Oman Air is targeting freighter partnerships and the expansion of its trucking network as it looks to expand its cargo operations.
Speaking to Air Cargo News at the recent Air Cargo China exhibition, Oman Air head of cargo Mike Duggan said that the airline was hoping to start partnerships with freighter operators on services between Asia, Africa and Europe, hubbing through Muscat.
Any partnership would extend beyond a straightforward block space agreement (BSA), with Oman Air working with the partner on routing and scheduling.
“We are talking about Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand into Europe through the Middle East and into Africa through the Middle East, so hubbing through Muscat,” he said.
“Then we would also have widebody capacity out of Africa through Muscat. So basically, triangulating Muscat between the three key points.”
He added: “Africa has a lot of demand from Asia, so we can fill that through Muscat and the European market is well established from Asia. And then out of Africa, there are a lot of perishable exports to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.”
Duggan said that the freighter partnership, as well as growing the cargo business, would also feed and defeed its bellyhold operation with higher-yielding cargo.
He added that if the partnerships establish a strong business case, the airline could launch its own widebody freighter operation in the future.
“We can scale up from the partner capability, which gives us the flexibility to manage the scale of the capacity we need at the beginning and de-risk it a little bit,” he said.
But he added: “Cargo isn’t picky about what aircraft it gets on, what colours are on the outside. It is a box on a pallet, in a tube that moves from A to B.”
Road operation expansion
Elsewhere, the airline also recently launched a road feeder operation between Muscat and Dubai to enable larger and widebody-compatible cargo to be transported between the two countries.
Duggan said the trucking service “has been doing great” and in June moved more than 200 tonnes on multiple trucks per day.
Cargo can also connect with widebody flights in Muscat, he explained.
As well as creating extra competition for shippers, the operation also provides them with the opportunity to diversify transport modes in case of the unexpected.
“Consumers and businesses have a different option now and competition always helps,” he said.
Oman Air Cargo is currently exploring whether it can expand the operation to new locations in the Middle East, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
However, there are some challenges to establishing those journeys in terms of customs, bonding processes and the time it takes to cross borders.
Middle East cargo outlook
Looking to the rest of the year, Duggan is confident in the cargo market, although he added that much depends on how quickly the passenger market recovers.
He pointed out that many of the major international carriers not based in the region are still not operating flights into the Middle East.
Meanwhile, he said, some shippers still have concerns about shipping through the Middle East in case their cargo gets stuck, although he added that Oman airspace had remained open throughout the conflict, which may have helped its case for acting as a transhipment point.
Looking beyond the Middle East, Duggan said that demand remained strong, although he said there were some underlying concerns.
“Will there be an inflationary impact? Will there be a time lag because it has only been a temporary fuel spike? What is the peace deal with the Houthis? Does that open up the Red Sea again? Does modal shift change again? How will supply chain managers manage their risk?” he questioned.
