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“Since air charter has proven to be a successful method of transport for the urgent demand of COVID-19 test kits and other necessities throughout the pandemic, it has paved a path for us to be perfectly positioned to support this global undertaking with the careful distribution of essential items during this time of urgency,” added Burt. “We can expect limited aircraft availability due to the emergency transport of the vaccine, along with standard items that have been affected, so advanced planning is always advantageous.”
"With access to any size cargo aircraft, including those ideally suited for the shipment of pharmaceutical and medical supplies, as well as the most advanced temperature-controlled containers, Air Partner’s global freight team is well-equipped to meet the specific transport needs for sensitive and time-critical items such as COVID-19 vaccine-related supplies, materials and equipment. This includes adhering to highly regulated and temperature-controlled specifications, as evidenced by the company’s recent work in the urgent transportation of more than 5,000 experimental COVID-19 test kits from South Korea to Washington, D.C."
https://www.aviationpros.com/ground-handling/ground-handlers-service-providers/press-release/21155961/air-partner-air-partner-prepares-for-anticipated-peak-season-with-timecritical-transport-of-covid19-related-cargo
Air Partner opens office in Johannesburg -- The expansion follows record growth of the freight division
https://twitter.com/YstoneAdvisory/status/1307964853081038848
Friend recently flew back from Nairobi - flight so heavy with cargo it had to take off westwards to avoid a tailwind - never happened in his 50 years of flying from Nairobi
https://twitter.com/surprised_trade/status/1306517648210042880
added to holding at 75p :-)
https://twitter.com/surprised_trade/status/1306161142159626241
trading update/results due in next couple of weeks, expecting it to provide continued progress & positive figures with possible re instatement of divi )
https://www.ft.com/content/07966ea1-0e8e-4d5b-a8ee-950dfaa7b443
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https://www.ft.com/content/07966ea1-0e8e-4d5b-a8ee-950dfaa7b443
Air Partner fell to 17p as all airline-associated stocks plunged. However, it has clearly had an excellent start to the year, with the company heavily involved in organising repatriation flights and facilitating the worldwide freight movement of PPE and industrial parts.
As a broking business with relatively stable overheads, increased activity quickly flows to the bottom line, boosting both profits and cash. Unsurprisingly AP shares have taken off and are now around 80p. Hopefully, there should be further to go — including, perhaps, a resumption of dividends.
"As the economic fallout of the pandemic upends the commercial airline sector, private aviation businesses around the world are soaring like never before. Gatwick-based charter business Air Partner reports that interest in its services is sky high, as executives return to the office and resume flying for face-to-face meetings abroad. Air Partner says that UK enquiries were up 270 per cent in August and 170 per cent globally, compared to the same month last year.
Meanwhile, passenger numbers at London’s Heathrow Airport fell 81.5 per cent in August because of travel restrictions and public concern over coronavirus. Flying in a private jet might be convenient for those who can afford it but the long-term effect of reduced passenger traffic could be fatal for many commercial airlines and adjacent businesses."
https://monocle.com/minute/2020/09/14/
From the Guardian business blog today:
"Speaking of airlines...the International Air Transport Association has warned that shipping a Covid-19 vaccine around the world will be the industry’s biggest ever challenge.
Around 8,000 jumbo jet planes would need to be deployed to get a single dose to 7.8 billion people, IATA warned today.
My colleague Julia Kollewe explains:
The International Air Transport Association warned of severe capacity constraints that could hamper efforts to get a vaccine out quickly around the globe. While drugmakers are racing to develop a vaccine and get it approved by regulators, the international aviation group is working with airlines, airports, health bodies and pharmaceutical firms to draft an airlift plan.
IATA’s director general, Alexandre de Juniac, said: “Safely delivering Covid-19 vaccines will be the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry. But it won’t happen without careful advance planning. And the time for that is now. We urge governments to take the lead in facilitating cooperation across the logistics chain so that the facilities, security arrangements and border processes are ready for the mammoth and complex task ahead.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2020/sep/10/markets-european-central-bank-lagarde-euro-ftse-pound-covid-19-us-unemployment-business-live
Last week specialist company Air Partner told the Consumer Trends column that business was booming thanks to 'safety, convenience, and flexibility'. 'Covid-19 has definitely been a factor – it has pushed more people towards flying privately as they are putting their health first.
'One of the main attractions is that people can avoid the crowds at the main terminals leaving as minimal contact as possible.'
On average, the company is now organising 40 to 45 flights a week for customers.
https://twitter.com/AirPartner/status/1299255686493278208
With Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Jamaica most recently added to the UK’s quarantine-list, we are working 24/7 to swiftly accommodate those who wish to return to the UK
"According to Air Partner, before the pandemic hit, global private travel was growing steadily. However, It says it has seen a huge surge in enquiries and bookings in recent months.
