the radar but only if the concentration is significant enough. Low
concentrations of volcanic ash are pretty much invisible to a radar system. This is why the
risks of such an event at times are inestimable and unforeseeable as it is impossible to
determine the actual expansion of the ash. For instance, it is often experienced that the radar
systems detect a small area of high concentration while the actual affected area turns out to be
much wider.
One incident of British Airways in 1982 shows how precarious widely spread ashes can be: A
747 was an a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth when it inevitably flew into a
thick cloud of volcanic ash over Indonesia which led to a failure of all four engines. Since the
ash could not be seen on the weather radar the pilots did not know the reason for this.
Moreover, it was night and since they were losing altitude very quickly, they were prone to
crash into the surrounding mountains. After several attempts they managed to restart the
engines and to get clear of the mountains. Eventually, they landed successfully in Jakarta
(Aviation Safety Network, 2015).
For this reasons a new radar system has been in research, called system AVOIDE. It is a
system, which can be linked to weather radar and is able to detect yet very low concentrations
of ash distributed over a large area (Corporate Easy Jet, 2014).
Due to permanent innovations in the air transport sector, vulnerability is dealt with effectively
and is kept on a low and insignificant level.
4.3 Criteria and indicator system for sustainability
In order to facilitate the assessment of effectiveness and efficiency a list of factors
contributing to sustainability in airfreight is shown. Table 5 includes economic,
environmental, operational and social aspects.
According to Sgouridis et al. (2011) a broad definition of sustainability is the ability to
maintain a specific process or state from an environmental, social and economic perspective.
Consequently, a sustainable air transport system would have a low environmental footprint
while satisfying the transportation needs of a globally connected society and providing
adequate returns on investment (Sgouridis et al., 2011).
In Table 5 important criteria from airlines’, locals’ and costumers’ points of view are
presented.
64 Table 5: Criteria for sustainability in airfreight (Source: Adapted from Janic, 2002).
It was chosen to deviate from Janic ‘s (2002) originally named indicators to call the terms
criteria because not all of them are easy to be quantified. Some of the criteria, however,
become indicators if they get measurable.
4.3.1 Criteria becoming indicators
The next sections show how some of the listed criteria can be turned into indicators.
Profitability means the airline’s financial success and is measured in terms of average profits,
which result from the difference between operating revenues and costs, per unit of output
usually measured in Revenue Tonnes Kilometers (RTK).
Labor productivity refers to the airline’s efficiency in using its manpower and is measured by
RTK for an employee for a given period of time. The airline in this case prefers to have this
indicator as great as possible and to have it rise with of the number of employees (Janic,
2002).
Energy efficiency and pollution efficiency refer to the rate of modernization and efficiency of
utilization of aircraft fleet in terms of fuel consumption and, consequently, associated
emissions of air pollutants. The measurement of these indicators is carried during a given
period of time by the average quantity of fuel and air pollution, respectively per unit of
output, measured by RTK, distance flown (D) or flying hour (FH). To reach sustainable
results, both measures are preferred to be as low as possible and to decrease with an increase
of airline output (Janic, 2002).
Noise efficiency relates to the rate of modernization of an airline’s fleet in terms of use of
aircraft of at least Category 3, rather than Category 2. According to Janic (2002) once an
airline has completely modernized its fleet by replacing all types 2, this indicator will become
irrelevant. This indicator can be measured by the proportion of types 3 and 4 aircraft in the
airline’s fleet and is aimed to be as great as possible.
65 Noise disturbance reflects the individual annoyance of locals caused by air traffic and is of
course supposed to be as low as possible. Being dependent both on subjective and objective
aspects, the subjective one means the sensitivity of an individual to noise. Important objective
factors, in contrast, include the amount of noise energy generated by aircrafts flying over the
affected area, the distance between residential location and aircraft flight path and the quality
of houses with respect to noise isolation. Considering the two different types of factors, two
measures can be used to assess noise pollution: On the one hand, the number of complaints
about aircraft noise by locals during a given period of time and, on the other hand, the ratio of
complaints per ATM (available tonne mile1) during a given period of time.
Air pollution refers to the exposure of local community members to the harmful impacts of air
pollution, which are generated by all local polluting sources. As such, it can be measured in
terms of the ratio between the quantity of air pollution by local air transport and total air
pollution by all air polluting sources and is preferred to be as low as possible and to decrease
with an increase of total air pollution (Janic, 2002).
Safety relates to the perceived risk of aircraft accidents for local community members. This
indicator can be measured by the number of aircraft accidents per ATM during a given period
of time and is as well preferred to be as low as possible and to decrease with an increase in the
number of ATM (Janic, 2002).
Airlines size means the volume of airline output carried out during a given period of time. In
order to quantify this indicator, a range of different measures can be applied, such as
•
total volume of freight
•
revenue tonne kilometer (RTK) or revenue tonne mile (RTM)
•
in terms of available resources like number of aircraft and staff employed
Load factor relates to the dynamic utilization of the airline capacity during a given period of
time and is usually measured as RTK/RTM to available tonne kilometer (ATK) or available
tonne mile (ATM) ratio. This indicator is aimed to be as high as possible and to increase with
a rise in airline output (Janic, 2002 as cited in Janic, 2001).
Punctuality of services indicates an airline’s ability to carry out flights and services on time.
Assessing this indicator can be done by the customer’s experience or by the airline’s
information. For the latter two ways are possible: Either, to take the probability that an
aircraft is on time, which can be calculated by the ratio between the number of on-time flights
1 Total cargo payload capacity multiplied by the distance flown (Boeing, 2012)
66 and total number of flights carried out for a given airline during a given period of time.
Another method is to consider the average delay per flight, which may include arrival delay,
departure delay or both of it. It is preferred to have the probability of on time flights as high
as possible and the average delay of flights as low as possible under the condition that the
number of flights increases (Janic, 2002).
Experienced unreliability reflects the customer’s perception of a chosen airline’s capability to
fulfill the schedule. Again, this indicator can be measured by experience or by using the
airline’s information. In the latter case the ratio between the number of cancelled flights to the
total number of flights during a given period of time can be used as a measure. The ratio is
preferred to be as low as possible and to decrease with a rise in the total number of flights
(Janic, 2002).
Regarding the social indicators, working conditions refer to aspects like dormancies of the
crew between one flight and another. They have to match the legal requirements, which may
vary from country to country or airline to airline. A proposed way to measure this indicator by
the author could be the number of violations of dormancies per crewmember, which is aimed
to be as low as possible or non-existent at all. This can be expressed in terms of a ratio
between the number of violations and number of total duties per employee within a certain
time span. Keeping the schedules align with the legally set dormancies is significant as
approximately 80 % of accidents in aviation are based on human failures and, thus, often
result from over fatigue due to too short breaks between the schedules (Austrian Wings,
2012).
Other aspects indicating the working conditions, for instance, are payment and over time.
Collective contracts vary from airline to airlines but minimum wages must be fulfilled. Issues
of discrimination also need to be kept in mind; if some employees feel disadvantaged, which
might occur due to their color, sex etc. Even though it is common to pay employees more who
have got more experience and qualifications, employees with the same experience and
knowledge should receive the same pay. A measure to indicate imbalances could be the
number of reported cases of discrimination per year based on total number of employees;
such indicator is meant to be as low as possible.
According to Janic (2002) social welfare in this case indicates the opportunity of local
community members to get a job either directly or indirectly resulting from the local air
transport systems (Janic, 2002 as cited in DETR, 1999). As a measure he suggests the ratio
between the number of community members employed by the air transport system and the
67 total number of employed community members. It is preferred to be as high as possible and to
increase with a rise of employment in the local community.
Social well-being refers to the condition or state of health of the locals. This indicator results
from the prevailing environmental conditions, noise pollution, air pollution and safety.
Customer service relates to the extent to which a customer is satisfied with the process of air
cargo. Satisfaction, for instance, can be expressed in terms of the amount or quality of
information about the process and its speed. It is meant to be as high as possible but it is
difficult to measure as everyone has a different perspective of speed and quality of
information. Besides, customer service also relates to the condition of the goods after its
arrival at the end-consumer, meaning if the commodity shows damages or not. It also refers to
possible problems with the customs formalities.
All of these indicators need to be considered in terms of the relation between effects and
impacts or rather in costs and benefits, as according to Janic (2002) they are defined to
measure the effects (benefits) and the impacts (costs) of air transport in absolute or relative
monetary or non-monetary terms, as a function of the relative system output. As a
consequence, the developed indicators are able to measure the system performance in both
absolute and relative terms as well as independent on its output, which is assumed to increase
over time.
If within a given set of indicators a benefit indicator increases while the costs indicator
decreases or remains constant with the rise of the relative output, the systems can be seen as
sustainable. If otherwise, it will be unsustainable (Janic, 2002).
4.3.2 Indicators for intermodal transport
To be able to measure and compare performance of intermodal transports Posset et al. (2010)
developed the COCKPIIT (Clear Operable and Comparable Key Performance Indicators for
Intermodal Transportation) Concept, which is an intelligent performance indicator concept
including the interests of all actors to provide a comparable view on intermodal transport and
gain a better understanding of the transport process. The concept consists of the COCKPIIT
Framework and the COCKPIIT Performance table. The COCKPIIT framework covers the
system dimension and performance dimension. The system dimension furthermore can be
divided into four different perspectives. Since COCKPIIT is a very detailed report covering
many important aspects in intermodality thoroughly this thesis only gives an insight about the
process perspective. COCKPIIT focuses on intermodal transport excluding the aircraft. Air
68 transport is only dealt with marginally as intermodality mostly resorts to using the ship or
railway as main haulage. However, the indicators can also be used for transport chains with
the aircraft as main haulage.
The process perspective highlights a detailed view for the processes of door-to-door services.
Considering the pre haulage, which ranges from the collection of goods to the unloading in
the terminal, examples for indicators are the lead time, equipment utilization and waiting
times within the terminal (Posset et al., 2010).
The transshipment, which is the link between the pre haulage and main haulage or between
the main haulage and the end haulage, can be provided with indicators like the turnaround
times and equipment staff productivity (expressed in loading units per time period). In case of
a multimodal supply chain times for transshipping the freight into other containers could be
included into the consideration.
The main haulage usually turns out to be the longest transport leg of the supply chain and in
the case of this thesis is carried out by plane. Exemplary indicators are the total main haulage
mean time, emissions per haulage and the effective riding time (in case of the thesis, the
flying time).
The end haulage, which represents the last leg of the supply chain transporting the loading
unit from the terminal to the end-consumer, comes with the indicators end haulage lead time,
on-time arrivals and the number of haulages per day (Posset et al., 2010).
These suggested indicators seem also very suitable for the use in multimodal transport chains
with the aircraft being the main haulage.
4.4 Air cargo operationalization
When talking about cargo aircraft it is key to distinguish between combination flights and
dedicated freighters. The first ones usually mean scheduled passenger flights, which
additionally transport freight in the aircraft’s belly, having a percentage of belly capacity
available for express or general freight (Tanger, 2007). Flights like these mostly generate
revenue from passengers while transportation of freight only comes in addition to that and
does not contribute much. The capacity and possible payload resulting from freight in the
belly is made by different factors.
In contrast to combination flights, dedicated freighter aircraft transport exclusively cargo,
which generates all revenue (Tanger, 2007).
69 Since combination flights only have the lower part of the aircraft available for the freight and
are carrying passengers above, size of containers usually differ from those of all-cargo
freighters. Containers often vary in size from one aircraft type to another, which is why there
exists a wide range of them. The following chapter focuses on the most common containers in
use.
Currently, more than half of the cargo is air-shipped by dedicated freighters. Dedicated
freighters offer significant advantages in having more control over timing and routing and are
also able to serve for outsized cargo that could not be accommodated in usual passenger
aircrafts (Boeing, 2014 p 3).
Especially on the east-west trade lines freighters play a key role as 72 % of commodities
shipped between Europa and Asia is transported by dedicated freighter aircrafts, between Asia
and North America 80 % of cargo is air-shipped by air freighters which also count for 43 %
of transportation between Europe and North America (Boeing, 2014 p 3).
An example by Boeing (2014 as cited in Diio/Innovata DOT T-100) stresses how
indispensable freighters are: The Asia-to-North-America market roughly requires 70 daily
freighter flights. Shifting the cargo from freighters to the lower hold of passenger planes
would mean that, dependent on the type of aircraft, about 150 lower holds of passenger planes
could transport the amount of goods carried by 10 freighters.
4.5 Mostly used containers
Not all containers fit into every aircraft and therefore the list of used containers is long,
depending on the aircraft’s capacity. There are containers, which will only fit into the main
deck or the lower hold of the aircraft, depending on the type. Furthermore, some containers
will only fit into the nose cargo door while some can only get on the plane through the side
door.
A generic term for containers and pallets used for air cargo is ULD (Unit Load Device).
Basically, container dimensions start at a volume of roughly 5m3 and go up to over 33m3.
There are different types of containers and pallets, all designated according to different groups
(Interfreight Logistics, n.a.). According to Boeing (2012) they use a broad spectrum of load
devices (LD), different kinds of pallets, as well as pens and stalls for live animal transport.
To name a few important ULDs, the following figures give a brief description.
In Table 6 one can see some date about the container LD-1 and Figure 26 shows the container
with its dimensions and Table 7 and Figure 27 depict a half pallet with net.
70 Table 6: LD-1 Container (Source: Boeing, 2012).
LD-1
MGW
1,588 kg
3,501 lb
Volume
5 m3
175 ft3
Suitable for
747, 767, 777, MD-11 (lower hold)
Figure 26: LD-1 container (Source: Boeing, 2012)
Table 7: Half pallet with net (Source: Boeing, 2012)
Half pallet with net
MGW
3,175 kg
6,999 lb
Volume
7.1 m3
250 ft3
Suitable for
747, 767, 777, MD-11 lower hold
707F, 727F, 737F for main deck with contoured load
Figure 27: Half pallet with net
(Source: Boeing, 2012).
71 Among the containers the group of LD-3 containers is the mostly used and widely accepted
one. It usually consists of aluminum, sometimes also of plastic. In figure 28 one can see the
container with the designation AKE. It is appropriate for both transportation of cargo and
luggage (Ottermann, 2012). Table 8 shows the properties of this LD-3 container.
Table 8: LD-3 Container (Boeing, 2012).
LD-3 Conatiner (AKE)
MGW
1,588 kg
3,500 lb
Volume
4.5 m3
160 ft3
Suitable for
747, 767, 777, 787, DC-10, MD-11 lower hold
Figure 28: LD-3 Container
(Source: Boeing, 2012).
4.6 On-load and unload operations of air freighters
Depending on the type of cargo aircraft, whether it is loaded via the nose or the back door,
cargo usually is put into the aircraft by a load vehicle. The loading procedures can get
monitored from a position outside the aircraft. The main deck of the aircraft is equipped with
wheels, which are driven by an electric motor; this system is called Power Drive Units. By
means of those wheels the freight is transported further to their final position. Parking spaces
of freight are exactly defined and designated by a combination of letters and number like e.g.
8R, 8L etc. (Littek, 2006 p 16). The arrangement of the rails within the aircraft is different
72 according to the type of aircraft and customer requirement. Such Loading system can also be
installed on the lower hold of an aircraft and facilitate the on loading and unloading
processes. With smaller freights the loading is often carried out semi-automatically or
manually. The type of loading systems also can depend on the type of aircraft. Whereas
aircrafts like B 747 are suitable for the use of automatic loading devices, Airbus 310 often is
loaded by means of half automatic systems and B 737 or 757 often will be loaded manually
(Littek, 2006 p 16-17).
