Hello everyone. In the past, in order to fight the epidemic in China, people all over the country cooperated to fight the “epidemic”, and now it has finally achieved initial results. However, there are more and more new cases in foreign countries. This is very distressing. Not only because of the possibility of increasing domestic imported infections, but also because this epidemic is a global situation and a problem that affects all human beings. We must all be strong and fight this battle with all our hearts and souls.
At the same time, a phenomenon caused by this situation in China is that domestic suppliers of epidemic prevention materials have received a large number of orders from foreign customers. Millions of orders rushed abroad. It just so happens that the Civil Aviation Administration has also limited the frequency of scheduled flights for the sake of epidemic control. As a result, a lot of goods are hard to find. But the demand for anti-epidemic materials is huge, and the required timeliness are high, so what should we do? As a result, many people thought of the plan of chartered export.
The charter plan has to be said to be a very good idea. It was good at the beginning, but later the charter resources became more and more tight, and the price of charter flights continued to rise like general cargo. The Civil Aviation Administration still welcomes such adhoc applications for cargo charter flights. Therefore, the charter flights for the past two months are like spring after rain, and they are pouring out intensively. It is said that the average daily number of cargo planes in Shanghai in April reached more than 200 sorties, which doubled from the previous month and increased by 140% year-on-year.
For the sudden increase in demand for charter flights, do we know anything about charter flights? What are the current charter forms? Let’s talk about it today. Today’s content is a little jerky, and my friends pick up your paper and pen and record it.
Before we start talking, we must clarify the definition of charter. The so-called charter flight will have different interpretations in the eyes of people with different roles. In the eyes of the agent, chartering means: I have chartered the entire aircraft or part of the aircraft. The parts of my bag are only available to me. There are two definitions involved here, one is called Full Charter and the other is called Partial Charter. Generally speaking, the charter plane we are talking about now has this meaning. The other scheduled flights are ordinary commercial flights.
However, in the eyes of airlines or the Civil Aviation Administration, charter flights do not necessarily mean this. For example, an airline company applied for an adhoc charter flight right to operate in a scheduled mode. That is to say, there is a scheduled charter flight in operation, but the traffic rights of this flight are not fixed and are applied for separately. The CAAC has the right to withdraw this air right at any time. To give a specific example: an XY airline, on the CAN-FRA route, uses 777 to fly all cargo planes three times a week. Then, from the agent’s point of view, it means that Airline XY has scheduled commercial flights three times a week. In fact, because Guangzhou’s slot is too tight, it cannot fully meet the requirements of three shifts a week. However, during this time, a certain airline temporarily withdrew from the market and had a temporary slot. Therefore, one of the three classes of all-cargo aircraft does not have fixed air rights and schedules, but can only fly in the form of adhoc adhoc or charter flights. In the eyes of airlines, such a model is two scheduled commercial flights + one charter flight. It’s just that the charter time is a little longer, but the air rights are unstable.
In this case, the airline can flexibly call this temporary charter flight, and can directly declare it to be a scheduled flight, or, when necessary, can directly turn it into a whole-class charter flight to the agent.
Now the Civil Aviation Administration welcomes this temporary cargo charter model, so now the entire market is flooded with all kinds of temporary charter flights. This is definitely a good thing for freight. We don’t need to care too much about whether we fly a commercial flight or a temporary charter flight. As long as the position is confirmed, in fact, any aircraft is the same. How is the position implemented? Isn’t that simple? That is, the booking is timely, and the payment is fast.
Well, next, we have to look at the lease of the aircraft, what the general form will be. At this time, we have to introduce two concepts. Generally speaking, aircraft leasing is divided into wet lease (Wet Lease) and dry lease (Dry Lease). The so-called wet lease is when the principal leases the aircraft together with the crew. Dry lease is the opposite of it, only the bare metal of the aircraft is leased, with no crew.
Wet leases are actually relatively common and well understood. Because since I want to rent a plane, I definitely want to save trouble, so you can rent the crew to me together. But since dry rent exists, it must be reasonable. For example: a certain airline company operates a CAN-FRA passenger route, but recently the planes have been repaired and no planes are flying, so it may be necessary to rent other people’s planes. However, the crew did not go to maintenance, and they could go to work normally, so there was no need for the crew of the other party. They simply rented bare machines, and then the crew was still their own crew. That’s what dry rent means.
Back to the cargo charter. When we really want to lease an aircraft, in addition to the price, there are several factors that must be clarified. If we lease the aircraft directly from the charter company, we must ask in advance whether the aircraft has the air rights of the origin and destination, whether the ground service agreement between the origin and destination is complete, whether it is equipped with corresponding operators, and whether the contract How to sign, what route, what type of aircraft, what time, what payment requirements and a series of factors. Of course, if you are chartering to other agents, it is much simpler. Usually these elements are already complete.
Let’s take a look at how these factors affect the operation of a charter flight:
- Origin and destination traffic rights: This is easy to understand, right? Without air rights, what about charter flights?
- Ground service agreement: This may be ignored by most small partners. What kind of agreement is this? These are the agreements signed between the airline and the origin and destination regarding ground operations. Including which warehouse is to be handed over, who will make the board, who will load and unload the goods, and what equipment can be used? Is there anyone who performs pre-flight inspections (maintenance) and other ground operations. If there is no such agreement, then no one will help you to operate the flight, and even if you have a plane, there is only one empty plane. But having said that, before applying for air rights, the ground service agreement should be applied first, because there is no ground service agreement, and air rights will generally not be approved.
- Have the right people: Different aircraft operate in different ways, so are the people who operate this aircraft qualified? Have experience? These are also things we need to figure out.
- How to sign the contract: Are the rights and responsibilities on the contract clear? Are the rights and responsibilities of the lessor and the lessee clearly written? Is it a full package or a half package or what?
- Route: Although this seems to be a very mentally retarded question, it is actually necessary to clarify. For example, does the charter plane have any intermediate stops? Is it a technical stop or what? This also involves cargo security issues.
- Model, time, payment requirements: these are also very obvious reasons.
Of course, price is also an important factor. But there is also a point to pay attention to, that is, you must know the price of the corresponding model in the current market, and then decide which charter plane to use. Because sometimes, for some cheap charter flights, his plane is not very stable. Suppose you ask for a charter flight of USD2 million. For the same model, someone will quote you USD1.5 million (yes, the general charter flight is US dollar quotation), then it is necessary to find out. Assuming that you are actually signed a contract of 1.5 million, if someone bids more than you, then the plane will fly to other people, and your charter time will be postponed. Is it unkind to do so? In fact, this is not the case. This principle is the same as when we do general goods. The one with the higher price gets it. No one will do business with 2 million yuan and do not do business with 1.5 million yuan, right? Therefore, sometimes, if it is really not cheap, it must be a good thing. Guys, you must pay more attention.
We now return to the problem mentioned at the beginning of the article. Now foreign demand has surged, leading to an explosion in air freight demand. So, how do we seize this business opportunity? If we have the resources of a mask factory, and we are doing air transportation, wouldn’t it clear the previous obstacles? If you can directly connect with foreign buyers, then you can go to the pinnacle of life and marry Bai Fumei. . . No, you can do more value-added services for customers?
So the question is, although overseas buyers are in great demand, where to find these overseas buyers? What platform can I use to let more people know that I have a supply? Smart people are never short of channels. They are now using modern technology to help them find buyers precisely. You are more than welcome to talk with me for more detials.