It believes this is down to the unique safety and convenience benefits that it claims commercial airlines cannot offer.
When travel restrictions in Europe began to ease, Air Partner saw a boom in private jet travel demand as people regained appetite for travel.
Initially, it saw a 210 per cent increase in private jet requests for future flight bookings compared to last year. This grew to 321 per cent by June.
It says the demand has been primarily from leisure travellers and critical business flights, when Zoom just won't cut it.
The most popular cities it has received enquiries for in recent months are Nice, Faro and Mykonos, in France, Portugal and Greece respectively.
Prior to travel restrictions in Spain, it also had a number of bookings for Spanish locations, with Ibiza proving particularly popular.
Trends are also driven by quarantines - so, with France, Malta and the Netherlands added to the quarantine list last week, Croatia emerged this week as the number one choice for those looking to fly privately.
However, that has now also entered the quarantine list, so it is likely that Portugal - now off the list - will likely become the new number one. "
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-8643455/How-does-cost-charter-private-jet-UK.html
https://twitter.com/AirPartner/status/1296774055530573825
Since last week, there has been a significant increase in departure enquiries from Croatian airports compared to August of last year. Pending quarantine requirements, we have been continuing to help clients return home to the UK safely and in time.
https://twitter.com/surprised_trade/status/1296725216123592705Investors Chronicle retain AIR in their income portfolo (this weeks edition) expecting dividend to be reinstated, trading update in next two weeks
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-volatility-heres-small-105755071.html
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/france-flights-sell-out-within-minutes-after-quarantine-announcement-hvrpl5vqw
No mention of AIR, but charters up, perhaps we'll get some of Friday's loss back.
https://twitter.com/AirPartner/status/1293213095393923074
In this recent charter from Liege, Belgium, our cargo team delicately loaded by hand the priceless objects, ensuring the safe delivery back to their home in Romania.
"The San Francisco-based company also reported that Taiwanese carriers, such as EVA Air Cargo, have announced a 20 to 25% rate increase effective Aug. 12. “It is anticipated that this is the first of many rate increases to come over the next few months,” it said
Trans-continental rail
The premium pricing and congestion at major hub airports is leading more shippers to consider rail from China to Europe as a less expensive alternative to air for a range of goods, including clothing, paper, consumer goods, electronics, and industrial components.
Rail transport is up to 50% faster than sea freight and up to 60% cheaper than airfreight, according to European logistics specialists.
Railroads have developed several routes over the past dozen years. Initially, logistics companies needed to book an entire block train, but now can offer less-than-container and container-load options.
The railroad joint venture that operates a line through Belarus, Kazakhstan and and Russia said July container volume of 54,200 TEU was 76% more than a year ago and set a record. China shipments to Europe doubled and loaded containers from Europe grew by 80%. For the first seven months of the year, traffic is up 267%.
Transit times average about 15 days, depending on the origin and destination points.
Earlier this year CEVA Logistics launched an intermodal product that trucks shipments from China to Vietnam and loads them into high-cube containers for rail transport to Europe.
Cargo.partner, an Austrian forwarder, recently introduced two new weekly LCL direct connections between Duisburg, Germany, and Hefei, China, as well as between Linz, Austria, and Xi’an. The company says it expects demand to increase in both directions.
Freight forwarder Davies Turner has responded to increased bookings on its weekly fixed rail service from China to Dartford, U.K. by adding direct service to Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.
The weekly service departs the rail hub in Hefei and goes to Neuss, Germany. Containers are then trucked under bond to the Port of Rotterdam and transported by ferry to East London.
DSV Panalpina, which offers a rail service, also says its road transport service from eastern China to western Europe has gained popularity during the COVID-19 crisis.
Passenger network uncertainty
The wild card for cargo rates is the extent to which airlines resume passenger service. Although there have been blips of increased travel activity this summer, airline executives are more cautious about adding costly flights when the coronavirus is spiking in parts of the world.
U.S. passenger throughput, as measured by the Transportation Security Administration at airport checkpoints, increased last week for the first time in a month. For the week ending Thursday, the passenger level was 71.9% off of the same period in 2019, but airline ticketing numbers declined 0.4 points from the prior week."
More in article, including charts.
This all sounds like good news for AIR:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/pressure-on-air-cargo-rates-from-china-keeps-increasing
"Outbound airfreight rates from China continued to rise for the fifth consecutive week, with pricing the strongest out of Shanghai as shipments increased for electronics, e-commerce orders, and hospital gear.
The pricing trend is good for carriers. But it means higher costs for cargo owners, especially with a large amount of all-cargo capacity already committed to big gadget launches from Sony, Apple and Samsung in the next couple months. There also is uncertainty about how many aircraft passenger airlines will put in the air as coronavirus outbreaks pop up.
