Air Freight news update volume four

Welcome once more to the AirFreight.com blog as we continue our regular look at some recent important news stories and articles that impact the air freight and air cargo industry. Designed to complement our normal updates and provide many of the other facts, figures and opinions that help to bring a stronger understanding of the health and developments within the air freight industry today. Within each summary piece click on the blue link(s) to read more.

IATA have revised their 2015 projections for airline profitability and air freight growth in 2015 each in a positive direction. The news is very encouraging for both in projected results for 2014 and new projections for this year. For 2014 airlines are expected to post a collective global net profit of $19.9 billion (up from the $18.0 billion projected in June) and is set to rise substantially this year while air cargo growth is now forecast to see 4.5% reached in 2015.

Kalitta Charters are converting a 737-400 for air cargo purposes. The Ypsilanti, Michigan company are having the aircraft converted by Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. in Midland City, Alabama.

McDonalds are blaming the west coast port congestion as the root cause for a lack of french fries. More than 100 location in South America can sell you a burger but not offer their famous fries to accompany your meal due to distribution issues. According to the Washington Post air freight is an option being considered to get french fries back in stock as soon as possible!

Qatar Airways move to become a larger factor in the rapidly expanding air freight market in the Middle East. They've just completed an order from Boeing for four 777 Freighters, valued at $1.24 billion. At present the airline operates a fleet comprised of 37 Boeing 777-300ERs (Extended Range) and 777-200LRs (Longer Range), in addition to seven 777 Freighters. Read more at money.cnn.

Speaking of the Middle East, carriers in the region reported a staggering freight tonne kilometres (FTK) increase of 12.9 per cent and 17.1 per cent increase in capacity in November per the latest data. Additional information available vi TradeArabia.com,

UPS announced that their UPS Worldwide Express Freight™ service is being added to 12 new origin and nine new destination countries. Origin countries added; Chile, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Turkey and Vietnam. Destination services added; Chile, Indonesia, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Vietnam. Get the full story via marketwatch.com,

We close with a great article about the future of the Boeing-747 particularly for air freight. A really interesting piece from the Motley Fool explores how a combination of lower oil prices and difficult slot capacity at some of the world's busiest airports might help the classic plane to remain in production for a fair few years to come.

That gets us current for this week but if you have stories you’d like to share or comments about these please get in touch via the comments section, our Twitter account or Facebook page. You can also read volumes one, two and three of Air Freight News updates to stay current.