Oman Air weighs up widebody freighters and focuses on quality

Mike Duggan has been busy reorganising Oman Air's cargo fleet and network since joining the airline one year ago and is now considering widebody freighter capacity options. Mike Duggan joined Oman Air one year ago to head up the cargo business as the airline was in the midst of a restructuring effort that aimed to tackle a loss-making financial performance. The restructuring would see the airline slim down its fleet to a single widebody aircraft type and focus on its core routes. Duggan, who has worked in air cargo and aviation since the early 1990s, holding roles at DHL and Emirates amongst others, tells Air Cargo News that his initial focus when joining the airline was getting to know the team, customers, network, business challenges and processes. "The usual sort of things, not trying to wave the magic wand," he says. "The company is going through a form of transformation where we have had to look at top-to-bottom efficiencies, process change, business planning and network development. "This is both on the passenger side and, of course, that impacts the cargo side because that is where we are steered from." One of the tasks facing Oman's capacity team is to significantly increase fleet utilisation. "That has meant slightly different routings, and before I joined a year ago, the company got rid of half of its widebody passenger capacity as part of the efficiency drive. "That has meant deploying narrowbody new technology, such as Boeing 737 Max aircraft, onto those routes previously operated by older widebodies. "So, there has been a network re-adjustment as well as an aircraft deployment adjustment." In terms of the cargo business, Duggan says the airline has a network covering Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, as well as a series of partnerships to further extend the offering. The Asia/Indian subcontinent-Europe lanes form the main basis of the cargo business, with shipments hubbing through Muscat. However, the airline also carries around 70% of the cargo being flown into Oman and some exports, which are largely perishables. Amsterdam capacity push The biggest development in network terms over the past few months has been the carrier's decision to add four-times-weekly Boeing 787-9 flights from Muscat to Amsterdam. The new service will offer 14-18 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight in each direction. This winter, the airline will also increase its flights to Heathrow to 11 per week from daily, with the eventual aim of going double-daily in 2026. "Amsterdam is a great destination for our cargo network and will give us some really good high quality origin cargo out of Asia," explains Duggan. As well as the passenger fleet, Oman Air also operates a single narrowbody freighter. Duggan says the freighter operation provides strategic lift out of India and Bangladesh, where its narrowbody passenger aircraft don't provide quite enough capacity to meet demand requirements. Until May, the aircraft was an Oman Air-owned Boeing 737-800 with 24 tonnes of capacity. However, in the middle of the month, the operation was outsourced. "Oman Air remains 100% committed to operating significant freighter capacity," the airline says in a statement. "Oman Air is moving from an insourced freighter model to an outsourced model and has therefore sold B737-800F A40-BU . "Oman Air Cargo will continue its strategy to offer maindeck feeder capacity for its passenger belly network, to/from the Indian sub-continent." Duggan says he is hoping to expand freighter capacity further in the future, although the plans are "still taking shape". "I am looking at widebody freighters, either as a dedicated programme or what we can do with partners through joint ventures or block space agreements. "We would use that to feed and de-feed our passenger network, as we have a little bit of a bottleneck from east to west. "That extra capacity would help alleviate that bottleneck and give our customers in Asia the ability to use our network a bit better." Duggan adds that having control of freighter capacity also helps the cargo business capitalise on emerging demand streams. For instance, he says, the carrier ramped up its freighter operation into Bangladesh when there was a boom in demand out of the country last year. "Airlines are becoming more agile, and they have to be, and that is 1,000% the case in freighters." While Oman Air's network might be smaller than that of some of its Middle East rivals, Duggan says it makes up for this with high-quality service levels. He points out that Muscat airport and Oman Air's cargo facility have plenty of spare capacity, while the latter is also relatively new, having been completed in 2018. The cargo facility features a 22,780 sq m, air-conditioned warehouse with the capacity to handle 350,000 tons of cargo per annum. The facility has bulk cold rooms, ULD cold rooms, an animal centre, a dangerous goods room, a vulnerable goods cage, a human remains room, a radioactive room and a strong room. "What we may lack in size, we make up for in quality of service and our customers recognise that and they come back to us regularly," Duggan says. "They know what they are going to get from us, and they know the standard of service. We have a lot of loyalty from the customers that work with us." Duggan adds that the high level of service that Oman Air offers also helps the carrier garner "slightly higher yields". Stable trade? On current market conditions, Duggan says that the nature of Oman Air's network should protect it somewhat from the trade turmoil that has been instigated by the US government's wide-ranging tariff push as it looks to reduce trade deficits and increase US manufacturing. He says that Oman Air's trunk routes are "always busy", while demand to Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council members is "a little more varied" with some spare capacity. However, the China-US trade dispute could still have an impact if demand on the transpacific trade lane declines as a result of the tariffs and carriers move capacity to Asia-Europe where Oman Air is active. However, Duggan thinks that the trade war may not have as much of an impact on the market as some market commentators fear. He explains that concerns around the impact of increasing US regulations and tariffs targeting e-commerce could prove unfounded as consumers' buying habits are now formed around online shopping. Meanwhile, he adds it will also be difficult for the US to recreate the manufacturing capability of China, meaning goods will still need to be produced abroad. Looking ahead, Duggan says his focus will continue on creating and sustaining the efficiencies gained. He adds that there could be some further network tweaks, but "probably in 2026, we will be pretty much as we are". "Fleet expansion isn't planned for another year or two," he says. "For now, we are happy to consolidate what we have got and sweat our assets more strongly and gain efficiencies. "We are looking at our longer term plans, but nothing is agreed or set out."