Crucial to bear in mind is the right disposal of the goods air-shipped, as the center of gravity
and the take-off weight of the aircraft play an essential role in aviation’s safety. This is why it
always has to be adhered to the given load sheet, saying where exactly the goods have to be
put. Only a small change of the freight arrangement can relocate the aircraft’s center of
gravity, which can cause significant risks, possibly resulting in an emergency.
It is essential to consider that the weight of an aircraft directly influences the necessary length
of the runway to take-off. The heavier an aircraft is the longer the take-off run will be. So, if a
plane’s weight exceeds the maximal permissible take-off weight, it will take longer to get
airborne and, thus, can cause an aircraft to crash, if the runway is not long enough. Similar
applies for the center of gravity; if it is changed, it can destabilize an aircraft’s climbing,
cruise or descending mode and can even lead to a stall (the aircraft loses its lift and is prone to
crash if it cannot get reestablished by according flight maneuvers).
Most of all, in remote regions where runways are often unpaved and airports lack of
infrastructure small cargo planes are exposed to those risks. Moreover, the temperature and
sea level contributes to a plane’s take-off performance. The higher the temperature the more
runway length will be needed to get airborne and the same applies for increasing altitude of
the airport – the higher the sea level of an airport, the longer it takes to take-off.
4.7 Mostly used cargo aircraft
The list of dedicated freighters is long and extensive, reaching from Airbus 300 /310 to
Boeing 777 / 747 or different types of Antonov.
Regarding combination aircraft, belly freight has always played an important role in air cargo.
For instance, in Hong Kong 55-60 % of freight is air-shipped by the belly compartment of
passenger aircrafts (Zhang et.al, 2005).
73 Since the list of dedicated air freighters is long, this chapter represents just a few essential
freighters individually, each focusing on both economic and technical aspects like range, fuel
consumption, typical goods transported etc.
4.7.1 Airbus Beluga
To highlight the diversity of freighters, it was chosen to firstly represent the Airbus A300600ST (Super Transporter), also known as Airbus Beluga. Considering the shape of the
aircraft one can see how extravagant the plane is among other cargo aircrafts: It disposes of a
very striking fuselage as the cockpit was relocated below the main deck, which one can also
see in figure 29. Beluga is a further development of the “Super Guppy” which originally was
meant to serve as a customized design for the transport of huge assemblies and was designed
within the NASA-space program (Littek, 2006 p78). A 300-600ST Beluga was introduced to
deliver parts and complete sections of Airbus aircraft from and to different production sites,
which are located in Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France, where the final assembly
takes place (Littek, 2006 p78).
Before Beluga’s introduction Airbus assembly parts used to be transported by truck between
the different production sites. However, this kind of transportation was very lavish and timeconsuming as due to the voluminous aircraft parts trees at the streets often had to be chopped
down and high-voltage lines removed. To air-ship the goods it initially was considered to use
common freighters like Lockheed or Antonov - but the necessary cross-section of their
fuselages is not big enough which triggered the production of Airbus A 300-600ST (Aero
International, 1999).
When it comes to the ability of transporting heavy-weighted goods Airbus Beluga is exceeded
by several aircraft. However, no other aircraft is capable of transporting goods as bulky,
voluminous and cumbersome as the Beluga can do. Being able to transport oversized goods,
Beluga’s role in Airbus production is key as it enables the assembly network to operate at full
capacity while delivering parts fast and on time. The company’s fleet consists of five planes
which are used to transport fuselage sections like wings and tails for Airbus 320 and 330
families as well as elements for the next-generation A350 XWB jetliner (Airbus, 2014a).
Table 9 shows the main characteristics of Airbus Beluga.
74 Table 9: Airbus Beluga (Source: Littek, 2006 p 79).
Airbus Beluga
MTOW (t)
155
Payload (t)
47
Cruising speed (km/h)
780
Range (km)
1667
Cargo transported
parts of airbus aircraft
Figure 29: Airbus Beluga
(Source: airtravel.ch, 2014).
Equivalently to Airbus, Boeing has a cargo aircraft used exclusively for the transport of parts
for Boeing 787 Dreamliner to assembly plants, called Dreamlifter. The aircraft is an extended
Boeing 747-400.
4.7.2 Antonov AN-225 Mriya
Speaking of cargo aircraft that are able to transport cumbersome and outsized goods, this
Ukraine six engine aircraft is definitely worth mentioning. Considering its dimensions and
capacity it is currently the biggest and heaviest cargo aircraft worldwide.
Table 10 shows the properties and performance data of An-225.
75 Table 10: Antonov An-225 (Source: Antonow, 2014).
Antonov An- 225
MTOW (t)
600
Payload (t)
250
Cruising Speed (km/h)
850
Range km
*4000
Cargo transported
bulky and cumbersome goods
*with a payload of 200 t
An-225 is an enlargement of the predecessor An-124 and therefore was designed on base of
that aircraft. The transport air lifter was originally designed to ferry the Buran space shuttle as
well as components of the Energiya rocket and was built during a period from 1984 to 1988.
It has been in operation for commercial cargoes since 2001, after being modernized in 2000
(Antonov, 2014a). Buran is an innovative space shuttle intended for defense, maintenance of
space objects and also to return them back to the earth. Thus, it is also able to carry the
Energya Rocket and return it to the earth (Buran-Energia, 2014).
Particularly interesting about Antonov aircraft is its suitability for air-shipments of bulky
cargoes but moreover, its possibility due to the robust construction to land in remote regions
where runways are partially unpaved. This is why Antonov aircraft are often used for
humanitarian operations and to exploit oil deposits in Siberia (Littek, 2006 p 81).
Antonov does not resort to standardized containers or pallets. In contrast, this type of aircraft
focuses on the transport of bulky and cumbersome commodities. This is why typical goods
transported by An-124 and -225 are engines, locomotives, materials for bridge-building,
sailing yachts, helicopters and excavators (Littek, 2006 p 86).
Antonov An-124 was developed during the Cold War, when the Ukraine was part of USSR
and was initially a military plane. In the 80s commercial use of this aircraft started to be at
stake, when demand for huge transport capacities came up. Before it was possible for An-124
to operate commercially, a special certification had been needed by western aviation
authorities, particularly by the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In order to
obtain the certification, numerous changes had to be done on the aircraft, above all the
removal of military equipment (Littek, 2006, p 86-87).
An essential humanitarian operation that An-225 Mriya has served was during the aftermath
of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. The cargo lifter transported heavy machinery like
bulldozers, trucks, tractors and loaders. Another essential shipment was carried out in 2011,
76 when An-225 delivered humanitarian cargoes, generators and techniques to Narita Airport,
Tokyo (Antonov, 2014b).
Figure 30: Antonov An-225 Mryia in flight action
(Source: Antonov, 2014a)
Figure 31: Antonov An-225 Mryia in loading action
(Source: Anotonov, 2014b)
77 Airplanes from the Ukraine and Russia often get a lot of flak for their fuel consumption and
development of noise, which is much higher compared to Airbus or Boeing. According to the
public opinion of the West, Antonov aircraft are technically worse than their competitors
when it comes to their construction. This assumption is true; however, considering Antonov it
has to be borne in mind that this type of aircraft focuses on other priorities than Airbus and
Boeing. To Antonov it is essential to be able to land on unpaved runways like, for instance, in
Siberia. Moreover, it was key to the aircraft engineers to focus on outraging short field takeoff qualities like the An-72 and - 74 dispose of. These types of aircraft stick out because of
their unusual configuration of their engines. Two jet engines are located near the fuselage
above the wings of the aircraft, which leads to excellent short-field take-off properties. To be
able to get airborne the plane only takes 470 meters of take-off run (Littek, 2006 p85).
The first aircraft from An-72 was An-72A, which was suitable to both transport passengers
and cargo. This type of aircraft was especially dimensioned for the transport of standardized
containers (note: twenty-foot equivalent units) and its loading is carried out via a cargo door
at the tail of the plane. The flap at the tail is equipped with a ramp, which enables a fast
loading. Having a payload of 10 tonnes, a maximal cruising speed of 760 kilometers per hour
and a range of 1000 kilometers at maximal payload, this plane is suitable for short and
medium haul routes (Littek, 2006 p 85).
An-74 is an enlargement of An-72 and was designed for operations in the Arctic and
Antarctic. For this reason the An-74 family are Special-Purpose Freighters, consisting in both
combination (passengers and cargo) and cargo exclusively (Antonov, 2014c). An-74 has
vaulted windows, a stretched nose which includes a weather radar system and has got the
possibility to equip the gear with skis. Due to its robust construction this type of aircraft can
carry out operations in all climatic conditions at temperatures ranging from -60°C to +45°C. It
is used to air-ship a range of different cargoes, including military loads, palletized and
containerized freight and is also able to carry solders with their personal weapons and
equipment, transport casualties and refugees. It is also able to perform parachute air dropping
of both people and cargoes (Antonov, 2014c).
4.7.3 Boeing 747/8 F
Boeing 747/8 F is another cargo plane essential to illuminate. Boeing has a large history in
aviation and has always been eager to keep modernizing and renewing its fleet to keep up
with environmental standards by applying a cutting-edge technology.
78 Table 11 shows the aircraft’s properties and performance data.
Table 11: Boeing 747 / 8F (Source: Boeing, 2014)
Boeing 747 / 8 F
MTOW (t)
448
Payload (t)
140
CruisingSpeed (km/h)
1045
Range (km)
8130
Cargo transported
standardized containers & pallets
Boeing 747 strikes a chord with most carriers worldwide as, roughly half of the world’s cargo
volume is transported by this type of aircraft (Littek, 2006 p 107).
Boeing designed the 747 in the 1960s. The aircraft’s development was triggered by the US
Air force who, at that time, had been looking for a heavy military air lifter. However, the US
Air force rejected Boeing’s design of B747, deciding for an aircraft from the competitor
Lockheed. This defeat made Boeing rethink and gave rise to the idea of constructing a
passenger aircraft for civil aviation industry. What is special about B747 is that from the very
beginning it was planned to be both a passenger aircraft and a freighter (Littek, 2006 p107109). Crucial requirements of cargo airplanes were considered during the construction which
most of all is the fast loading and unloading via a big hatch. Having a door on the side of the
fuselage and a nose, which can be opened, a fast loading was made possible (Littek, 2006 p
109).
For the construction of the 747 the cockpit was relocated on a level over the main deck, which
at that time was a unique design feature. To be able to apply weight saving solutions for the
aircraft, titan was found to be appropriate. With regard to this material Boeing engineers had
only little experience in contrast to Russians who had already been very familiar with titan
due to the aircraft producer Tupulew. However, since Russian engineers had difficulties with
aerodynamic issues and US engineers knew a lot about it, they decided to exchange their
experiences on these topics and, thus, create a win-win situation. So, both got to benefit from
each other’s knowledge. Despite of all political difficulties prevailing at that period in time
(Cold War between USSR and USA) the exchange of know-how worked out well and at the
end of 1969 the aircraft got its FAA approval for commercial use (Littek, 2006 p 109-110).
79 .
Figure 32: Boeing 747-8F
(Source: Avioners, 2014).
4.7.4 Airbus A 300-600F
Having had its first flight in 1972, Airbus A 300-600F today is outdated in passenger
transport but is still a very popular cargo aircraft.
Table 12 shows the aircraft’s properties.
Table 12: Airbus A 300-600F (Source: Littek, 2006 p 74).
Airbus A-300-600F
MTOW (t)
170.5
Payload (t)
51
Cruising Speed (km/h)
890
Range (km)
4880
Cargo transported
standardized containers & pallets
A-300-600F has been a popular freighter for many years and is used by many integrators like
FedEx. It is able to fly all major routes of the world’s most important economic regions
(Airbus, 2014).
A similar case of an aircraft not being in service for passenger transport anymore but still
being popular with air cargo is the McDonnel Douglas MD-11. Whereas it is less and less
used for passengers, its significance for airfreight has been increasing (Littek, 2006 p 71).
80 Figure 33: Airbus A 300-600 F
(Source: Flyawaysimulation, 2014).
Since the selected freighters above mentioned are only a small part of the existing cargo
planes, Figure 34 shows a range of cargo aircraft showing their maximum payload capacities
and ranges.
Figure 34: Payload / Range chart with respective cargo aircraft
(Source: Batal, 2009 as cited in MergeGlobal, 2008).
In remote regions examples of often-used aircraft for both cargo and passenger transport are
Cessna Caravans and Pilatus Porter, which come with ideal short-field take-off and landing
properties.
81 Even though Airbus A 380 has been enjoying great popularity with passenger transport, this
aircraft never really gained success with cargo transport. Furthermore and more importantly,
Airbus has had major delays in delivering aircraft of type A 380.
Emirates keep ordering new A 380
even if they already have plenty of
aircraft of this type and are eager to
keep their fleet as new as possible
(Aero telegraphs, 2013). The A 380
has an expected life span of 25
years,
whereas
most
lease
agreements run over a period of
twelve years. Figure 35 shows an
A 380 by Emirates.
© 2014 Stephanie Bernhard
Figure 35: A 380 Emirates. After the expiration of the lease agreement it is expected to be difficult to find a new buyer for
this aircraft as it is considered to be difficult for them to serve as freighters. They are expected
to be challenging to be reconstructed into a freighter. Furthermore, most freighters are aircraft
at an age of 20-25 years, having stopped to serve as a passenger aircraft. Having a 12 year-old
aircraft therefore might result challenging to find buyer. Currently no dedicated A-380
freighters are in operation, which probably is because of the young age of this type of aircraft,
having started service in 2007. In general, Airbus A 380 is facing economic problems, which
might lead to cutting the production.
4.8 Forecasts of airfreight’s development
In spite of airfreight’s loss of market share to the ocean freight and the current stagnation of
its growth, Boeing expects a significant upward trend within the next 20 years.
According to Boeing (2013), the slowdown of air cargo traffic in 2010 mainly resulted from
an increase in fuel prices, which had climbed by 42 % by December 2011. This was
aggravated by other events like the Arab Spring uprisings, the Japan Earthquake and flooding
in Thailand. The latter two events disrupted automobile industries and information
technology, both important commodity groups for air cargo.
82 Since maritime modes are less sensitive to rising fuel prices, they have not been suffering
losses of this extent even though they still had to do some downsizing, as they also had to deal
with declines. As a reaction to deteriorating economic situations and, consequently, a drop in
demand for shipping services, container-shipping industry reduced its capacity carrying out
operational changes like taking ships out of service or reducing frequencies. However, in
2010 global trade increased again and container ship traffic started to grow. So, idle ships
were returned to service and new ships were added, thus increasing sea freight’s capacity
(Boeing, 2013 p 8).
Boeing (2014) basically attributes the slow growth of air cargo between 2011 and 2013 to
weak economic activity, which resulted in weak trade. This is also reinforced by the fact that
the GDP grew only 2.1 % per year from 2008 to 2011 lagging behind its earlier annual
growth from 3.2 % (Boeing, 2014). Nevertheless, Boeing expects global economy to recover
and make air cargo traffic rise up. While airmail will grow more slowly, increasing only 1%
annually, air cargo is expected to grow by 4.7 % per year within the period from 2013 to
2033. Airfreight including express traffic will average a growth of 4.8 % annually measured
in RTK. Asia will keep taking the lead in air cargo traffic growth, achieving a projected
growth of 4.6 %. More specifically, China alone will be expanding by 6.7 % and the IntraAsia market will see a growth of 6.5 % (Boeing, 2014). This cements Asia’s remaining the
front-runner in air cargo.
The expected doubling of air cargo traffic by 2033 entails a growth of the number of aircraft
by a half being expected to rise from the current 1690 planes to 2730 planes by the end of the
forecast period. Roughly 70 % of the increase of air freighters will come from converting
passenger planes into freighters and the rest will be new productions (Boeing, 2014).
