Singapore Airlines Cargo

Singapore Airlines Cargo
IATA ICAO Callsign
SQ SIA SINGAPORE
Founded 1988
Hubs
Secondary hubs Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Fleet size 7
Destinations 19
Parent company Singapore Airlines Limited
Headquarters Singapore
Key people
  • Goh Choon Phong (CEO)
  • Chin Yau Seng (President)
Revenue Increase S$2,220.1 million (FY 2017/18)[1]
Operating income Increase S$148.1 million (FY 2017/18)[1]
Profit Increase S$139.0 million (FY 2017/18)[1]
Employees 841 (FY 2017/2018)[1]
Website www.siacargo.com

Singapore Airlines Cargo (abbreviated as SIA Cargo) was a cargo airline based in Singapore. It was a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and was incorporated in 1988.[2] SIA Cargo operated seven dedicated freighter aircraft and also manages the bellyhold of all NokScoot, Singapore Airlines, Scoot and SilkAir aircraft.[3] Its head office is on the fifth floor of the SATS Airfreight Terminal 5 at Singapore Changi Airport.[3]

On May 2017, Singapore Airlines announced that SIA Cargo will be re-integrated as a division within the SIA group, expected to be completed in the first half of 2018, after which SIA Cargo will become the airline's cargo division.[4]

History

Singapore Airlines Boeing 707-320C freighter (9V-BFN) at Zurich Airport in 1979.

In July 1992, Singapore Airlines created a cargo division to complement its passenger-carrying business. However, it was not until 1 July 2001 that Singapore Airlines Cargo was incorporated, taking over the air-freight operations of Singapore Airlines as a separate subsidiary. SIA Cargo leased the entire freighter fleet from Singapore Airlines, as well as taking over management of the cargo holds in all of Singapore Airlines' passenger aircraft. Within a few months, it entered an alliance with Lufthansa Cargo and SAS Cargo Group to form WOW Alliance on 1 October 2001.[5]

SIA Cargo's warehouse in Singapore, dubbed SIA Superhub 1, was opened in 1995. This warehouse is capable of handling up to 450,000 tons of goods a year. In 2001, the SIA Superhub 2 was opened which increased the capacity to over 1,200,000 tonnes per year.[6]

New routes were introduced in the next few years as the airline began to take advantage of liberalised aviation agreements. A round-the-world service was introduced on 31 October 2001, flying from Singapore to Hong Kong, Dallas, Chicago, Brussels, Sharjah, and back to Singapore on Wednesdays, and on the Singapore-Hong Kong-Dallas-Chicago-Brussels-Mumbai-Singapore route on Fridays.[7] It became the first third-country freighter airline to fly direct between China and the United States on 22 May 2003 when flights commenced from Singapore to Xiamen, Nanjing and onwards to Chicago. Return flights are operated from Chicago and Los Angeles to Nanjing.[8]

In December 2008, Singapore Airlines Cargo was alleged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to be a participant in a price fixing cartel in the air cargo industry. The ACCC accused Singapore Airlines Cargo of fixing the price of a fuel surcharge and a security surcharge that was applied to air cargo to and from Australia. Singapore Airlines Cargo was the third airline to be the targeted for fuel surcharge price fixing.[9]

In May 2010, Singapore Airlines was fined by the Fair Trade Commission of South Korea for conspiring to introduce fuel surcharges for freight cargoes or continued to raise them over the past seven years.[10] Singapore Airlines Cargo released a statement saying that it was "very disappointed" and would "study the decision closely with a serious view towards mounting an appeal" once it received the Commission's full reasoning.[11]

In November 2010, the European Commission fined Singapore Airlines Cargo 74.8 million euros for its involvement in a global cartel that included ten other carriers. The Commission found that the carriers—including SIA, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Air Canada, Air France-KLM, and British Airways—had fixed fuel and security surcharges for more than six years. Singapore Airlines Cargo said it would likely appeal the ruling.[12]

On 30 November 2010, Singapore Airlines Cargo pleaded guilty to a US$48 million fine imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice for its role in a conspiracy to fix cargo rates since February 2002, until at least 14 February 2006. Singapore Airlines Cargo's price fixing was in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum fine for corporations of US$100 million.[13][14]

In December 2013, Singapore Airlines Cargo agreed to settle over the issue of price fixing in the United States, without admitting to any wrongdoing or liability. Numerous airlines, including SIA Cargo, saw class actions taken against them in 2006 following investigations by various competition authorities on price fixing in air cargo services in the US. SIA Cargo decided to accept an amicable resolution to settle the class action with the payment of US$62.8 million.[15]

On 12 January 2017, Singapore Airlines Cargo was the first airline in the Asia-Pacific region to be awarded the IATA CEIV Pharma Certification, a globally recognised pharmaceutical product handling accreditation.[16]

