Doldrums? China Southern is banking on a rebound.
China Southern Cargo is a dedicated player in the cargo markets with a long-term plan. The Sky Team Cargo member currently operates twelve B777Fs and two B747Fs after adding three B777s to its fleet this year. These are operated on 24 freighter routes globally and supplement the carrier’s bellyhold capacity on its fleet of some 500 passenger craft. The carrier also operates its own trucking network in China, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, Japan, and North America.
The newest freighters delivered in June and July are now being operated out of China Southern’s Guangzhou hub in southern China on routes to L.A., offering four flights per week, as well as on European services.
“By launching new freighters, China Southern is going to add flight frequency to some hot markets such as America and Frankfurt,” said a cargo spokesman. “And in the near future, China Southern is going to launch Guangzhou-Paris-Vienna and Guangzhou-London-Frankfurt.”
He told FlyingTypers that China Southern Cargo’s volumes had been increasing for the last five years and was upbeat about prospects for 2015 despite the gloom that has generally descended on the freight community. “Due to the new freighters that will arrive this year, it is expected that freighter volumes will increase more than 20 percent over 2014,” he said, adding that American markets were performing much better than those in Europe.
“We will adjust our freighter lanes according to the market demand. The European economy is now in recovery. We will improve service and try different sales ways to deal with the different market.”
He said membership of SkyTeam Cargo was a big help for China Southern in global markets. “It means standard services and products, and also an international brand image,” he added.
China Southern is also sticking steadfast with its two-hub strategy, focused on Guangzhou and Shanghai.
“China Southern is dedicated to building Shanghai as freighter hub, and enhancing Guangzhou hub at the same time by delivering a Canton route strategy and launching more freighter routes to meet the needs of the new market inland. We have already launched Chongqing, Zhengzhou, and Tianjin as our domestic freighter destinations.”
Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Customs introduced a range of new clearance procedures last year that the spokesman said had improved cargo flows.
“Customs launched its Import and Export Cargo Manifest Control System in two phases, on January 1, 2013 and May 5, 2014. As from those dates, messages, including advance manifests for international shipments arriving at and departing from CAN, are required to be sent to the Customs system.
“The traditional Customs declaration and clearance by manual is replaced by electronic methods. Through this new Customs system, Customs officers can implement the electronic supervision of international cargo imported and exported in CAN with the automatically sent release receipt, thereby saving a lot of time required for the Customs clearance process.
“Based on the new Customs system, CAN Customs later has released some new supervision methods which benefits the carrier and forwarders a lot, such as ‘Declaration in advance, clearance when arrived’ and ‘House airway bill Clearance.’”
He said if all Customs branches in China rolled out the Import and Export Cargo Manifest Control System in the future, information sharing and cargo flows would be much improved.
“In the future, the Quality Supervision Inspection in (and) Quarantine and Customs will share the same information provided by carrier and cargo forwarders, which means supervision carried out by inspection and quarantine and Customs can be implemented at one time,” he explained. “At that time, the Customs clearance environment in China will be mostly improved, which will benefit international trade greatly.”
As well as offering trucking options in its home market from its two hubs, he said China Southern had also been extending its logistics services still further.
“At present we are cooperating with other companies to design cross-border and domestic producer-customer products,” he added.
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