83 5. Negative externalities resulting from airfreight
Airfreight has many negative externalities, some of them resulting more different to reduce
than others. “Externalities refer to situations when the effect of production or consumption of
goods and services imposes costs or benefits on others which are not reflected in the prices
charged for the goods and services being provided”(OECD, 2002).
Major negative external effects from airfreight are environmental ones, harmful emissions,
such as CO2-emissions, NOx-emissions, water vapor, sulfates, soot particles and noise
pollution. Recently controversies have come up about airfreight’s contribution to global
warming due to the formation of contrails and, as a consequence, formulated cirrus
cloudiness.
Also important to bear in mind are the impacts resulting from airports on the environment like
the ground sealing and drain of land resources. Moreover, not to be ignored are pollutant
emissions into the ground water and depreciation of living spaces as airports often cover large
areas of land and, thus, put wildlife or ecological monoculture in danger (Batal, 2009 p 26 and
Upham et al., 2003). To prevent going beyond the scope, this chapter exclusively deals with
the most striking environmental and noise emissions describing their relevance for global
climate change and giving details about their impacts and estimated future developments.
5.1 Major emissions from aviation and ways to quantify them
Table 13 shows mean data of the emissions from aviation of 1 kg emitted kerosene. As
shown, CO2 is the major emission of air transport. Being a greenhouse gas it contributes to the
global warming and is responsible for the anthropogenic greenhouse gas effect for a greater
part.
84 Table 13: Mass and impacts from combustion of 1 kg kerosene (Source: adapted, Lehmann et
al., 2008).
Mass and impacts from combustion of 1 kg kerosene
Emission
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Mass
3.12 kg
Impacts
Toxically neutral
Greenhouse gas
Toxically neutral
Water Vapor (H2O)
1.24 kg
Formation of ice and clouds
Greenhouse gas
Formation of photochemical smog
Greenhouse gas
Contributes to formation of anthropogenic ozone
Nitrogen Oxide (NOx)
6-20 g
Irritates eyes and lungs
Can lead to asthma
Increases proneness to infectious diseases
Highly toxic
Carbon Monoxide (CO)
0.7-2.5 g Reduces oxygen capacity in the blood
Unsaturated Hydrocarbons
0.1-0.7 g
Soot
0.02 g
Toxically neutral to toxic
Depending on the concentration
Reduction of visibility
Carrier of toxic substances & condensation nuclei
Concentration is negligible
Sulphur Oxide (SOx)
n/a
Acid Rain
Reacts with respiratory tracts and lungs
Formation of sulphurous acid
5.1.1 CO2-emissions
According to the IPCC Special Report on Aviation, CO2-emissions from aviation in 1992
were about 2 % of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions and roughly 13 % resulting from all
transport resources. This corresponds to a growing rate of 0.14 Gt C / year. According to
IATA (2013), aviation CO2-emissions amount to 2 % of all man-made CO2 emissions.
Having created different future scenarios of CO2 development it is projected that emissions
will keep growing, getting a growth rate of 0.23 to 1.4 Gt C / year by 2050.
85 Covering a range of scenarios, the IPCC 1999 figured that CO2 emissions could rise by
between 60 % and 1000 % within a time frame between 1992 and 2050 (IPCC, 1999).
According to Macintosh et.al (2008), aviation’s contribution to global warming should not be
exaggerated, as by comparison with electricity generation and agriculture it contributes only a
little.
Despite its small contribution to anthropogenic CO2-emissions compared to other sources it
remains a delicate matter because of the growing demand of aviation - not only airfreight but
also passenger transport (Macintosh et.al, 2008). Being an important greenhouse gas with a
long residence time in the atmosphere and, thus, contributing to global warming, CO2 has
been a major issue in aviation that needs to be tackled.
5.1.2 Accounting for non-CO2 emissions
A major challenge with regard to aviation emissions has been the method of accounting for
non-CO2-emissions. In order to achieve an adequate measure it is common to the standard
global warming potentials (GWPs) to convert non-CO2-emissions into carbon dioxide
equivalents (CO2-e) (Macintosh and Wallace, 2009 p 266). Some greenhouse gases tend to
warm the earth’s surface more than others. The two most essential characteristics of a gas
with regard to climate impact are the capability of absorbing the solar energy (and, thus,
preventing it from their immediate escape to the space) and the residency in the atmosphere.
GWPs aim to derive the impact of emissions of a specific gas from an equivalent mass of CO2
over a specific period, which for instance is 100 years as used in the Kyoto Protocol (IPCC,
1999). To put it simply, it is a measure of the total energy that a gas absorbs over a particular
timeframe. The higher the GWP, the more the gas contributes to the global warming (EPA,
2014).
GWP is a tool to compare the potential of different GHGs to that of CO2. Consequently, CO2
has an assigned GWP of 1 and therefore is the baseline unit, or reference gas. GWPs are unitless and indicate how much a GHG contributes to global warming compared to CO2. GWPs
values can be used to convert various greenhouse gas emissions into CO2 equivalents. They
are based on the integrated radiative forcing, which sums the RFs of GHGs over a chosen
time horizon, IPCC resorting to a timeframe of 100 years (SEI, 2011d).
GWPs are usually used for long-lived and well-mixed gases such as CO2, CH4, N2O and
HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons). However, they are not suitable to be used for the assessment of
short-lived indirect greenhouse gases, like H2O-, NOx- and CO-emissions. This is attributable
86 to their variable nature of their relevant climate impact, which causes flaws for the use of
GWPs in aviation emissions other than CO2 (IPCC, 1999). The formation as well as the
radiative impact of short-lived gases will depend on the location and timing of their
emissions.
For this reason it has turned out to be challenging to compare impacts of these gases to
greenhouse gases with a long residence time in the atmosphere. As a consequence, a proposed
solution was to use the radiative forcing index (RFI) to derive a metric. The radiative forcing
(RF) is a measure that indicates the strength of a potential climate change mechanism. Thus, it
expresses the change to the energy-balance of the earth-atmosphere in W/m2. Positive values
of radiative forcing always indicate a warming effect, whereas negative values imply a
negative effect (IPCC, 1999). Another definition by SEI (2011e) is that the radiative forcing
expresses the change in energy in the atmosphere due to greenhouse gas emissions.
The RFI is the ratio out of the total radiative forcing from aviation and the radiative forcing
associated with aviation CO2-emissions. Consequently, the formula for the RFI is as follows:
RFI = (total aviation emissions) / (CO2-emissions)
The resulting metric RFI is commonly also called an “uplift factor” and is used to estimate
aviation CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions emitted during air transport.
To do so, CO2-emissions from aviation are multiplied by the uplift factor to provide an
estimate of the total impact of aviation emissions in CO2e, which can be expressed by the
formula:
RFI*CO2-emissions from aviation = total aviation emissions (SEI, 2011c).
A lot of controversies have come up concerning the appropriateness of the uplift factor and
questions have been raised about what factor to apply. However, an agreement was reached to
use an uplift factor that ranges between 1.7 and 5.1 depending on the time horizon of the
respective analysis. According to the SEI (2011c) it has been agreed to a great extent to resort
to a multiplier between 2 and 3, IPCC estimating the RFI to be around 2.7. Thus, the
estimated total radiate forcing from aviation would be 2.7 fold of pure CO2-emissions.
Consequently, one has to know the fuel burn of the aircraft and, thus, derive the emitted CO2
emissions (for instance, indicated in g/tkm) and can than calculate the total aviation
emissions.
87 5.1.3 NOx-emissions
NOx emissions are mainly harmful because of their contribution to the formation of ozone
(O3). Together with the influence of UV radiation they cause tropospheric O3 to build up,
which is an irritant gas. Because of its formation of O3 it fosters global warming and therefore
has a positive RF. NOx, however, evolves two other aspects contributing to global warming.
On the one hand, it is the longer-term reduction in CH4, on the other hand a smaller-term
decrease in stratospheric O3, which prevents the harmful UV radiation from reaching the
planet’s surface. Since CH4 has a warming effect on the earth’s surface, its reduction therefore
has a negative RF. However, the combination with the stratospheric O3 being diminished
results in an overall positive RF (Batal, 2009).
5.1.4 H2O-emissions
H2O (Water Vapor) is another greenhouse gas emitted during air travel. Impacts of H2O tend
to be more significant at higher altitudes (upper stratosphere) where it can stay longer in the
atmosphere and can accumulate. While CO2 has a global impact affecting the climate
independent from their source of emissions, H2O-emissions mostly are removed from the
atmosphere by precipitation within one or two weeks and for this reason cause regional
effects being of short standing (SEI, 2011a). According to the SEI (2011a), this would only
trigger severe climate implication if air travel were expanded into those high altitudes.
Considering SEI’s approach to global warming, H2O’s contribution is small. Is has, however,
to be borne in mind its formation of contrails which, as a consequence, can lead to the
formation of cirrus clouds.
Contrails are linear ice clouds, which are formed in the wake of an aircraft. They are triggered
when warm and moist engine exhaust gas expands and mixes with lower and drier ambient
temperature. Having reached saturation, the amount of water will trigger condensation and
droplets will be formed which tend to freeze quickly to form ice crystals (Williams et al.,
2002). Formation of contrails depends on the aircraft’s cruising altitude, temperature and
humidity of air through which a plane flies (SEI, 2011b). Moreover, it depends on the
aircraft’s characteristics of fuel and engine performance (Williams et al., 2002).
Even though scientific knowledge about the impacts from contrails is poor compared to those
from CO2, it is unquestionable that they contribute to the surface’s warming, as they prevent
solar radiation from escaping into the universe and, thus, can foster heating-up.
88 It has been at stake to reduce cruising altitudes, which could affect contrail cover fraction and
eliminate their contribution to the cloud coverage. However, whereas this would reduce
contrails formation it would also prevent them from operating at its maximum speed and
efficiency and, thus, lead to an increase in CO2-emissions (Williams et al, 2002).
Nevertheless, a study by William et al. (2002) demonstrates that restricting cruising altitudes
still might be an effective measure. Different scenarios and simulations, each considering
different altitude restrictions, were assessed. The most restrictive scenario shows an increase
of fuel burn of 7.2 %, while the least restrictive one shows a rise of 1.6 %. Assessing the
scenarios results in a mean increase of fuel burn of approximately 4 %. Resulting changes in
journey depend on the type of aircraft and route; however, average changes were less than 1
min.
Reducing cruising altitudes, consequently, is feasible and, with regard to contrails reduction,
viable. However, Williams et al (2002) state that this would lead to a higher workload for air
traffic controllers as the air space structure would have to be modified.
According to the Austrian air traffic controller however, restructured airspaces do not
necessarily lead to more workload, as adaption to new structures usually occurs quickly. The
actual problem resulting from lower altitudes would be weather-related ones. Aircraft fly
between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, mainly - in addition to be able to operate most efficiently because within this vertical area they are clear of all weather phenomena like thunderstorms.
So, flying below this altitude would increase the chance of getting into bad weather
conditions which in fact would lead to a higher workload for controllers, however, not
because of the higher traffic density and new air spaces, but because of them having to deal
with aircraft in dangerous and risky weather situations (oral communication, December, 14th
2014).
5.2 Noise pollution
Another issue that has to be paid specific attention to is noise pollution. Noise is quite a
delicate matter, as other than the previously mentioned emissions, its impacts are mainly
social and is a matter of individual perception. As a matter of fact, physically there is no
difference between sound and actual noise. The difference results from the individual
perception; if a certain sound is unwanted or seen as unpleasant it is called noise (WHO,
2004). According to Bukovnik (2011) there are three factors, which make a sound noise:
89 •
Acoustic factors characterizing the sound and which can be quantified like sound pressure
level, frequency etc.
•
Situational factors, e.g. location, point of time and situation of the affected person as well
activities, intentions and current condition as well as mood of the person exposed to the
sound
•
Personal factors of the person affected with his emotional and cognitive approaches to the
sound.
Impacts of noise pollution are of psychological nature being able to lead to adverse health
effects. Common affects are sleep disturbance, loss of concentration and hearing impairment.
Moreover, it is assumed that noise annoyance is able to foster development of latent mental
illnesses (WHO, 1999).
Figure 36 shows a range of noises with their sound pressure levels indicated in A-weighted
decibel dB (A), which is the most common used measurement for sound levels. The Aweighted value describes the sound the way in which human beings hear it. Consequently,
physical measured values are adjusted to the human ear. For acoustic measurements of the
sound a logarithmical scale was chosen. Thus, having sources of sound of the same sound
level, a doubling of sources of sound results in an increase of 3 dB, a tripling to an increase of
4.8 dB etc. As a formula can be used: LΣ=10*log (n)+L, where n is the number of sound
sources and L the original sound level (Bukovnik, 2011).
dB(A) Pain threshold Heavy Truck 75 km/h (7,5m) Boeing 747 -­‐ 400 F Bus 60 km/h (25m) Boeing 777-­‐200 Airbus 310-­‐221 Airbus 319-­‐114 Personal communication (1m) Ticking alarm clock (1m) Dripping Water tap (1m) 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Figure 36: Sources of sound with their sound pressure levels
(Data source: Das Fluglärm Portal, 2014, ADV, 2006 and FAA, 2002).
90 The data concerning the aircraft refer to a measurement during take-off and are measured
6,500 meters from start of take-off roll (FAA, 2002). The FAA uses day-night noise level
(DNL) to determine the compatibility of airport-local land uses with aircraft noise levels. It
was found that at 65 dB DNL 12 % of the community might be highly annoyed and thus, the
community will consider aviation noise to be an adverse aspect of the environment, which is
important to tackle (Lee, 2010 as cited in FICAN 1992).
Internationally, for noise certifications the measured value of Effective Perceived Noise Level
is applied with the unity EPNdB. According to the ICAO Noise Standards Annex 16, Vol. 1,
the unity EPNdB is used for aircraft acoustic certification of jets, propeller driven heavy
aircraft and heavy helicopters. This measurement considers the temporary course of the noise
as well as the intensity of standing out frequencies (Batal, 2009). Thus, EPNdB is a metric,
which varies both with intensity and frequency of noise expressing human response to
annoyance, whereas dB(A) only indicates a metric for sound exposure (ICAO, 2006).
Certification quality EPNdB however, cannot be measured directly; it can be calculated as
shown in ICAO Annex 16 (ICAO, 2006). Simplified, the formula EPNdB = dB(A)+13 can be
used (Batal, 2009).
Measurements of dB(A) are done at three reference points, which can be seen in Figure 37.
Figure 37: Measurements of noise
(Source: ICAO, 2014)
Therefore, reference points are:
•
Fly-Over: 6,500 meters from the break release point, under the take-off flight path from
an altitude of 1,000 ft
91 •
Sideline: the highest noise measurement recorded at any point 450 meters from the
runway axis during take-off till an altitude of 1,000 ft
•
Approach: 2,000 meters from the runway threshold, under the approach flight path
Cumulative levels are defined as the arithmetic sum of the certification levels at each of the
three points (ICAO, 2014).
5.3 Achievements and addressing major challenges in air cargo efficiency
The aviation industry has achieved major improvements over the last years and is willing to
keep doing so. In fact, from 1990 to 2005 CO2-emission intensity of international aviation
improved by 40 %, which in terms of numbers was from 191 to 113 kg CO2 per 100 RTK.
These improvements can be attributed to three factors, which are changes in air traffic
management, improvements in aircraft and engine design as well as a significant increase in
load factors, meaning aircraft nowadays use more of their capacity (Macintosh, 2009).