Swissport expands in Basel in response to rising demand

Swissport is expanding its presence at EuroAirport Basel with the addition of 800 sq m of new freight space in response to rising import volumes. The handling company said that it was experiencing growing demand from existing carrier networks at the airport and the extra space "boosts the speed and efficiency" of its services. As well as increasing capacity, Swissport said it had worked with French and Swiss customs to implement streamlined processes "tailored to the airport's unique bi-national structure". "These measures enable faster last-mile distribution and ensure smooth, efficient cargo handling," the handler explained. EuroAirport is a key logistics hub for global imports into Europe and pharmaceutical exports from Switzerland," said Andreas Behnke, head of cargo Switzerland, Italy & France and station manager of Swissport Basel. "As an expert in airfreight, we continuously adapt our logistics capacities to meet demand with excellence and efficiency, while upholding the highest safety and security standards." The company said that last year it had handled 47,000 tons of cargo at the airport, 64% of which involved the export of temperature-sensitive goods, primarily from Switzerland's pharmaceutical industry. During the year, it opened a new "Cool+Connect" pharma facility that allows it to consolidate shipments at the airport and reduce truck journeys. In 2024, the company handled a record-breaking 5m tons of air cargo across its 117 air cargo centres worldwide.

Lufthansa Cargo targets a return to the top three

Lufthansa Cargo is targeting a return to the top three global air cargo carriers in terms of volumes over the coming years. Speaking at the Air Cargo Europe event in Munich, chief financial officer Frank Bauer, who will soon move over to the role of chief operating officer, explained that 20 years ago, Lufthansa Cargo was the largest carrier in the world in terms of cargo tonne km. Over time, the airline lost its position in the leaderboard and fell to seventh place. However, last year the carrier group climbed one spot to position sixth on the back of 13.5% demand growth. In the first quarter of this year, the carrier climbed further to the fourth spot as volumes improved by a further 8.9% year on year. "Our ambition is to get back to the top three, and then we take it from there," said Bauer. "There is a very tough competition with the growth rates the Middle East carriers are showing, but we don't want to lie back and say that is our fate. "The fate of Lufthansa cargo is a different one, and the growth numbers we were able to achieve are quite encouraging." Asked how the carrier would reach its target, Lufthansa Cargo chief executive Ashwin Bhat explained its growth would come through capacity additions and new customer wins based on its quality of service. On capacity, he pointed out that the group is now able to offer capacity on the services of eight airlines through five hubs. Its hubs include Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Brussels, and, from mid-June, Rome, while it can offer cargo capacity on its own cargo aircraft, the AeroLogic joint venture, as well as the belly capacities of Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, SunExpress, and from 16 June ITA Airways. Looking to the future, the carrier has seven 777-8F freighters on order, and Bhat admitted that it would explore further all-cargo orders. Bauer added that in the past, the carrier has wet-leased freighters, and this is also something it would consider once again, depending on rates. He also said that the passenger airlines of the group were in the process of replacing many of their older aircraft with more modern models that offer greater cargo capacity, sometimes increasing the available space from 5-10 tonnes per flight to 20-30 tonnes with models such as Airbus A350S and Boeing 777-Xs. As well as adding capacity, Bhat said the airline group would also look for partnerships with other airlines and expand into new markets with its freighter network. He pointed out that the carrier would soon add flights to Beirut. Quality of service is also important to attract new customers: "The brand of Lufthansa Cargo is respected in the market for the reliability, quality and expertise of the people, so we need to focus on this." Bhat also emphasised that any growth would need to be fuelled by profitable tonnages: "Growth without profit is accelerated death," he said.