Trai Thien Air Cargo delays services

Trai Thien Air Cargo has been unable to take off this month as earlier planned because the country’s first licensed air freight carrier has yet to charter an aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) said this aviation regulator had warned Trai Thien Air Cargo of not leasing old freighter planes for its new service planned to start this July.

The regulations specify that leased aircraft for cargo flights in Vietnam would not be more than 25 years old when they are returned to the lesser. So, Trai Thien has not been able to find any plane in compliance with the regulations.

CAAV said the global aviation market was significantly recovering in both passenger and freight volumes, making it more difficult for the HCM City-based company to lease a freighter as planned.

The absence of a freighter is one of the major reasons behind Trai Thien’s delay in deploying the schedules the company has posted on its website at www.traithienaircargo.com. These schedules cover north-south flights between Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi and Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City as well as from these airports to destinations in northeastern Asia.

Trai Thien Air Cargo got a license from the Ministry of Transport in October 2009 to provide services in Vietnam and on international markets. At the license award function in HCM City, the company said it was in negotiations with companies in the US and Singapore to charter Boeing 737-300 freighters converted from passenger aircraft with the main deck designed for pallets and containers.

Trai Thien Air Cargo planned to develop a fleet of 10 freighters to transport export and import goods of local companies among others, with the first plane expected for delivery in the first quarter of 2010. But, the airline has not taken off so far.

Trai Thien Air Cargo has not announced any detailed plan to tap the potential for the air cargo transport segment in Vietnam, where operational carriers Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific still use their passenger aircraft for cargo transport.

In the first six months of this year, local and foreign passenger and freight airlines transported some 215,000 tonnes of cargo to and from Vietnam, up 36 percent from the same period last year. This growth was much higher than the passenger segment, which registered a year-on-year increase of over 20 percent to more than 10 million passengers.

CAAV attributed the strong cargo segment expansion to more flights by both domestic and international airlines, including those specialising in freight services.

Currently, cargo flows into and out of Vietnam by less than 50 passenger and freight carriers, including Cathay Pacific, Eva Air, Korean Air, China Airlines, FedEx, Cargolux, Hong Kong Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, United Airlines, Thai Airways, Qatar Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Air France, Singapore Airlines and AirAsia. – Saigon Times

Tags: Trai Thien Air Cargo, Vietnam air cargo