With regard to noise, ICAO adopted its first noise standard in 1972 for new subsonic jet
airplanes. Over the years they have adopted more stringent standards, renewing their
requirements and demands on aircraft. In 2001 ICAO’s 33rd summit adopted the Balanced
Approach to Noise Management, which aims at the reduction of noise at the source, noise
abatement operational procedures, operating restrictions as well as land-use planning and
management. As a consequence from these measures, manufacturers’ new technologies have
been managing to achieve significant noise reductions since the beginning of commercial
aviation. Aircraft noise nowadays is approximately by 75 % quieter compared to the
beginnings (ICAO, 2014).
As previously stressed, air cargo can be considered as an enabler of the global economy. “In
2013, airlines transported 49.8 million metric tonnes of goods valued at $6.4 trillion“,
(IATA, 2014d). However, as mentioned in Chapter 4 this industry has been facing significant
challenges. This raises the importance of enhancing competitiveness. In 2014 the air cargo
industry set itself the goal to seek to cut the average end-to-end shipping time by 48 hours,
reducing the delivery schedule of a typical shipment from six or seven days to four or five
days (IATA, 2014d). To be able to meet this objective various points were set on the agenda
that might turn out profitable both economically and environmentally:
•
E-freight needs to be implemented to replace paper and analog processes with digital data
transfer.
92 •
A secure supply chain needs to be ensured to minimize security-related delays
•
Air cargo safety needs to be raised through global standards
•
Air cargo infrastructure needs to be benchmarked
•
Partnerships among all players within the air cargo value chain need to be fostered
(IATA, 2014d).
With regard to e-freight a lot has been achieved up to know. Since each air cargo shipments is
carried out with loads of different documents, it was decided to replace them by digitized
standard documents adapted for electronic commerce, thus, modernizing the air cargo
process.
Special attention has been given to the air waybill (AWB), which is an important document
for the operation of air cargo. It is made out by or on behalf of the shipper and is an evidence
of the contract for shipper and the carrier for the transport of goods over routes of the carrier
(IATA, 2015). The e-AWB has seen significant progress in its implementation, having had an
increase from 6.8 % to 12.3 % (IATA, 2014d).
It has to be borne in mind that some of the proposed measures’ effects interact with each
other. Thus, an appropriate measure to reduce one emission might have negative impacts on
another emission, making it increase. For this reason it is crucial to consider possible
interactions when proposing a measure.
5.4 Mitigation strategies and technologies
Emphasize must be given to the fact that the aviation industry has been making an effort to
decrease negative externalities over the last decades and has been committed to making air
cargo more efficient. What really seems to be challenging is the growing demand of air
transport, most of all passenger air transport, which very often also carries freight in the
lower-hold of the aircraft.
Many proposed solutions and ideas to curb emissions have been brought up. IATA, ICAO
and major airlines have eagerly been working on efficient measures to make air transport
more economically and environmentally efficient. The range of measures is huge, covering
route optimizations, use of alternative fuels, improvements of airframe and engine designs
and economic or political solutions that aim at maintaining fair competition.
93 In 2009 the air transport industry, consisting of airlines, business aviation, airports, airplane
manufacturers and air navigation service providers, committed to reducing carbon emissions
in accordance with a united approach that includes three goals:
•
Improving fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5 % annually to 2020
•
Capping net emissions through carbon-neutral growth from 2020
•
Cutting net emissions in half by 2050, compared with 2005
In order to achieve these three goals a four-pillar strategy was adopted comprising
technological, operational, infrastructure-based and market-based economic measures which
are visualized in Figure 38.
Figure 38: Four Pillar Strategy
94 The industry is meeting its 1.5 % fuel-efficiency goal by means of continued investment in
new aircraft and efficiency improvements. However, managing to achieve the other goals the
aviation industry will heavily depend on the support of the government (IATA, 2013).
To be able to monitor and track the progress made in saving emissions compared with the
1.5 % fuel efficiency goal, IATA launched the online available Fuel Reporting and Emissions
Database (FRED) in 2013, which up to date 89 % of IATA member airlines are participating
in.
5.4.1 Technological measures
Technological measures include innovations of the aircraft frame, aerodynamic, materials,
engines and avionics. They also comprise the use of a range of different alternative fuels,
which is focused on more exactly in this subchapter.
5.4.1.1 Alternative fuels
Alternative fuels have been at stake for many years and the aviation industry has been
working on possible concepts to substitute conventional fuels more and more by biofuels or
hydrogen. However, penetration of such fuels is facing many obstacles, as this chapter will
show.
5.4.1.1.1 Biofuels
The use of alternative fuels has been on the board for many years. Currently, several options
to replace kerosene partially or completely exist, each of them showing advantages and
disadvantages. When proposing alternative fuels, aspects like combustion performance,
compatibility of materials, flow ability at coldness, possibility to restart the engines while
airborne etc. need to be considered, as they often hinder or limit the use of these fuels (Batal,
2009 p 36).
In general, it can be distinguished between biofuels stemming from 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation.
•
1st generation biofuels are produced from sugars, starches, oils or fats that compete with
food production and can have negative environmental impacts like deforestation
•
2nd generation biofuels are made from sustainable sources of biomass like forest residues,
industry residues and municipal waste
95 •
3rd generation biofuels are made from sustainable, non-food biomass sources such as
algae, switch grass, jatropha etc. (Sgouridis et al. 2011).
BTL (Biomass to Liquid) is one of the proposed alternative fuels. BTL fuels have the
advantage of being free of sulfide and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. Furthermore, during
combustion only the amount of CO2 is emitted that the plants previously had absorbed from
the atmosphere during their growth. Nevertheless, it has to be borne in mind that the climate
footprint of biofuels depends on the number of emissions being produced during cultivation,
processing and transport. Whereas bioethanol and biodiesel belong to biofuels from the first
generation, BTL are an example of second-generation biofuel. In contrast to the first
generation, this one is more energy efficient as the whole plants are processed entirely (Batal,
2009 p 37).
According to Boeing which has been promoting the use of biofuels to gain sustainable
aviation fuels, more than 1,500 commercial and military flights have been powered by
biofuels showing the fuel’s performance without any necessary modifications to the aircraft
or its engines. For instance, a Boeing 747-8 freighter and a 787 Dreamliner took part of the
first transatlantic and transpacific biofuel flights in 2011 and 2012 (Boeing, 2013). To be able
to accelerate development and commercialization of the use of biofuel in aviation, Boeing has
been collaborating with international partners, who inter alia include a biofuel research
program with the FAA and U.S. Department for Agriculture. The program seeks to support
the annual production of one billion gallons of drop-in aviation biofuel (biofuels that are
completely interchangeable with conventional fuels) by 2018 (Boeing, 2013).
To foster penetration of biofuel, competition with food and deforestation need to be
prevented. Moreover, local and economical solutions have to be sought, as the main obstacles,
which hinder the uptakes of biofuels are mainly economic and political ones (Lufthansa 2010
and IATA, 2014).
From an economic point of view, it is important that bio jet fuel is produced and delivered
sufficiently. Politically, it takes a favorable fiscal and legislative framework to make bio jet
fuel achieve a level of deployment comparable to automotive biofuel.
5.4.1.1.2 Hydrogen
There have been a lot of attempts to use hydrogen in jet engines. Hydrogen shows major
advantages by not emitting CO2 and SOx and comes with high energy content with relation to
96 their weight. Having the same content of energy hydrogen is 2.9 times lighter than kerosene
(specific energy of kerosene is 42.8 MJ/kg, specific energy of hydrogen is
122.8 MJ/kg; Oehlke, 2009 p 14 as cited in LTH, 1994). On the other hand the density of
hydrogen is 11.7 times less than jet fuel (specific density of kerosene is 827 kg/m3 and liquid
hydrogen 70.8 kg/m3; Oehlke, 2009 p 14 as cited in LTH, 1994). As a consequence, hydrogen
needs roughly fourfold of the volume of kerosene for providing the same energy (Batal, 2009
p 37).
Additionally, it has to be borne in mind that production of hydrogen is very energy
demanding because it needs a cooling to -253°C to become liquid.
Boeing has been eagerly working on innovative concepts for hydrogen powered aircrafts or
technically also called cryogenic aircraft. In April 2013 the third flight of the hydrogenpowered Phantom Eye took off, climbing to 10,000 ft and remaining aloft for more than two
hours. Compared to its first test flight in 2012 this was a significant progress. The hydrogenpowered Phantom Eye was introduced to help expand the knowledge of hydrogen’s potential
for other aircraft. It demonstrated a cleaner burning propulsion system that leaves only water
into the atmosphere and since hydrogen has almost three times the energy content per pound
compared to conventional fuels this eventually leads to more performance out of less fuel
(Boeing, 2013). Figure 39 shows the research aircraft Phantom Eye.
Figure 39: Phantom Eye (Source: Boeing, 2013)
If the use of hydrogen is deployed for fuel, there will be essential changes to be done with
regard to the airport infrastructure, as existing appropriate refueling plants, pipelines and
hydrants are only adapted to the use of kerosene. As a consequence, the application of
hydrogen would take many adjustments to secure the supply (Batal, 2009 p 38).
97 The use of hydrogen as alternative fuel for aircraft was found to be able to occur in liquid
form or in combination with kerosene in solid or gaseous form. Janic (2008) illuminates the
issue of using liquid hydrogen (LH2) as a fuel for commercial air transport.
He stresses a range of preconditions that have to be met to enable penetration of hydrogen
powered aircraft:
•
Different categories of cryogenic aircraft are fully developed with regard to the size-range
(small-short, medium-medium, large-long)
•
In order to satisfy a given rate of gradual replacement of conventional aircraft, sufficient
manufacturing capacities of cryogenic aircraft and LH2 are available
•
Airport infrastructure to supply LH2 is completely operational
•
Market prices of LH2 are competitive to the prices of conventional jet fuel
•
Emissions of greenhouse gases during manufacture of LH2 are captured and stored
Transport and storage are another challenge resulting from liquid hydrogen. According to
Janic (2008), transportation and storage can be carried out after being converted into a highly
concentrated form by either increasing the pressure or by lowering the temperature. Over
shorter distances it will be transported as a compressed gas by the use of a pipeline system,
whereas for longer distance it will be resorted to the transport in liquid state by dedicated
vehicles. Hydrogen seems promising to be used as a jet fuel in the future because of its
positive characteristics with regard to environmental externalities.
The only concern about using hydrogen as jet fuel is its increased emissions of H2O, which
are nearly three-fold higher than those from kerosene. As previously mentioned, water vapor
contributes to the formation of contrails and may also lead to cirrus clouds, about which
scientific knowledge and understanding is low and needs further investigation. It is, however,
highly assumed to contribute to global warming.
Due to the hydrogen’s properties with regard to the volume and density Janic (2008) points
out that main design characteristics of cryogenic aircraft will be relatively large volume
provided by well-insulated cylindrical fuel tanks, which may have different positions within
the aircraft configuration. Although LH2 powered aircraft basically retain the basic structure
of conventional jets, they additionally have to undergo some modification such as fuel pumps,
fuel control units and combustion chambers. The higher specific energy of hydrogen results in
a 64 % lower specific fuel consumption (measured in kg/h) than conventional jets. Moreover,
they are expected to be by 1-5 % more efficient in generating thrust from the given energy
content (Janic, 2008). Additionally, LH2 powered aircraft are expected to operate with a
98 slightly lower turbine entry temperature, which leads to a reduction in maintenance costs due
to an extension of their life time (Janic, 2008 as cited in Bolsunovski et al., 2001).
Given an expected lower fuel consumption of LH2 powered aircraft, its costs are expected to
decrease while prices of conventional jet fuel are expected to continue to rise.
Cryogenic aircraft are expected to be fully developed by around 2020 and to start to operate
commercially by around 2040 (Bulsunovski et.al., 2001 and European Comission, 2003 and
2005). Janic (2008) assumes a gradual replacement of conventionally powered aircraft, which
might take some time. Starting out from the fact that the period between 2006 and 2025/26
will be dominated by conventionally powered aircraft, being made up primarily by Airbus
and Boeing, 2026 to 2040 is seen as the time span until the start of a massive production of
cryogenic aircraft. The period from 2040 to 2065 represents the transition period where
gradual replacement takes place. Since replacement is expected to occur step-wisely, this
period of time is assumed to have a hybrid fleet compiling both conventionally powered and
cryogenic planes. Given a constant rate of introduction of the cryogenic aircraft and assuming
a constant growth rate of air traffic in each period, the development of major emissions was
studied. It was found that - no matter how progressive the rate of improvements of
conventional aircraft is - it is impossible to stabilize annual CO2-emissions on a global scale
without constraining traffic growth.
Lee et.al. (2009) also deal with the challenge of air transport growth, having outpaced
reductions in energy improvements. Studies by Janic (2008) show that even the modest rate of
introduced LH2 powered aircraft, despite continuous traffic growth could slow down CO2
emissions and eventually stabilize in 2065; NOx-emissions are also expected to decrease by
the use of cryogenic aircraft, thus creating conditions for a carbon-neutral air transport system
and mitigating global warming.
Turgut and Rosen (2010) investigated the option to use aircraft that are both hydrogen and
kerosene powered. This way no major aircraft modifications would be needed and only the
available baggage-compartment in the lower-deck cargo compartments of aircraft would be
used for the storage. Since the liquefaction of hydrogen is very energy-intensive, it is
suggested using hydrogen in gaseous (compressed) or solid (metal hydride) form. While the
solid storage provides advantages in the weight of the system, the gaseous variant features in
a higher storage volume and, thus, can replace more kerosene for the same distances flown
and loading capacity needed. No matter which way, the weight and volume of the storage
system remains a challenge because, as already pointed out, hydrogen itself has a very low
density and therefore needs a large storage space, compared with kerosene. The maximum
99 number of usable containers in that study was found to be fixed because of the weight limit,
although additional storage volume would have been available.
Compressed hydrogen has a density of 25kg/m3 and it comes with a condition of storage that
requires a pressure of 350 bar and is possible to be stored within a temperature range between
-40°C and + 27°C (BMW Group, 2012). Reversible metal hybrids feature a density of
125kg/m3 and require a pressure of 10bar (Miller et.al, 2007).
Moreover, transporting hydrogen and kerosene separated in each wing would lead to
problems concerning the center of gravity of the aircraft and weight and balance distribution,
this is why carrying hydrogen in containers in the baggage-compartment is seen as an
effective option.
Still, partial replacement of kerosene by hydrogen and, thus, powering aircraft by both fuel
types at the same time is considered to have positive impacts on greenhouse gas savings,
which would also be cost effective. This raises the importance of increasing the efficiency of
storing hydrogen. An advanced hydrogen storage technology development could overcome
the challenges and, consequently, improve the viability of partial hydrogen substitution for
kerosene (Turgut and Rosen, 2010).
5.4.1.2 Aerodynamic options
Wingtip devices, also called winglets, are important assets in aerodynamic measures, which
have been in use by a range of aircraft for many years. In the first place, winglets aim to
reduce the wake turbulence caused by aircraft. They stem from fast moving air along the top
of the wing, which meets the slowly moving air underneath the wings tip. A swirling vortex
of air is created, called “wake”. These resulting wake turbulence can turn out difficult during
take-off and landing for the aircraft behind. Especially if the aircraft departing or landing
behind is much lighter than the plane prior, this might end up in a dangerous situation. By
means of the winglets wake turbulence are minimized and also noise emissions are reduced.
Furthermore, induced drag is reduced which leads to a better take-off performance.
Depending on the length of flight and type of aircraft, wingtip devices have achieved
reductions of 3-5% in fuel burn (Enviro.Aero, 2014). Figure 40 shows the differences of wake
turbulence between airfoils equipped with and without winglets.
