INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES SUGGEST OTHER MODES WILL TARGET AIR CARGO

INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES SUGGEST OTHER MODES WILL TARGET AIR CARGO    Two air-freight industry executives suggest that other transport modes will move in on air-freight industry business, as shippers try to decrease costs under the current recession and post-Sept. 11 business environment. However, this erosion of that sector will be only short-term, they both said.
   Anne Strauss-Wieder, principal of A. Strauss-Wieder Inc., a firm providing transportation analysis and market research, said the timeliness of air freight delivery will be foregone in the short-term by shippers for economic reasons. “It’s the newest of the freight modes, and it’s also the most expensive,” she said.
   Strauss-Wieder said that it wasn’t just Sept. 11 that dragged the air freight industry down. It only plunged the air cargo sector faster and deeper, she said. She noted government studies that showed the American economy had peaked by March 2001, so the mold for downturn had already been set.
   Strauss-Wieder predicted the emergence of second-tier airports for air cargo processing, so that the major air cargo hubs will not dominate the majority of the business. In addition, she said airports, who are running out of space for air cargo operations, will be more likely to expand their cargo operations off-site so that they may process larger volumes of cargo.
   Thomas Phillips, of Keiser Phillips Associates, agreed that Sept. 11 just made air cargo volumes drop harder and faster. Other factors that preceded the terrorist attacks included the physical downsizing of passenger aircraft, which eventually yielded smaller cargo space, in addition to a worldwide decrease of cargo volumes since 2000.
   However, Philips predicted “a tripling of air cargo in the next 20 years.”