VN Cargo's new joint venture at Tansonnat airport, TCS, is handling 100 tonnes a day.Air Cargo volumes on the Hong Kong-Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) sector have become an industry anomaly of late.
While almost all routings from the territory have realised burgeoning cargo transport numbers, air freight to and from Vietnam in general, and HCMC in particular, is waning. The market that reached 3,742 tonnes in 1996 is projected to generate under 3,000 tonnes this year.
Volumes that are being transported between the two cities appear to be moving increasingly on foreign airlines, as national carrier Vietnam Airlines (VN) has seen its market share slip to 26.5 per cent in the first half of 1997 from an estimated 40 per cent in 1996.
Cathay Pacific (CX) recently started flying A330 equipment daily on the routing in tandem with VN's daily B767 flights in accordance with a 50-50 revenue-sharing agreement the two have. By virtue of CX's larger onward network, it generates 60 per cent of the market's volume, according to Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department statistics. These statistics are restricted to carriers operating according to fourth freedom rights.
In a bid to regain some of its lost market share, VN Cargo plans to increase its number of sales agents in Hong Kong and begin marketing HCMC's Tansonnat International Airport as a viable trans-shipment hub for Indochina-bound cargo.
"To some extent, the market decline was a natural reaction to Hong Kong's handover of sovereignty, as Hong Kong businessmen who had been investing in Vietnam waited to see what would happen," VN deputy-general manager, Phan Truong Son told Cargonews Asia. "We have also discovered that we may not have enough sales agents in Hong Kong, so we are looking to expand that base by utilising more of the territory's top 10 forwarders."
VN Cargo, whose parent company is the government's third biggest revenue generator, presently uses DHL and HECNY as agents in Hong Kong.
It is also focusing a portion of its marketing strategy towards attracting ex-Hong Kong cargo bound for Phnom Penh and Laos' capital Vientiane. The airline was in the process of ironing out the latter details of a twice-weekly, four-tonne capacity converted AN26F service from HCMC to Cambodia's capital when the recent coup forced the project to be delayed.
Tansonnat airport's trans-shipment potential was greatly enhanced this past January by the opening of the Tansonnat Cargo Service Company (TCS) facility. TCS is a joint venture between the Vietnam Airlines Group, Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) and the VN Group's profitable duty-free and restaurant subsidiary Southern Airport Services Co (SASCO).
VN-SASCO control 70 per cent of the venture and the remainder is SATS, with SASCO's share representing less than the Singaporean company's.
Situated on a 10,000 square-metre lot, the US$15-million, 3,000-sqm handling facility is capable of an annual throughput of 100,000 tonnes. At present, it is realising about 100 tonnes a day, split 65-35 import-export.
Cargo is handled on fully automated conveyor belts, with dedicated co-loading and perishable facilities that are compatible with B747 pallet dimensions available for imports or exports.
With two hours prior notification, TCS can trans-ship containerised cargo from one flight onto another in half an hour, provided the paperwork is in order and flight schedules co-operate, according to a VN Cargo representative at TCS.
Unbondable bulk cargo takes at least three times longer, he said. All Customs inspection is manual and no electronic pre-clearance or Customs brokers are available.
Son estimates that 30 per cent of exports and 22 per cent of imports at TCS are generated by VN Cargo, but that airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France and Singapore Airlines are the facility's next biggest customers.
With this state-of-the-art facility on line, and the Vietnam government projecting 28 an 14 per cent year-on-year growth for exports and imports, respectively by year end, the recent sectoral decline may yet prove to be a short-term setback.