100 Figure 40: Winglets (enviro.aero, 2014)
Within the framework of Boeing’s research programs the X-48C aircraft completed its
already 30th flight in 2013, having
wrapped up a long test program that
explored aerodynamic characteristics of
the blended wing body concept. Boeing
aims
at
determining
the
aircraft’s
potential of greater fuel efficiency and
reduced noise. The blended wing body is
a derivation from the common tube-andFigure 41: X-48C (Source: Boeing, 2013)
wing aircraft design to a triangular
form, which merges the aircraft’s wing
and body. Thus, additional lift is generated with less drag (resistance generated when the
plane is airborne which is caused by the interaction between a solid body and the air)
compared to a conventional fuselage. NASA collaborates with Boeing to figure out if the
blended wing body concept provides a significantly greater fuel efficiency and reduced noise.
According to their assumptions, it is likely that this aircraft could be developed for military
application such as cargo missions and aerial refueling in the foreseeable future (Boeing,
2013). Figure 41 shows the design of the blended wing body concept. This innovation was
also fostered by the air cargo specialized freight forwarding company cargo-partner. Having
sponsored the research group at the Hamburg University for Applied Sciences, they
committed supporting the development of such aircrafts (cargo-partner, 2011).
101 With regard to the aircraft design, the over-the-wing-engine-mount concept of the newly
launched Honda jet comes with a quite innovative feature.
Having
got
mounted-up
engines makes the jet more
fuel-efficient, enables a more
spacious
cabin
and
noise
reduction (Honda Jet, 2015).
Mounted-up engines reduce
the aerodynamic drag and
enhance the lift, which both
leads to a better performance
and thus, saves fuel. The
Figure 42: Honda Jets (Source: Honda Jet, 2015)
spacious cabin leads to a
bigger
baggage
capacity
than in other existing business jets of its class. It is supposed to start operating in 2015.
Honda Jet, being a small business jet, of course cannot easily be compared to cargo aircraft. It
took Honda more than 20 years of research and development to create this jet (Honda Jet,
2015) and therefore expectations are high.
Another way to commit to improving efficiency is to use lighter materials for the airframe and
airfoil. One option is to resort to a composite fuselage that is lighter but yet stronger. For
instance, using carbon compositions for the fuselage leads to reduced weight and reduced fuel
burn which results in lower emissions of CO2 compared to using the heavier aluminum
(Airbus, 2013 and Honda Jet, 2015). Manufacturers all over the world are increasingly using
this kind of material. B737 and A380 are examples for the use of this composite material
(Enviro.Aero, 2014).
The use of composites in one aircraft has achieved a weight saving of 20 % compared to
traditional aluminum, which highlights the contribution to making air transport more efficient.
5.4.2 Operational measures
Operational measures refer to air traffic management (ATM) improvements like route
optimization. The employment of efficient aircraft sizes, flying at optimal cruising speeds and
flight routes, as well as improved processes on the ground contribute to enhanced operations.
102 Especially reductions of departure routes and shorter holdings are supposed to help achieve
savings in fuel and, thus, aviation emissions (Batal, 2009 p 31).
According to the Special Report on Aviation issued by IPCC (1999), a majority of reductions
in fuel burn could be achieved by improvements in operational procedures. IPCC expects a
considerable reduced fuel burn to be coming from ATM improvements. Operational
efficiency is facing some significant interdependencies, safety, capacity, weather and military
airspaces being the most considerable constraints:
•
Safety portrays an important constraint as in order to ensure safe separation aircraft will
still have to deviate from their optimum route
•
Weather needs to be borne in mind as a key factor, as adverse weather conditions or
turbulence will force aircraft to deviate from their optimum route
•
Capacity is key to be taken into account because holdings on the ground prior to departure
or airborne holdings prior to arrivals are inevitable when traffic demand approaches
available capacity. This results in an increase of congestion, which comes with a delaybased fuel inefficiency and, consequently, increases environmental impacts
•
Military airspaces as well as other restricted airspaces must be routed around by civil
aircrafts and, as a consequence, lead to a non-optimal route resulting in inefficient fuel use
This cements the importance to foster route optimization including all relevant stakeholders
of aviation.
When seeking to improve routes in terms of efficiency it is also crucial to consider that each
section of the flight needs to be treated differently. Inefficiencies need to be tackled by the
respective phase of flight. According to CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Service Organization)
and the Boeing Company (2012) it can be distinguished between Planning & pre-flight, taxi
out, departure, en route & oceanic, arrival and taxi in.
Opportunities to reduce inefficiencies in each phase of the flight require the cooperation
between airline operators, airport operators and the air navigation service providers (ANSP)
by sharing network information during weather upsets or other airspace impacts, like runway
closures, special airspace closures etc. With regard to departure from the gate and taxi-out it is
crucial to the airport operator to maximize the use of airport surface to avoid unused capacity.
Concurrently it is aimed to minimize fuel burn. Since many delays occur at the gate or during
taxi-out, efficient handling of departure hold is essential, as it can have a significant impact on
costs. Keeping an aircraft at the gate on the one hand saves fuel; conversely, if the plane is
103 held at the gate too long and a slot2 goes unused, the cost to the airline of the additional delay
may exceed the additional fuel costs and, thus, results in inefficiency seen from an economic
point of view. In times of departure peaks aircraft are forced to wait in long queues
consuming a lot a fuel. Moreover, already being delayed on the ground they often burn excess
fuel during cruise to be able to make up for the lost time. It has been achieved to reduce taxi
times and emissions by concepts that manage the number of aircraft in departure queues to
minimize the amount of time that the aircraft is actually standing line with the engines on,
while at the same time ensuring a maximum use of the runways (Boeing and CANSO, 2012).
Concerning departures, essential to improving efficiency is to reduce wasted distance, so
aircraft get to proceed on a continuous climb in the preferred direction.
During en route phases of flight it has been proven that optimizing altitude and speed
achieves significant fuel and emission savings. To keep improving efficiency during flight,
Boeing and CANSO (2012) suggest that ANPS should focus on maximizing the shared use of
civil / military airspace. Boeing and Canso (2012), moreover, point out that route flight paths
can be improved by refined coordination for flight through military airspace when not in use.
Furthermore, they should implement approval of User-Preferred Routes (UPC) to gain
improvements of horizontal and vertical portions of a flight trajectory. Crucial to improve
efficiency are modern information systems that provide aircraft with data about winds and
turbulence. Continuing advance in data processing and weather modeling will lead to
improved near term forecasts for flight planning and dynamic re-routing for newer aircrafts.
Additionally, the increase in en route sector capacity might also prove to be profitable, as
when associated with aircraft routings around congested airspaces, this measure would reduce
delays. Air spaces are divided into sectors. For instance, in Austria there are five sectors for
transiting flights. The en route sector capacity is the number of aircraft ATC accepts per hour
for the specific sector. The rate depends on weather, ground based navigational and technical
equipment and staffing (personal communication Austro Control, 27th of February, 2015).
An example of an innovative module to enhance efficiency en route is the by Lufthansa
Systems created system called Lido / Flight (Lufthansa integrated dispatch operation) that
aims to calculate the most efficient trajectory in terms of distance, flight altitude, wind
direction and speed. This system strikes a chord with many airlines worldwide, Singapore
Airlines being one major customer. When carrying out an oceanic flight for instance, airlines
are no longer restricted to preset airways, they find themselves in free airspaces. This is why a
2 Airport slots are time windows, within an aircraft can take-off and land. If a plane misses its
slot it has to wait for the next one, which could take considerable time.
104 special module was created to optimize flight paths by using geographical co-ordinates
instead of waypoints and radio beacons, which leads to significant savings in both fuel and
CO2-emissions (Lufthansa Systems, 2010).
5.4.2.1 Continuous descend approach
With respect to the descent phase a lot of attention has been paid to Optimized Profile
Descents (OPDs) or also called Continuous Descend Approach (CDA). By removing level
segments they enable a continuous descent and, thus, a fuel efficient arrival. However, during
congested periods this kind of arrival systems might turn out difficult because they result in
unused capacity. To reduce congestion during approach it was found to be useful to slow
aircraft in cruise. Thus, moving a portion of the delay from the descent to cruise makes the
eventual descent move closer to an OPD while achieving maximum runway capacity (Boeing
and Canso, 2012). CDAs have been in use for many years; however, when carrying out a
CDA, descend is usually not initiated from cruising altitude. Most of the carried out CDAs
start from below the cruising altitude as, for instance, at VIE CDAs can be carried out from
13,000ft, 14,000ft, 17,000ft and 18,000ft. Initiating this kind of approach at higher altitudes is
not possible due to the fluency of air traffic. The use of CDAs always depends on the traffic
situation, weather situation and ATC units. During the flight several ATC sections control the
aircraft before getting to its approach. If all ATC units cooperate well and the traffic and
weather situation allows it, the plane gets to descend continuously from its TOD (Top of
Descend), which is the most economic and ecological variant. TOD is the ideal point in time
to economically leave the cruising altitude for descends.
Factors influencing the carrying out of a CDA are:
•
The runway in use
•
Kind of approach (visual, non-visual and subtypes thereof)
•
Aircraft performance data
•
Weight of the aircraft
•
ATC constraints
(Austro Control, 2015 – personal communication 27th of February, 2015).
According to DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung), a CDA is able to achieve emission savings of
about 50 kg of kerosene which is a CO2 saving of about 150 kg dependent on the type of
aircraft, route, altitude and meteorological condition to (DFS, n.a).
105 Another advantage CDAs come with is their reducing impact on noise. According to DFS
(n.a.) as cited in Eurocontrol (2007), CDAs can reduce noise emissions; in the area from 18 to
55 km away from the runway threshold a noise level reduction can be achieved up to 5dB(A).
Figures 43 and 44 and respectively show a sketch of a usually carried out stepwise approach
Figure 43: Sketch of an exemplary stepwise descend and a CDA.
106 107 Figure 44: Sketch of a CDA 5.4.2.2 Free Route Concept
It is more efficient to be able to fly directly from one entry point into the great circle to its exit
point than going via detours. Thus, aircrafts do not depend on ATS (air traffic service) routes.
Normally, ATS routes have to be filed. An ATS route is a designed route consisting of
multiple waypoints to ensure a conflict free traffic flow for the provision of air traffic services
(Oral communication, Austro Control, 27th of February, 2015).
To optimize airspace routings, Eurocontrol has been evoking the Free Route Airspace
Concept (FRA) which is defined as a “...specified airspace within which users may freely plan
a route between a defined entry point and a defined exit point, with the possibility to route via
intermediate (published or unpublished) way points, without reference to the ATS route
network, subject to airspace availability. Within this airspace, flights remain subject to air
traffic control“(Eurocontrol, 2012).
The defined area for operating the Free Route Concept is above the airspace with
conventional ATC routes. The first countries where FRA was implemented were Portugal,
Ireland and Sweden. Portugal and Ireland are special in having their airspaces extend over the
Atlantic Ocean, which is the transit path for Europe-America flights; therefore it is not curbed
by any climbing or descending aircrafts and has a dominant direction of traffic (Kraus, 2011).
Recently the concept was also implemented in Austria and Hungary (Oral communication,
Austro Control, 27th of February, 2015).
Hungary is special in having abolished the entire fixed flight route network and, thus using
the most effective version of the Free Route Concept. This solution gives rise to the
assumption to achieve annual savings of 1.5 million kilometers by aircraft flying over
Hungary which might lead to a reduction of CO2-emissions by more than 16 million kg. By
means of the Free Route Concept fuel cost savings of up to $ 3 million per year can be
expected (HungaroControl, 2015).
Figure 44 visualizes an example of the Free Route Concept (red arrow) in contrast to the
usual routing via waypoints (black arrows).
108 Figure 45: Free Route Concept
(Eurocontrol, 2002)
5.4.2.3 Fleet assignment
Fleet assignment is not explicitly mentioned within the Four-Pillar Strategy; nevertheless, it is
still considered to be an essential measure within the operational scope.
Of course cancelled flights or delays are subject to deterioration of financial situation of air
travel industry. This highlights the importance of airlines or integrators to have a wellfunctioning fleet assignment. Fleet assignment basically determines what type of aircraft
considering the respective capacity, fits best to fly each flight segment to maximize
profitability, while concurrently complying with operational constraints, such as availability
of maintenance at the airports, gate availability and aircraft noise, among others (Snowdon
and Paleologo, 2008 p 20-7). For instance, assigning a smaller aircraft than needed on flights
leads to spilled (lost) customers or goods due to the insufficient capacity. In contrast,
assigning a larger aircraft than needed results in spoiled (unsold) capacity and might also lead
to higher operational costs; last but not least it would also be a waste of resources. To boost
cost savings and productivity improvements Rosenberger et al. (2004) suggest a robust fleet
assignment model that includes hub isolation and short rotation cycles. Thus, a sequence of
109 legs is assigned to each aircraft. Consequently, cancellations or delays will have a lower risk
of impacting subsequent stations or hubs.
Additionally, disruptions like bad weather or air traffic congestion need to be taken into
consideration as they often cause airlines to emit more pollutants and incur significantly more
costs. In fact, according to Snowdon and Paleologo (2008) as cited in Clake (1997) irregular
operations can turn out to be responsible for the loss of several 100 million dollars annually.
This is why recovery from such disruptions needs to occur as quickly and as cost effectively
as possible.
5.4.2.4 Efficient loading
Another crucial aspect belonging to operational measures is the efficient loading of an
aircraft. By loading a plane correctly fuel can be saved and, consequently, resulting emissions
are reduced.
Generally, aircraft load planning can be interpreted as transporting equipment, such as
vehicles, palletized cargo etc. and personnel from a set of departure points to a set of
destinations with the aim to minimize the number of loads used. The way the cargo and
personnel are arranged affects the position of the center of gravity. This is essential to keep in
mind, as the center of gravity impacts the aircraft’s drag and lift. When planning the loading
of an aircraft it is therefore key to ensure the center of gravity is not changed by a wrong
positioning of the goods. The loads have to be balanced to ensure efficient use of the aircraft
by concurrently complying with aircraft safety as well as weight and balance. Snowdon and
Paleologo (2008) stress that the challenge of balancing the weight is focused on the length of
the plane. This means the center of gravity needs to be positioned along the fore and the aft
axis of the aircraft while positioning it side to side is not significant.
The speed and ease of on-loads and off-loads also need to be paid specific attention when it
comes to efficient load planning. The ideal efficient loading, consequently, is to have the
aircraft loaded as fully as possible while keeping the center of gravity within an allowable
displacement from its ideal position (Snowdon and Paleologo, 2008).
It is always most efficient to have the aircraft fully loaded while considering the necessary
fuel dependent on the distance flown, weather situation and fuel reserve. 3 Considering the
3Aircraft always need to carry additional fuel for safety reasons in order to be able to reroute
in case of bad weather or other unpredictable events. The required amount of fuel reserves
differs from airline to airline, usually being between half an hour and one hour flying time.
110 weight and balance of the aircraft, it can be calculated how much additional fuel is needed for
the trip including the fuel reserves. The maximum permissible load will result from these
factors.
5.4.3 Market-based measures
Market-based or economic measures are the effective use of economic instruments like
carbon-offset programs and a fair and global emission trading (Lufthansa, 2010). This has to
be align with the government, as they need to approve the use of those instruments.
Economic measures aim at monetary incentives, like proposing a tax on kerosene or introduce
emission trading in the aviation sector.
Like many others, Macintosh and Wallace (2009) demonstrate that it is essential to restrict
demand in order to stabilize aviation emissions. For this reason they suggest an imposition of
carbon prices to suppress demand for international flights. Continuous improvement of
efficiency in aircraft is expected to be offset by increases in international demand. This once
more stresses the assumption that efficiency improvements are unlikely to keep up with
growing demand.