Rates from China to Europe and the U.S. increased 6.7% and 5.8% to $3.51/kilogram and $5.46/kilogram, respectively, according to data compiled by The Air Freight Index Co. The Shanghai market was even stronger, rising 14.8% to Europe and 10.9% to the U.S. in the past week. Chicago to Europe rates also increased, but eastbound rates from the key hub of Frankfurt to the U.S. fell 3.8% as new capacity outstripped new demand.
Airfreight rates from Asia were several times higher in the spring. They started to fall in the spring, but are still about 25% greater than during last summer and heading up.
CLIVE Data Services, which consolidates data from representative international airlines, said planes on average were filled at 70% of capacity during July. The figure is very high considering summer is typically the low season for air shipping and the load factor during the traditional peak shipping season before the holidays is about 68%.
London-based CLIVE Data said cargo volumes increased 8% monthly in July, further evidence transport demand is trending upward as manufacturing and retail activity pick up following quarantine measures. Cargo volume, which CLIVE analyzes using a formula that combines weight and cubic space, was 20% below July 2019. That’s a significant improvement from the 26% throughput drop in April, compared to the prior year, and the 31% and 37% yearly contraction in May and June, respectively.
The refusal of some pilots to fly to Hong Kong after the city imposed aggressive COVID testing procedures and quarantine measures for air crews is reducing some air supply from a critical logistics hub. FedEx pilots are urging the company to suspend flights because of way Hong Kong authorities have treated some pilots, while pilots at UPS have asked for the option to decline flights there.
“This is beginning to have a quite serious productivity impact on many of the largest freighter operators and could mean there will be less surge capacity available for the peak season,” logistics provider Flexport said in a newsletter to customers.
The San Francisco-based company also reported that Taiwanese carriers, such as EVA Air Cargo, have announced a 20 to 25% rate increase effective Aug. 12. “It is anticipated that this is the first of
"GlobeAir is adding to the good news coming from Europe. Last week NetJets announced it was hiring back furloughed pilots at its subsidiary there. It also said it was reversing plans to ground some of its European fleet there it had designated for retirement.
WingX, the business aviation analyst, reported through the first three weeks of July, private jet travel in Europe had rebounded to 85% of pre-COVID-19 levels.
Now Globe Air, operator of very light jets, is reporting strong results as well.
For the month, net sales increased by 11.3% compared to 2019. Its Cessna Citation Mustang fleet made 1,288 flights, an 8.6% year-over-year gain.
The four-seat private jets flew with two passengers on average, landing at 185 airports, 6.1% below the norm.
Bookings for August look even better, Fragner tells Private Jet Card Comparisons. At the end of July, advanced reservations are 16% higher than they were in June for July.
Customers are also making decisions faster. The lag from quote to booking dropped from five to three days, he says.
What’s more, pricing is solid. “The expected price battle is not happening, Price quality is 1% up compared to pricing average last July,” Fragner says.
Still, GlobeAir’s year-to-date sales are down 27%. In a post on LinkedIn, the business aviation boss credited his team.
The industry can also credit Fragner. Research from GlobeAir provided tangible evidence of the significant social distancing advantages for private jets compared to the airlines.
The study he directed that identified over 700 touchpoints when flying with the airlines versus less than 20 via private jet. It has been widely quoted in global media, including here, as well as by other private aviation providers."
Good for July, solid for August, prices holding up very well.
Sounds like Mark Briffa has been ultra-cautious once again!
https://privatejetcardcomparisons.com/2020/08/03/globeair-reports-a-record-busting-july-for-private-jet-flights-in-europe/
Every trading update we've had recently over previous few months have been all pretty good. So I would imagine the way business has been going from strength to strength, its going to be well worth waiting for our next update
Thanks - just to wait till then ...
Win win till then !!!
They already announced they would be stopping the monthly updates and reverting to the normal pattern of reporting. Unless there is something exceptional or unusual, the next reporting will be with the H1 results.
Thought we would had a trading update. For July by now ???
Have I missed something in recent updates ???
The incidence of hurricanes in number has often brought in substantial business for AIR, flying in relief supplies and equipment and relief teams. I remember Mark Briffa having mentioned this specific point in his comments on the last FY results, in which there was an absence of major catastrophes requiring emergency air freight. These unusual climate factors seemingly present this year may well bring in extra revenues.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-hurricanes/?srnd=premium-europe
I really like this share I wish I had a bit more cash to invest a bit than I have done. Seems to be going places with a decent management in place, as usual only time will tell.
Expect an update on July performance shortly ...
They did make the statement that it was going very Good for July during AGM ...GLA