Aloha to air cargo success

APART from the fact that they are unburdened by freighters, the thinning phalanx of US legacy airlines has not had much cause for cheer in the cargo arena, as yields continue to drop.
According to Airlines for America, they declined 2.3 per cent in the first half of this year.
One US passenger airline has been having a party, though, with its cargo business surging 49 per cent in the first six months of this year, following a 35 per cent growth rate in 2012.
Tim Strauss, managing director of Hawaiian Air Cargo, readily acknowledges that the big three US carriers make more cargo revenue in a month than his outfit produces in a year, but he suggests that a more relevant element to compare might be the respective share of total revenues generated from cargo.
By this reckoning Hawaiian surpassed any US-based passenger airline in the first quarter of this year, he claims.
This growth has been accomplished without any proprietary sales staff outside Hawaii. With the exception of its home base, the carrier has solely been using GSAs, a strategy that Strauss has no intention of changing.
"Our GSAs are remarkably strong on the operations side too," he comments. "I don’t think we would get the same benefits if we put in our own people."
Read Ian Putzger’s full piece on Hawaiian Air Cargo in the latest Air Cargo News 26  August 2013 – Issue No. 759
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