However, the imposition of a tax on kerosene has met opposition, as it is clung to the fact that
aviation industry has already been achieving major emission savings by technological and
operational improvements (Macintosh and Wallace, 2010) Besides, it was found that a tax on
jet fuel would only be able to reduce emissions if it was greater than the marginal external
costs of CO2. Otherwise, it would only achieve minor to negligible reductions. Other obstacles
to taxes on kerosene are political barriers, which would have to be overcome by renewing or
abolishing existing air service agreements (Olsthoorn, 2001).
Sgouridis et al. (2011) once more stress that air transportation is an enabler of the global
economy by facilitating flows of both passengers and cargo. What is crucial to establishing a
sustainable air transportation system is to allow its growth while minimizing the
environmental impacts by a set of measures, rather than capping or limiting growth of
demand.
Furthermore, Sgouridis et al. (2001) researched possible impacts from measures to reduce
aviation emissions in a timeframe ranging from 2004 to 2024. It was found that no single
measure alone, whether it is market-based, technological, operative or infrastructure-based, is
able to keep CO2-emissions from air transportation at constant levels close to 2005 while
111 allowing historic growth rates of aviation. This cements the importance of applying all
measures from the four-pillar approach.
For instance, according to Sgouridis et al. (2011) carbon taxes might be effective in the sense
that they increase the incentive to use biofuels. This is why they suggest the combined use of
carbon pricing and biofuels, as fuels are only penalized for their fossil-carbon content and
using biofuels is expected to mitigate the effect of carbon taxes. It was discovered that
combined use of carbon pricing and biofuels would contribute significantly to reducing CO2
emissions, resulting in a reduction of 7-17 % by 2024.
Emission trading is another proposed measure which up to now, however, has only had
limited implementation (Lee et.al, 2010).
In 2012 the European Commission introduced an emissions trading scheme (ETS) valid for
the period from 2013 to 2016. However, the ETS only accounts for emissions from flights
within the European Economic Area (EEA) (European Commission, 2015).
ICAO has been working on an internationally valid ETS for aviation. Having been on the
board for a long time, a final decision is supposed to be made by 2016 and the deadline for
the implementation is 2020 (Transport & Environment, 2015).
5.4.4 Infrastructure-based measures
Improved infrastructure comprises airspace management, infrastructure of airports that is in
line with demand and subventions of regional airports. Runways and taxiways need to be in a
good condition while maximum capacity of traffic needs to be enabled. Furthermore, it is
crucial to have enough terminals for both cargo and passenger handling.
Since the European airspaces are fragmented and controlled by different ATC units, the
European Commission has been working on implementing the Single European Sky Initiative
(SES), which initially came into force in 1990 and consists of the efforts to eliminate
fragmented airspaces by unifying them into one single airspace. Thus, SES is meant to
restructure and optimize traffic streams by introducing transnational functional airspace
blocks (FABs) (EUROPEAN COMISSION, 2014). This way the previously mentioned Free
Route Concept is supposed to be applied in the whole of Europe.
The goal is to enable a sustained air traffic growth. Air traffic operations are meant to become
more efficient and safer and more environmentally friendly which shall be achieved by defragmenting existing airspaces. It has not been possible to put SES into force unitarily in the
European Union yet as there are major disadvantages, which hinder its penetration. Firstly, it
112 is not aligned with military interests, as sovereignty and control over their countries would
have to take a back seat. Secondly, the introduction of SES would lead to an uneven
distribution of air traffic. Thus, it would have to be found a regulation for the incomes coming
from aircrafts crossing the countries (Oral communication, Austro Control, 27th of February,
2015). Full implementation of SES is planned to come into force by 2022 (Eurocontrol,
2015).
5.5 Accelerating penetration of efficiency measures
Demand in air travel having outstripped energy improvements raises the question if it is
possible to accelerate the realization of energy efficiency in aircraft technologies and
operations and, thus, achieve sustainable industry growth. According to Lee (2010),
sustainability in case of aviation industry can be seen as the “increased mobility for people
around the world, profitable industry growth, protection of the environment, and continued
improvements to safety and security.” It was found that in order to accelerate the development
towards an energy efficient air transport system it is key to foster knowledge accumulation
and information diffusion about the environmental effects of jet engine emissions. Raising
public awareness makes social pressure build up to enable accelerated improvements of
energy efficiency in aircraft systems. Some airlines are very keen on advancing awareness,
like Japan Airlines who launched an eco-jet program and British Airways which provides an
emission calculator on its website to determine how much CO2 is emitted during their flight
(Lee, 2010). Concurrently, it is essential to reduce prevailing scientific uncertainties about the
potential climate change effects of jet emissions, as some issues like the impacts from cirrus
clouds still lack of defined impacts. This makes it inevitable to continue the advancement in
atmospheric science and research about impacts of aviation on air quality (Lee, 2010).
5.6 The issue of missing liberalization
As already introduced in the beginning of the thesis, too little liberalization portrays a
significant constraint to aviation both in economic and ecological terms. Considering the 9
Freedoms of the Air, mainly the 5th and 7th are limited in practice and Cabotage is widely nonexistent as well.
113 Whereas most traffic rights are negotiated in bilateral ASAs (Air Service Agreements), there
do exist multilateral agreements in exceptional cases. For instance, in May 2001 the US
together with Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei signed the accord called the
“Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation”. It allows
full liberalization among the five participating countries. Consequently, Singapore Airlines,
for example, is now allowed to operate cargo services between the US and New Zealand
without having to go via Singapore (Zhang and Zhang, 2002).
Of course, not having the right to transport goods from one point within a foreign country to
another one turns out to be inefficient both in economic and ecological terms. Since the
aircraft alone takes a significant amount of fuel to become airborne, it would result much
more efficient to be allowed to carry goods within the country and, thus, prevent deadhead
flights.
In contrast, opening up the traffic rights unilaterally might have negative impacts on the
respective domestic country. For instance, Zhang and Zhang (2002) pointed out what would
happen if Hong Kong unilaterally opened its 5th and 7th freedom rights to the US: Hong
Kong’s carriers would eventually end up having a competitive disadvantage. First, since the
US do not allow Cabotage and are only open to US carriers, Hong Kong’s carriers would,
given that other things remain equal, have higher unit costs than US carriers resulting from
economies of scale and economies of network in the airline business. Second, US carriers
would be able to serve Hong-Kong Asian Routes more freely than Hong Kong carriers,
especially because countries surrounding Hong Kong keep maintaining restrictive bilateral
ASAs with Hong Kong (Zhang and Zhang, 2002 as cited in Dodwell and Zhang, 2000).
Generally, it needs to be stressed that a unilateral opening of Hong Kong’s 5th and 7th freedom
cargo rights would result in foreign carriers entering the market. This would lead to a drop in
prices and an increase in the volume of cargo services. Hong Kong carriers, nevertheless,
would lose a significant amount of business to foreign airlines while at the same time having
to deal with a major disparity in the market share between domestic carriers and foreign
mega-carriers. Adverse effects on home carriers, however, do not automatically mean a
deterioration of the country’s economy as a whole, as shippers might benefit from lower user
charges and better network connections. Still, Zhang and Zhang (2002) resort to a body of
evidence according to which the success of a hub strongly depends on the successful
development of home carriers.
For a foreign airline an efficient solution might be to rent out aircrafts’ cargo hold to home
carriers in the respective country. For instance, assuming a German carrier is on a rotation
114 from New Zealand to Australia. Normally, it would not be allowed to carry freight between
these two countries because of a lack of Cabotage rights. However, if the German carrier rents
some cargo space out to a carrier from New Zealand, it will be possible for them to air-ship
goods to Australia. This would lead to a more efficient dealing with the absence of Freedoms
of the Air, resulting in a win-win situation. The German carrier would prevent a deadhead
flight and the New Zealand carrier would have goods air-shipped under its own name, not
having to face a competitive disadvantage. This example shows how important it is to foster
and intensify collaboration within airlines’ alliances.
115 6. Empirical studies
This chapter portrays the empirical part of the thesis. Major findings from the interviews
conducted at DB Schenker are summarized, one with the Head of Product Management
Airfreight and one with the Head of Quality-, Security- and Environmental Management.
To illuminate an example of an environmentally friendly airport Stuttgart Airport is portrayed
as it fosters sustainable growth of air traffic.
Furthermore, a SWOT analysis is shown to provide a view about the characteristics of the air
cargo industry in terms of strengths and weaknesses as well as the conditions set by the
environment in terms of opportunities and threats. Subsequently, strategies are deviated to
make the most of the air cargo industry’s strengths.
6.1 Case Study: DB Schenker and their application of Green Logistics for
air cargo
The freight-forwarding company DB Schenker originally was founded in 1872 as Schenker &
Co in Vienna.
Since 2002 the company has been a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG and nowadays has got
branches spread over the whole world. As a freight-forwarding company they also offer doorto-door service and use a range of transport modes, ranging from railways, road transport, sea
freight and air transport (DB Schenker, 2014a).
DB Schenker has been eagerly working on projects to reduce negative impacts on the
environment resulting from all transport modes in use. Having also air transportation in
service, this is something the company has been focusing on for a long time as well.
This chapter shows an outline of the interviews about applied measures to reduce negative
externalities from aviation. Two persons responsible were interviewed who gave an insight
into projects to achieve emission savings, the status-quo of what has been achieved so far and
evaluated the future development of air cargo.
6.1.1 Goals in emission savings
DB Schenker has been working for about 15 years on making freight-forwarding more
environmentally friendly.
116 The company set goals to achieve emission reductions specifically for every transport mode
where the baseline to compare the progress with is 2006 and the end of the period is 2020
respectively.
•
Land transportation: it was set the goal to reduce 26 % of specific CO2-emissions. Up to
now 15 % have been saved.
•
Sea freight: Having started to set a goal of 15 %, it was raised to 25 % as emission
reductions resulting from ocean freight turned out to be realized much faster than
expected. Up to now reductions of 42 % have been achieved, being much higher than
aimed. These high emission reductions have been realized by means of the latest
technologies in ships and engines. This is why ocean freight has been taking the lead
regarding emission reductions.
•
Air transportation: The aim in air cargo is to reduce specific emissions by 25 %. Up to
now it has been estimated that 10 % have been saved. The major challenge here is to
standardize the system on how to measure the savings on a global level, as different
measurements exist. Therefore initiatives were started to work together on a common
agreement on how to measure emissions in the transportation industry. This is why the
10 % savings are only an estimated value and cannot be considered to be definite
(Interview, 17th of February, 2015). In Europe, it is most common to apply the norm EN
16258.
“According to EN16258 every passenger is assumed to have a weight of 100 kg including
her / his luggage as well as hand baggage. This does not necessarily reflect the reality
because other items like the weight of the seat are not included. When it comes to
calculation according to the standard the fuel consumption of the plane is allocated to the
passenger plus cargo weights whereby the allocation to cargo weight results in
considerably higher emissions compared to the same cargo weight carried by a freighter although a freighter consumes more fuel than a comparable passenger aircraft”
(Interview, 17th of February, 2015).
This characteristic refers only to the assignment of CO2-emissions, regardless of the
weight of the freight. Every passenger gets 100 kg assigned. For instance, assuming a
passenger aircraft has a freight capacity of 14 tonnes (e.g. B 747); the fuel consumption of
the aircraft from Frankfurt to New York is about 67,800 kg kerosene and the distance is
approximately 6,300 km (Schmied and Knörr, 2013). Assuming, the aircraft has a load
factor of 80 % of the passenger capacity and 65 % of the belly freight capacity the CO2emissions per tkm can be calculated as follows. For simplification reason here the
117 dependency of the fuel consumption on the total weight of the aircraft including load and
passengers is not considered.
Number of passenger seats: 350
80 % load factor = 280
Maximum freight capacity in the belly hold: 14 t (Schmied and Knörr, 2013), 65 % load
factor = 9.1 tonnes.
280 passengers = 28 t
28 tonnes + 9.1 tonnes = 37.1 t
67,800 kg: 37.1 t = 1,828 kg / t needed for the whole distance
1,828 kg : 6,300 km = 290 g / tkm
In order to obtain the CO2 -emission a conversion factor of 3.12 is applied (see Chapter
5.1.)
290 * 3.12 = 905 g / tkm
In contrast, when carrying freight with a dedicated freighter emissions per tonne decline
as follows:
67,800 : 71,5 = 948.25 kg / t needed for the whole distance
948.25 kg : 6,300 = 150 g / tkm
150 * 3.12 = 468 g / tkm
Thus, CO2-emissions resulting from a tonne of freight create the impression to be higher
in a passenger plane than in a freighter. Consequently, freighters appear to be more CO2efficient.
Even if the belly hold of the passenger aircraft were fully loaded it would still appear less
efficient than a freighter as this exemplary calculation shows:
280 passengers = 28 t
14t freight
67,800 : (28+14) = 1,614 kg / t
1,614 : 6,300 = 256 g / tkm
256 g * 3.12 = 799 g / tkm
This example obviously shows that the calculation method does not reflect the actual
emissions allocated to transported freight in case of combination aircraft.
118 Even if IATA assumes 150 kg per passenger (Interview, 17th of February, 2015) instead of
100 kg according to EN 16258 this does not help too much because of the absolute freight
limitation in a combination aircraft, e.g. 14 to in case of a B 747.
6.1.2 Major projects in aviation to reduce emissions
DB Schenker defines Green Logistics as the provision of environmentally friendly solutions
for their customers (Interview, 17th of February, 2015). Thus, the goal focuses on the
reduction of CO2-emissions. Reaching across a range of aspects, emission reductions at DB
Schenker start with the initial booking of a transport. Customers get the option of resorting to
e-booking, which means they get to book everything on the internet. DB Schenker also keeps
renewing their vehicle fleet to enable sustainable transport chains. Taking ecological actions
and the urge of being a front-runner in acting environmentally friendly was triggered because
more and more customers wanted to know how much emissions their shipments consume
(Interview, 9th of March, 2015).
With respect to applied airlines it is resorted to so-called “Preferred Carriers” which are
airlines that are selected by DB Schenker because they use emission saving flight operations.
As a commitment for quality and ecological measures a minimum of 75 % has to be flown on
those selected “Preferred Carriers”. For instance, they apply (provided weather and traffic
allows it) the CDA, use aircraft up-to-date, fuel-efficient aircraft and resort to optimized
routes. DB Schenker also uses e-freight, meaning every important document is carried
digitally.
A promising project DB Schenker has introduced is the combined transport of goods of both
the ship and the aircraft, called “Skybridge”. It is supposed to use the advantage coming from
sea freight (fewer impacts on the environment) together with the advantages coming from air
transport (most importantly speed and reliability). In total, timesaving for the delivery of
goods can be achieved of about one third compared to if sea freight was used only (Interview,
17th of February, 2015). Most popular routes for the use of “Skybridge” is to sea-ship goods
from Asia (Far East) to Dubai and then load the freight on the plane and proceed to Europe by
air transport.
Alternatively, it has been introduced to ship commodities from China, Taiwan and other
Asian countries to Japan (Osaka and Tokyo) and then proceed via air transport to Europe.
Another concept for combined air and sea trade is to air ship goods from Europe to Hong
Kong and further on to Australia by ocean transport, because freighter capacities decreased in
this region (Interview, 09th of March, 2015). This concept has been striking a chord with
119 many customers and has also been copied by some carriers. Another option is to ship freight
via the ocean from Asia to Vancouver / Canada and proceed to the U.S. by aircraft. As a
consequence, “Skybridge” has large parts of the world covered (Interview, 09th of March,
2015).
