E-commerce has shortened the release cycle and supply mode of consumer goods, and flexible and efficient air transportation is the first choice for logistics companies. Airlines will have many freight forwarders, with equal quality and price, and the order of cargo delivery usually depends on the customer’s bid and agreement. In the off-season, there is a surplus of space and the timeliness is not much different from the peak season. The standby space of low-cost airlines and transit flights is even sold out at the “floor price”. The air transport feast in the peak season belongs to the hatch agents of the four major express companies and airlines. Those limited board space resources and key stalls are the chips for manipulating the market, welcoming the “golden September and silver October” and Christmas and New Year’s carnival. When the peak of cross-border logistics comes, the space tends to be saturated, and trade project cargo will be supplied first. Some regular direct flight resources will even stop accepting scattered demand; lack of fixed space contracts, low-priced, bulky, and miscellaneous e-commerce packages have become warehouse filling goods, and it is difficult to obtain space support. At this time, sellers who are sensitive to freight rates and have unconcentrated cargo volume are very passive. Therefore, it is necessary for large sellers/logistics companies to reach a package cooperation with freight forwarders/airlines to charter flights, board packages, and fixed space. In the off-season, choose a cheap channel; in the peak season, look for a stable one regardless of cost.
The three busiest international air routes in the world are “Western Europe*North America, Far East=North America, Western Europe Middle East÷Far East”; the Middle East has a special location, connecting Western Europe, the Far East, South America and Africa, and plays a hub role; there are many flights to Australia and Southeast Asia, and the cargo space is generally sufficient. Full freighters account for less than 10% of the global aviation industry. Because the full freighter fleet requires large capital investment and a long payback period, the market’s willingness to invest is not strong. General cargo growth is weak, and e-commerce demand fluctuates greatly between the off-season and the peak season. The incremental market for parcels is mainly absorbed by express delivery companies. China Post, SF Express, YTO Express, etc. are the main buyers of cargo aircraft. In order to fully control capacity and time, they also contract a large number of civil aviation passenger aircraft belly cargo all year round. Pure cargo airlines can only “fly close to the ground” at cost. In order to increase loading rate and freight rates, airlines have reduced capacity and flights. In recent years, the full freighters of Lufthansa, EVA Air, China Southern Airlines, Qantas, etc. have all decreased, and Jade has even closed down. Currently, there are eight to nine hundred passenger scheduled flights between China and the United States every week, and most of the aircraft used are medium- and long-range wide-body aircraft with strong belly cargo capacity. At the same time, cargo airlines such as Air China Cargo, China Southern Airlines Cargo, Jinpeng, Asiana, UPS, FedEx, and Atlas are also using large cargo aircraft such as B747 and B777F to operate direct cargo routes between China and the United States.
The four major airlines (Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines) occupy the main domestic air cargo market, but the main international direct scheduled passenger flights have fewer all-cargo aircraft that can fly long-distance international routes. Most charter flights choose foreign cargo airlines to facilitate coordination of destination port services. Airspace resources are scarce and unbalanced. First-tier ports such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have the advantages of airline bases, the number of international routes, the number of flights, and the number of cities with navigable routes. They have a monopoly on transportation resources and radiate the import and export trade of surrounding cities, but there are few cargo flights and it is difficult to temporarily increase routes.