China Southern Airlines (CSA) has applied to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for an operating licence for its cargo business, China Southern Air Cargo Co Ltd.Read More » The application, posted on the CAAC website today, said the cargo unit would be a wholly-owned subsidiary of CSA and operate 777 freighters from Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport. CSA announced plans to set up a cargo unit in December last year.
The CAAC application said CSA intended to transfer 30 flight crew, nine maintenance staff and 10 dispatchers to China Southern Air Cargo, which would use CSA's CZ airline code. The airline group also will transfer landing and take-off slots to the subsidiary, which will have registered capital of one billion yuan (US$149 million). The deadline for comments in response to the application is November 16.
Cargo demand between Asia and Northeast America, measured by cargo tonne kilometres (CTK), rose 3.5% in August compared with the same month a year earlier, from "solid U.S. demand for Asia goods”, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a regional briefing research note published yesterday. A second route from the region that recorded an increase in cargo demand was Asia-Africa, where CTKs rose 16.1% in August. Overall, the Asia-Pacific posted a 20.1% year-on-year decline in CTKs in August, which was a slight improvement from a 20.3% fall in July. "The recovery in cargo volumes has been slower than the rebound in some leading economic indicators, such as new export orders, as a result of insufficient cargo capacity on some routes," IATA said.
Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, will use a speech to be delivered tonight to say regulators have been too heavy-handed and interventionist in their monitoring of the airline, local media reported today, citing an advance copy of the document. "The last thing business in any sector needs right now is more red tape, taking time and energy when we should be focused on recovery," Joyce was quoted as saying in his speech.
Thai Airways International (THAI) said today it would operate repatriation flights from Sydney to Bangkok. The flights were scheduled as a morning departure from Sydney on November 9, 16, 23 and 30, the airline said on Twitter. THAI previously operated repatriation flights from Sydney to Bangkok for Thais to return home in September. It currently has cargo-only flights on the Sydney-Bangkok route.
South Korea’s Jin Air has started operating cargo-only flights to the U.S. with 777-200ERs. The airline, controlled by Korean Air, carried about 23 tonnes of cargo from Seoul Incheon to Seattle on its inaugural U.S. flight last Sunday. The LCC plans to start delivering cargo to Europe at some future point, local media reported.
Japan has officially removed bans on entry into Japan of travellers from nine countries – Australia, Brunei, China, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late last week. However, the country has maintained the suspension of visa-free entry for eligible countries and the issuing of new visas, meaning removal of the bans was not expected to significantly increase arrivals. Japan and Vietnam started business travel from Sunday, with eligible travellers exempted from 14-day quarantine on arrival if they have a negative test result for COVID-19, the Kyodo News agency reported.