Currently the company is not that much known for its green position and the ecological
measures still need promotion as well as the support and commitment of the customers. The
economic advantage is supposed to show up if the company gains more customers by selling
the eco solutions and environmental concepts (Interview, 17th of February, 2015).
The interviewees were also asked how the future development of air cargo looks like in their
opinion. Having already suffered losses and market share to ocean freight due to higher prices
this leads to the question if air transportation is able to make up for the losses and get back on
a stable and sustainable track. According to the interview conducted on 17th of February, air
traffic is expected to increase and, thus, it might be possible that due to a higher capacity for
air cargo more customers will use it (Interview, 17th of February, 2015).
The air cargo’s potential to continue to reduce emissions is not that high considering all the
emission savings and developments that have already been set in air cargo industry up to now.
By means of technical innovations like lighter airframes, structure of engines etc., significant
emission reductions have been achieved. As a consequence, it will be a lot of research to do in
the field of technical measures to reveal further saving potential which is not likely in the
foreseeable future (Interview, 17th of February, 2015).
6.1.3 Forecasts on air cargo’s development
Findings from the interview on the 17th of February 2015 indicate that, for the air cargo
industry, most important to tackle is to agree on a global standardized measurement system to
measure emissions in the transport industry.
This is emphasized by DB Schenker’s Environmental Broschure (2014b),“ Improvements in the efficiency of air transport have so far not been able to be included since standardized calculated original data from carriers has largely been unavailable. DB Schenker Logistics is therefore actively pursuing the development of initiatives to collect and publish airfreight emissions. Calculated values are based on the hybrid aircraft used in EcoTransIT World calculations.” This is why the most important thing for carriers to do is to agree on a global measurement
system, so that emission reductions become clearer and more transparent.
120 The interview of the 9th of March 2015 suggests that shorter routes should not be carried out
by plane. It is much more efficient to use railways or trucks for shorter routes. This is also
fostered by a recently introduced cooperation between the Austrian railways company OEBB
and Austrian Airlines: for passengers travelling from Linz via Vienna to another city by plane
the railway connection from Linz to Vienna is provided with a flight number and travelers can
already get checked in for their whole journey at the train station in Linz (OEBB, 2014).
None of the two interviewed company representatives presumes that airfreight is likely to be
pushed back by other transport modes, as there will always be certain goods that need to be
air-shipped. According to the Head of Product Management Airfreight it is an unstoppable
trend that dedicated freighters will lose market share and cargo will increasingly be shipped
by passenger aircraft (09th of March, 2015). This could of course lead to major losses for allcargo carriers due to the fact that more and more wide body passenger aircrafts are pushing
into freighter aircraft routes (such as from Europe to China directly or via Middle Eastern
gateway options). This results in higher flexibility for the customers and forwarders in tailor
made supply chain solutions.
6.1.4 Cooperation with academic facilities
DB Schenker has been collaborating with universities in Germany, having established “DB
Schenker Laboratories”. TU Darmstadt, TU Berlin, TU Frankfurt and TU Dresden are
examples the company cooperates with. DB Schenker Laboratories focus on research,
recruitment and further education. Their main emphasize is on joint working on projects.
Most of the publications and projects deal with urban value creation chains,
internationalization of logistic service providers or optimization of logistic networks in China.
Some publications dealing with airfreight most importantly are about impacts from delays or
determinants of delays in air traffic (TU Darmstadt, 2015).
DB Schenker has also been subject to academic assignments; however, the majority of them
appear to be dealing with other transport modes than airfreight.
6.2 Case study: Airport Stuttgart – an example of a sustainable airport
The German Airport Stuttgart (IATA code STR) set an example in contributing to a
sustainable growth of air transport. By working on innovative concepts referring to all three
121 aspects of sustainability - economic, ecological and social aspects – the airport is very
committed. STR set a goal to reduce its CO2-emissions by 20 % within the period from 2009
to 2020.
The airport is significantly focusing on enhancing intermodality, as subway lines are being
extended and a new train station is supposed to be constructed, so a new traffic junction can
be established at the airport (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
Even though this airport is not very striking with regard to cargo activity, considering the low
number of freight and mail in contrast to other airports, STR is definitively worth illuminating
as they are trying hard to become more sustainable which might turn out positive for a green
growth of air cargo as well.
6.2.1 General facts about the airport
Stuttgart Airport has about 400 daily landings and take-offs, 20,000 tonnes of freight were
flown out in 2014 and additional 11,000 tonnes of mail were air-shipped ex Stuttgart. The
airport has one runway with two parallel taxiways (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2015).
Considering these facts, STR is more of a regional airport. It is the sixth largest one in
Germany, with Frankfurt and Munich being the largest ones as they are major hubs for
Lufthansa. STR recognized its responsibility to reduce the environmental impact and is
perusing the goal to become one of the most sustainable airports in Europe.
STR consists of two main divisions where “Aviation“ refers to the planning of the air traffic,
monitoring and security of the apron, taxi- and runways as well as ground handling and
passenger handling.
“Non-Aviation“ focuses on real estates and services like the infrastructure of the airport (e.g.
terminals, renting out of office buildings, restaurants, parking structures etc.) as well as its
supply with water and electricity (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
STR is important for connections within Europe, most of all it has been focusing on flights to
South Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason, the airport is not very
representative for cargo activities, as other major hubs outstrip it. Nevertheless, the airport
definitely takes the lead in contributing to a sustainable development of airport operations.
122 6.2.2 Sustainability at Stuttgart Airport
Due to its efforts in making the airport more sustainable, STR calls itself Fairport – fair
airport. This is also considered to be the basic principle of the airport – acting fair towards the
environment, the nature, passengers and employees.
According to each aspect of sustainability STR established goals and strategies to focus on:
•
Ecological aspect:
The airport applies a certified environmental management to control, monitor and improve
its corporate environmental performance. The environmental management was certified
according to strict criteria by EMAS (eco-management audit scheme) and, concurrently it
also satisfies the requirements for the international norm ISO 14000.
The airport set goals in reducing CO2-emissions and the fulfillment of the aims is
monitored and checked by an environment information system.
In 2010 the goal was set to reduce CO2-emissions by 20% by the year 2020, having the
baseline 2009. This goal includes all buildings and devices, which are going to be
constructed or bought until that year.
Informing the passengers and visitors about STR’s intentions is a major aim as well as
clinging to standards and transparency when measuring emission savings. When ordering
products or services it is checked if environmental aspects are considered. Besides, when
the airport selects suppliers those with a certified environmental management system are
preferred.
Since noise is a very delicate matter, noise protection is something that is tackled by STR
as well. A transparent measurement system is used and information about the noise
development and improvement is published monthly on the homepage.
STR makes an effort to use soundproofing for buildings. Since 2010 there have been
defined new noise protection zones and owner of real estate being part of those zones
have the right to get equipped with structural soundproofing.
Furthermore, due to noise abatement measures civil aircrafts with jet engines are not
allowed to land or take-off during night. Exceptions apply for delayed landings, flights for
disaster control, military flights, measuring flights for technological plants and night
airmail services.
As a consequence from the noise reductions, the number of complaints decreased
significantly from 2012 to 2013 (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
123 The airport also resorts to an environmentally friendly electricity and heat generation by
using an efficient block-type thermal power plant, which also results in lower
maintenance and operating costs. Energy consumption is also reported and documented
monthly and yearly. Ecological acting also refers to having environmentally friendly
office infrastructure and using an effective disposal and waste management system. This
also refers to fostering an ecological sewage system and water protection.
The airport also places importance on environmentally friendly de-icing substances which
are biodegradable.
Additionally, STR collaborates with carriers, ground handling partners and the German
ATC to optimize the taxi times of aircraft to the runway, making them as short as possible
and, thus, achieving kerosene consumption as low as possible (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
•
Economic aspect:
The improvement of the transport connection to the airport has been in progress for a long time. By the extension of the subway line together with the bus terminal and the train station at the airport a major traffic junction is supposed to be created. Moreover, the development and extension of the Airport City, an essential office park, is expected to boost the economy. When constructing the office park huge importance is attached to constructing the buildings sustainably according to specific criteria for sustainability according to “Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen” (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
•
Social aspect:
The term social inter alia refers to fair contracts of employment and occupational safety
for employees. Besides, the provision of further education and equality of opportunity –
independence on religion, sex, nationality etc. – play a key role in the social aspect of
sustainability (Flughafen Stuttgart, 2013).
6.3 SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis in Figure 46 provides a balanced view about the characteristics the air
cargo industry comes with in terms of strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand it,
illuminates the conditions the environment provides in terms of opportunities and threats.
This analysis is a general depiction; of course specific opportunities and threats can differ
according to the regions where the carriers operate.
124 STRENGHTS
WEAKNESSES
•
Speed
•
High costs
•
Reliability
•
Environmental
•
Security
•
More than 1/3 share of all value
impacts
from
conventionally powered aircrafts
•
Potential in making airframe and
traded worldwide
engine design more efficient seems
•
Correct fleet assignment
almost exhausted
•
Enables reduction or avoidance of
•
volume
costs for warehousing
•
Faster transportation results in
lower
costs
for
Limitations regarding weight &
the
•
Global measurement system for
emissions not existent yet
capital
employed of the goods
OPPORTUNITIES
THREATS
•
Demand for boosting global trade
•
Increasing
demand
for
•
transport modes due to lower costs
JIT
logistics
Shift to sea freight or other
•
Dependent on economic situation
•
CDA offered more and more
and global trade; thus, in case of
•
Free Route Concept
economic slowdown air cargo will
•
Technological innovations
decline
•
Complementary use of different
•
weather situations (thunder storms,
transport modes
•
•
Increasing
Weather deterioration / extreme
readiness
volcanic eruption etc.)
for
cooperation between alliances of
•
Non-existent liberalization
carriers
•
Increasing oil prices
Air cargo expected to increase by
4.7% annually
•
Low oil prices (if long-lasting)
Figure 46: SWOT Analysis
While the strengths (advantages) of air cargo are quite obvious and not that easy to be
surpassed by other transport modes, weaknesses (disadvantages) are what need to be paid
specific attention to and tackled.
The thesis shows the dependency of air cargo from economic development, having had losses
in the face of weak economy and slack trade.
125 However, it has to be borne in mind that aviation industry has already been achieving loads of
savings in emissions, which partially makes it challenging if not impossible to keep up with
the prevailing trend in saving emissions. Especially in airframe and engine design
achievements in reducing fuel consumption can be considered as almost exhausted, which
gives rise to the suspicion that there is no significant potential to increase efficiency by those
measures.
A promising method, which comes with a high potential to increase emission savings is the
operational-based measure, especially the route optimization. By enhancing sector capacities,
allowing more direct routings and foster the common use of military and civil airspaces,
provided that safety is guaranteed, major savings can be achieved and a lot of concepts have
been in progress. Alternative fuels are also seen to be an effective measure to contribute to
mitigate climate impacts from aviation, nevertheless, it competition with food needs to be
avoided. Since the second and third generation biofuels do not compete with food industry,
those are the ones to be preferred.
A major threat to air cargo has proven to be sea freight, as this transport mode managed to get
a lead which mostly is attributable to lower costs. On the other hand, as shown in the case
study with DB Schenker, sea freight can also be seen as a complementary form to transport
goods and, thus, bring up advantages of both transport modes. The example of “Skybridge”
shows that the joint uses of both transport modes within one supply chain can achieve
significant savings and, consequently, needs to be fostered. To be able to make the most of
the air cargo industry’s strengths, strategies were formulated to, on the one hand make use of
the opportunities (Strengths-Opportunities strategies) and, on the other hand, to moderate the
impacts of the threats (Strengths-Threats strategies).
SO-strategies that can be deviated from the SWOT analysis are:
•
The air cargo industry should keep its focus on the JIT-logistics and, consequently, carry
out an ascertainment of demand of areas with not yet that well-developed JIT-logistics
where the need for such a logistics can be seen. Subsequently, the industry should develop
particular offers for those regions in order to properly support the upcoming need for JITlogistics. As an example the Indian automotive industry, which more and more becomes
visible with quality products also in industrialized areas of the world, e.g. with Jaguar,
Range Rover (production in Great Britain, owned by an Indian car producer) and KTM /
Husqvarna (originally produced in Austria and Sweden only but has a cooperation with an
Indian automobile industry and has been moving the production partially to India) as well
as Volvo (production in Sweden but owned by a Chinese company), might be considered.
126 •
Cooperation not only with other carriers but also with air service navigation providers
should be intensified to foster penetration of route optimization concepts like the Free
Route Concept and the Continuous Descend Approach.
•
The company should also continue to concentrate on gaining customers from branches
trading with valuable goods to further push revenues from such sectors.
•
The industry should enhance the routes by, for instance, adding more hubs in regions that
have a high demand for air transport while carefully evaluating the sustainability of that
local demand.
•
In the context of the aircraft being the main haulage in a supply chain, cooperation should
also be intensified with the transport modes for the pre- and the end haulage, so multi- or
intermodality is enabled to work seamlessly and make the commodities arrive on time.
•
For financial reasons it might be considered to have stocks of fuel to benefit from the
currently low oil prices. However, this approach is not very sustainable with regard to the
ecological aspect and for this reason seems questionable.
Possible ST-strategies that can be found are:
•
Creating shorter routes consisting of shorter legs and adding more hubs might decrease
the impacts of the threat of weather deterioration. In case of a rained out flight, as a
consequence, not so many subsequent hubs would be affected as introduced by
Rosenberger et al (2004). Disruptions at hubs can severely hinder an air transport’s
operation and, thus, affect the flow balance of an airline’s operation.
•
Cooperation with other carriers is a way of dealing with the non-existence of
liberalization, most importantly the missing Cabotage rights with regard to Freedoms of
the Air. As previously explained in Chapter 5.6 by transporting freight under another
carrier’s name the foreign airlines get to avoid deadhead flights and the local airline is
kept from suffering a competitive disadvantage. This cements the importance of
collaboration within the carriers’ alliances.
•
Decreasing costs is a way of coping with the impacts coming from the shift to other
transport modes and dependence on the economic situation. An example is to move the
maintenance of aircraft to countries with lower labor costs while still securing the quality
of maintenance; for instance, many carriers already have their planes serviced in Asia.
Certainly a range of other methods to reduce costs might be considered; however, this
takes a very profound knowledge about the cost structures of the carriers.
127 •
If demand for aircraft decreases, it is also recommendable to have the planes stored in the
meantime. This has already been done for quite a while with a range of aircraft inter alia
in the desert of Arizona and New Mexico; being called an aircraft graveyard it is an area
in the desert where retired planes from service are stored. Both military and commercial
planes are warehoused in those regions and wait for getting recalled into service.
Conditions for storing aircraft in deserts proved to be ideal: the prevailing dry and smogfree climate reduces corrosion, which makes the planes last long (Desert USA, 2015).
128 7. Conclusion
Since air cargo is a widely discussed topic and can range across many aspects, this thesis
limited the content to focusing on the environmental impacts from air cargo, CO2-, NOx- and
H2O-emissions as well as noise pollution being the major concerns. Additionally, it was also
dealt with economic aspects, such as the development and future prospects of air cargo and
cost structure to better understand the background processes.
Many written inquiries via e-mail were sent out to fruit importers, airports, engine
manufacturers but had a very low number of returns.
Accessibility to data turned out to be very difficult, as most of the consulted companies would
not announce specific kinds of information due to reasons of confidentiality, in spite of
probing by telephone calls.
Many failed approaches with regard to data research had to be accepted; out of all contacted
fruit importers, only one replied offering his support. This is why not every aspect could be
answered in this work, so it has to be put up with the information provided by the few
cooperative sources. Among the engine manufacturers and airlines, none of them wanted to
pass any technology or feature-related information. It appears obvious that this is attributable
to keeping the respective companies competitive.
Concerning air transport worldwide, Hong Kong has been ranking number 1 when it comes to
cargo activity, having handled more than 4,000,000 tonnes of freight in 2014. The thesis
highlighted the main reasons which most of all are HKG’s ideal geographic location, wellequipped infrastructure of the airport and the ideal connection to other transport modes, most
importantly to the seaport.
In Austria not surprisingly Vienna has been taking the lead in amounts of cargo handled. The
ranking is followed by Linz even though there is a huge gap between these two airports.
The cost structure of air cargo distinguishes between direct operating and indirect operating
costs, whereas the direct operating costs depend on the aircraft or aircraft operations and,
thus, were placed more importance on in this thesis.
Humanitarian logistics will always keep resorting to air cargo, as it is the only possibility to
drop relief supplies in areas that either lack of accessibility or are dangerous because of
political crisis.
In remote regions air cargo is of great significance as well, as air transport in those areas is
not drawn on because of its speed or reliability but because it often turns out to be the only
way to get from one point to another. This thesis illuminated examples of isolated regions in
129 Alaska and Canada, which are areas with roads out of the question or no access at all to other
places. Thus, in certain regions air cargo can be considered as an enabler of the economy, as it
helps pushing the economic situation up. Consequently, in remote regions and humanitarian
logistics the aircraft does not face any competitors because it is the only possible transport
mode.
In spite of transporting goods by air still being the most reliable and fastest transport modes, it
is highly dependent on other transport modes for the preceding and succeeding transport. This
cements the importance of inter- or multimodality in air cargo. It is self-explanatory that an
aircraft requires an airport to land and therefore comes with limited accessibility to the endconsumers. Consequently, a well-functioning transportation by air, seen from the country of
origin to the end-consumer, highly depends on the whole supply chain including all other
transport modes operating as shown in the exemplary supply chain of papayas and mangoes
to emphasize the importance of airfreight in multi modal transport:
To enable the arrival of the fruits on time and in an intact condition every involved transport
mode has to contribute accordingly to make this happen. It is not enough to have the aircraft
arrive on time if the pre haulage or the end haulage, which very often is carried out by truck,
causes delays.
When talking about cargo aircrafts, a range of different planes can be distinguished. Most of
the current and newly constructed ones are very efficient and cutting-edge when it comes to
fuel consumption and safety. Older ones however, like the Antonov aircraft, lack of
efficiency. Nevertheless, it needs to be borne in mind that those aircrafts were never meant to
operate efficiently but to be able to transport bulky goods. For instance, an Antonov plane
often ships parts of power plants or trains because such commodities cannot be containerized.
To figure out the degree of sustainability in airfreight it can be resorted to certain criteria and
indicators as introduced in Chapter 4.3.
In spite of facing challenges and risks air cargo will most likely remain an essential transport
mode for time-sensitive, perishable and valuable goods as, from the current point of view, its
advantage of being speedier cannot be outstripped by any other transport mode. However,
focus definitely needs to be placed on the mitigation measures to reduce negative
environmental impacts, CO2,- NOx,- H2O- and noise emissions being the most important
ones. A range of methodologies is pursued to achieve reductions. It seems that technological
measures are almost exhausted as there has already been achieved a lot of emission savings
by airframe design innovations. Alternative fuels, like biofuels or hydrogen are promising
ways because they do not emit CO2 and therefore are considered to be sustainable. Biofuel,
130 however, raise a lot of controversies due to ethical reservations. Hydrogen emits considerably
more H2O, which contributes to the formation of contrails and cirrus clouds and, thus, to
global warming. Besides, the penetration of hydrogen as an aircraft fuel takes restructuring of
airport facilities and aircrafts, which certainly is very cost intensive. It is questionable if the
costs for the conversions will pay off in the end. It seems that most potential in contributing to
green measures for airfreight results from operational measures. Most of all routeoptimization like the Free Route Concept still has enough space to grow and develop. This is
why cooperation between carriers, airport operators and air service navigation providers needs
to be fostered and intensified. Infrastructure-based measures also help making air transport
more sustainable, as it is key to have airport facilities in line with the demand. This also
applies for the structure of the airspaces, for an efficient organization of the airspace enables a
higher capacity of aircrafts while at the same time leads to emission savings if they get to fly
the most direct route from the entry point to the exit point of an airspace.
Market-based measures can be a promising method; however, the government, carriers or
other stakeholders often oppose their implementation. ICAO has been working on an
internationally valid ETS, which is supposed to come into force by 2020. Also kerosene taxes
have been at stake and are widely discussed. However, when proposing taxes on fuel it needs
to be stressed that this would only have positive effects if the taxes were higher than the
marginal costs of kerosene.
The empirical part of the thesis presented practical examples of dealing with airfreight’s
negative impacts on the environment. Two representatives of DB Schenker explained
important measures to be taken and Stuttgart Airport was portrayed, which set an example to
become one of the most sustainable airports in Europe.
By means of a SWOT analysis the characteristics of the air cargo industry, expressed in
strengths and weaknesses, as well as the conditions the environment comes with in terms of
opportunities and threats was dealt with. Subsequently, strategies were derived to be able to
make the most of the opportunities and moderate the consequences from the threats by
making use of the strengths. Most essential strategies were found to foster cooperation among
carriers and air navigation service providers as well as focusing on JIT-logistics. To moderate
consequences from threats, resorting to special fleet assignment models and costs decreasing
strategies were, inter alia, found to be an option.
One of airfreight’s major aspects is its ability to stimulate market growth and make
companies enter into new markets. By quick deliveries enabled by air transport fast
adjustments to changes of the market demand are made possible. Summarized it can be said
131 that “Airfreight can add a new competitive edge to the marketing effort”, (Wensveen, 2007 p
330). Thus, air cargo is not likely to be repressed by other transport modes and is expected to
keep being indispensable in supply chains for a wide range of commodities.
The findings from the thesis eventually lead to answering the initial research questions:
•
What are the pros and cons of air cargo with respect to sustainability and what are
prevailing arguments for air shipments?
As already illuminated in the SWOT analysis, pros definitely are the speed, reliability and
security of goods. This is a major advantage for products, which are valuable, or about to
be launched on the market and thus, need to be transported as fast as possible. The speedy
transportation results in lower capital costs for the goods, as they need to be financed as
long as they are not sold.
Disadvantages most importantly are the costs, which are manifold higher than those of
any other transport modes and of course the negative environmental impacts coming from
conventionally powered aircrafts.
•
How effective and efficient is air cargo?
Air cargo is efficient in that it enables a speedy and secure transportation and thus, makes
freight punctually arrive on short notice.
Considering efficiency, costs and benefits need to be compared. Since costs in the air
cargo sector are very high, this might lead to the assumption that air cargo generally is
inefficient. However, in the face of fuel efficiency improvements that the aviation
industry has been experiencing over the last years and the huge benefits that air transport
comes with – fast and secure transportation – it can be argued that air cargo is about to
become more and more efficient. Certain goods are only able to be transported by air and
some regions highly depend on the aircraft as transport modes as it is the only way to get
freight or people shipped from A to B. Thus, from a pure economical point of view air
cargo is an efficient transport mode. From an ecological point of view there still has to be
done a lot against air transport’s negative externalities, but aviation industry seems to be
on a promising way as they keep working on innovative concepts. They have always been
dedicated to improving fuel efficiency for many years to reduce costs and the
environmental impacts.
132 •
What are possible ways of reducing the negative externalities caused by air cargo?
The four methods introduced by IATA and major carriers are essential in helping make air
cargo’s environmental impacts reduce. Most promising methods seem to be operational
ways, like route optimization and the appropriate fleet assignment.
Technological, infrastructure-based and market-based measures are further methods but
do not seem that simple to be put into action. Market-based measures highly depend on
the government and other stakeholders and technological improvements seem pretty much
exhausted considering the state of the art. Restructuring airspaces also is in contrast to
military interests, which hinder putting the single European Sky Agreement into action.
•
How big is air cargo’s potential to reduce air pollutants and, as a consequence, to what
extent is air cargo able to contribute to Green Logistics?
The potential to reduce emissions is significant but the achievement on emissions’
reductions highly depends on cooperation between the carriers, air navigation providers
and aircraft operators, as well as selecting the right mitigation method in the right extent.
The contribution of air cargo to Green Logistics, consequently, can be considered as high,
provided collaboration is fostered.
•
How does the future of air cargo look like, considering the currently transported goods?
Since a range of commodities can only be air-shipped – cut flowers, certain exotic fruits,
fresh fish, just to name a few – the aircraft will remain an essential transport mode.
Competitors, most importantly sea freight, will only be a threat to goods, which are not
time-sensitive and not very valuable. However, most of those goods were not air-shipped
before anyway. This raises the assumption that the future for air cargo looks mostly
positive, also supported by the fact that there is a rise in air cargo expected of about 4.7 %
per year (Boeing, 2014).
This thesis highlighted that due to the rising demand in air cargo it is most significant to keep
working on strategies to reduce its negative impacts. However, in the face of all measures to
be taken to reduce the negative externalities resulting from air cargo the risk of a ReboundEffect has to be considered: measures that are taken to reduce negative environmental impacts
might end up achieving the opposite as intended. Thus, mitigation measures could also affect
price development in a positive way, so transportation by air becomes cheaper. Consequently,
additional demand would be induced which eventually results in having higher emissions than
before. Countermeasures to be set against this effect could only be carried out by superior
133 authorities like the government. By increasing taxes the government could reduce the demand
of air transport; however, this would counteract the air cargo industry.
A possible outlook to turn the focus in sustainable air cargo more on the social aspect might
be to create criteria or indicators dealing with safe working conditions in that industry. For
instance, it might be measured how often aircraft are asked to fly over crisis regions and if the
crew gets to decide whether to fly over those possibly dangerous areas or not. Many airlines
still insist on keeping risky destinations in their route networks for reasons of profit regardless
of the endangering of the crew. This suggestion is supposed to be an idea to stress social
aspects in sustainability and to highlight the importance of safe working conditions. Shifting
the emphasize more to social aspects could open doors in innovative measures for sustainable
air cargo.
Furthermore, it might be subject of another thesis to research and investigate the possibility of
carrying out air transport of goods via zeppelins or drones. The implementation and
penetration of such air transport modes might result in a significant threat to the air cargo
industry as the aircraft as transport mode could end up being repressed by new competitors
that cover a lot of advantages assigned to planes so far. This is just supposed to be an idea to
broaden one’s view and get someone thinking that air trade might not always necessarily need
to be done by aircraft in the future.
134 List of abbreviations
ANC
ANSP
ATC
ATK
ATM
ATM
ASA
BET
CDA
dB
CO
CO2
DOC
EEA
EPNdB
ETS
FAA
FEU
FT
FRA
FRED
FTK
GDP
GRZ
GWP
HKG
HKIA
H 2O
IATA
ICAO
ILS
INN
IOD
JIT
KLU
NOx
O3
OPD
RF
RFI
RTK
RTM
SES
SWOT
SZG
T
TA
TKM
TU
UPR
VIE
WTO
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
Air Navigation Service Provider
Air Traffic Control
Available Tonne Kilometer
Available Tonne Mile
Air Traffic Management
Air Service Agreement
Bethel Airport
Continuous Descend Approach
Decibel
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Dioxide
Direct Operating Costs
European Economic Area
Effective Perceived Noise Level
Emission Trading Scheme
Federal Aviation Administration
Forty Feet Equivalent Unit
Feet
Free Route Airspace
Fuel Reporting and Emission Database
Freight Tonne Kilometer
Gross Domestic Product
Graz International Airport
Global warming potential
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport
Water vapor
International Air Transport Association
International Civil Aviation Organization
Instrument Landing System
Innsbruck International Airport
Indirect Operating Costs
Just in Time
Klagenfurt International Airport
Nitrogen Oxide
Ozone
Optimized Profile Descend
Radiative Forcing
Radiative forcing index
Revenue Tonne Kilometer
Revenue Tonne Mile
Single European Sky
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Constraints
Salzburg International Airport
Tonne
Tailored Arrival
Tonne Kilometers
Technische Universität
User Preferred Routes
Vienna International Airport
World Trade Organization
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147 Appendix
With regard to the interviews with DB Schenker, the interview of February 17th, 2015 was
carried out on the phone with the Quality-, Security- and Environmental manager. The
interview of March 9th, 2015 was conducted with the Head of Product Management Airfreight
at the office in Vienna. For both appointments the author had prepared interview guides.
Both interviews were transcribed; however, transcriptions are kept under wraps on request of
the interviewees.
148 Acknowledgements
Authoring this thesis would not have been possible if it had not been for the help and
support of the following people and companies. I would like to thank you from the bottom of
my heart:
To my supervisors,
Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Manfred Gronalt and
Ass.Prof. Mag. Dr. Patrick Hirsch:
Thank you for your committed support!
Thanks for often making time to discuss the thesis, providing me with suggestions for
improvements and ideas. I really appreciate your commitment.
To my family,
Gabriele Bernhard,
Ing. Mag. Erwin Bernhard and
Alexander Bernhard:
Thank you for the strong support you gave me. Thank you as well for proofreading over
and over again my thesis and your uncompromisingly honest feedbacks and criticism. I also
thank you for giving me ideas on how to improve my writing style.
Moreover, thanks for your feedbacks and inputs regarding my master presentation. Your
help means a lot to me.
To my partner, Andreas Kollmann:
Thank you for supporting me, proofreading the thesis and providing me with your extensive
aviation knowledge. You really helped me a lot and contributed to broadening my
aeronautical horizon.
To my colleague, Jana Vögl, BSc:
Thanks for your support and for proofreading the thesis. Thanks for being there every time
I reached out to you and asked for help. I really enjoyed having you as a colleague and
spending the finale of the master program with you!
To my colleague, Susan El-Heliebi, BSc:
Thanks for making time to give me inputs and an honest feedback when I was preparing
for the presentation of my thesis. You helped me a lot with your skills and experience.
149 To Tim Ripard:
Thanks a lot for helping me improve my English writing style. I learned a lot about
English phrasal verbs and expressions.
To Tom Ripard:
Thanks for your effort in helping me gain access to interesting aircraft technical related
information sources for my thesis. I appreciate your commitment!
To the Head of Product Management Airfreight and
the Quality-, Security- and Environmental Manager of DB Schenker Vienna:
Thank you so much for making time to give interviews and for the interesting insights I
gained. I learned a lot about environmental measures and opportunities in airfreight.
To Robert Kraaijeveld, Account Manager for NV Special Fruit:
Thank you very much for supporting me, giving me specific information about the supply
chains and answering my questions always patiently. Your helping me turned out to be a
key part of the thesis, for the presented supply chains are an important chapter.
To Spar Austria Purchase Department:
Thanks a lot for supporting and helping me to understand the entire picture of supply
chains from the origin to the end-consumer.
TO Udo Baumgartner, OMV:
Thank you for so quickly replying to my e-mails and for answering my inquiries
thoroughly. I got to understand the pricing of kerosene.
To Irene Vanek, Statistik Austria:
Thank you for quickly replying to me e-mails and providing me with the data about air
cargo development in Austria.
To Lufthansa Group Investor Relations,
Cargo Business Development Airport Vienna and
Air Cargo Center Linz Airport:
Thanks for thoroughly replying my inquiries. You made me comprehend the background
processes in air cargo better and thus, casting light on its development in my thesis.
Again, thanks to all of you for your help. I really appreciate it!
150