In May 2017, parent Singapore Airlines announced it would dissolve Singapore Airlines Cargo as a separate company by mid-2018. The freight operations will be reintegrated as a unit into Singapore Airlines.[17]

In 2017, Singapore Airlines Cargo renewed of its partnership with Rolls-Royce to transport Trent 1000 aircraft engines from the latter’s Seletar Assembly and Test Unit in Singapore to Boeing 787 production facilities in the USA. SIA Cargo also provided charter services to carry state-of-the-art racing equipment for several global sporting events and to transport concert equipment for several high-profile artists.[18]

Destinations

As of 31 March 2018, Singapore Airlines Cargo offers dedicated freighter services to 19 cities in 13 countries and territories, including Singapore.[19]

Singapore Airlines Cargo (SIA Cargo) offers more than 900 flights a week from its hub at Changi Airport, linking more than 70 cities in over 30 countries across 6 continents with its fleet of dedicated Boeing 747-400 freighters and passenger aircraft in the SIA Group, whose belly hold cargo space SIA Cargo markets. Sharjah, Amsterdam, and (to a lesser extent) Brussels are hubs for the Middle Eastern and European regions respectively. Additionally, as SIA Cargo manages the cargo holds of all Singapore Airlines passenger aircraft, the company offers cargo product services to all destinations on the Singapore Airlines passenger network.

Codeshare agreements

Singapore Airlines Cargo codeshares with the following airlines:

Fleet

Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-400F

As of 30 April 2018, the Singapore Airlines Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft:[22]

Singapore Airlines Cargo Fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Notes
Boeing 747-400F 7 —
Total 7 —

Fleet development

In 1992 SIA Cargo bought a Boeing 737-300 from WTC. The aircraft was only in service with Singapore Airlines for four years before being sold in 1996. When incorporated in 2001, all nine of Singapore Airlines' Boeing 747 freighters were transferred to the new cargo start-up at market value, and henceforth, all new freighter purchases were to be made from the new company's books.

The SIA Cargo Boeing 747-400Fs have a maximum payload of 112 tonnes and a maximum range of 8,230 km. They feature typical capabilities such as front loading from the nose, temperature control and pressure-regulation systems. Despite the increase in payload offered by the Boeing 747-8F, which can carry up to 140 tonnes of cargo, SIA Cargo has announced that there are no plans to acquire them. According to the then-CEO Chew Choon Seng of Singapore Airlines, “We [Singapore Airlines] are not convinced about the additional expenditure that would be needed to renew the freighter fleet with 747-8 freighters, when the tradeoffs in terms of operating efficiency is rather marginal, in our view. So we do not need that."[23]

Due to the financial crisis in the late 2000s, there was a drop in global demand for freight.[24] SIA Cargo had since parked freighters at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California from January 2009 until February 2015 to reduce capacity. SIA Cargo had also phased out its Boeing 747-400BCFs. In addition, the company manages the cargo holds of Singapore Airlines' and Scoot's passenger aircraft. These offer a cargo capacity of 9-23 tonnes per aircraft depending on type.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Annual Report FY2017/18 - Singapore Airlines" (PDF). Singapore Airlines.
  2. ↑ "Our Company". www.siacargo.com.
  3. 1 2 "List of Aircraft on Singapore Register" (PDF). CAAS.gov.sg. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. 30 September 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  4. ↑ "Singapore Airlines to re-integrate SIA Cargo division". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 28 May 2017. It flies under the name of Singapore Airlines now. The brand Singapore Airlines Cargo doesn’t exist anyomore.
  5. ↑ "Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo - Alliance Enters the Market" (Press release). Singapore Airlines Cargo. 26 September 2001. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  6. ↑ All Freight Solutions - SIngapore Airlines Archived 2013-10-05 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 October 2013
  7. ↑ "DFW Welcome Singapore Airlines Cargo" (Press release). Singapore Airlines Cargo. 31 October 2001. Archived from the original on 17 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  8. ↑ "Singapore Airlines Cargo Commences Direct China-US services" (Press release). Singapore Airlines Cargo. 22 May 2003. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-10.
  9. ↑ "ACCC institutes proceedings against Singapore Airlines Cargo Pte Ltd for alleged price-fixing" (Press release). Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 22 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-08-22.
  10. ↑ "South Korea fines airlines". Air Cargo News. 27 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  11. ↑ "Singapore Airlines Cargo dismayed by FTC fine". Singapore Business Review. 28 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  12. ↑ Kaur, Karamjit (10 November 2010). "SIA Cargo to appeal ruling". Strait Times. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  13. ↑ "SINGAPORE AIRLINES CARGO PTE LTD. AGREES TO PLEAD GUILTY TO PRICE FIXING ON AIR CARGO SHIPMENTS" (Press release). Washington: U.S. Department of Justice. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  14. ↑ "SIA accepts US$48m fine". Washington: Strait Times. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  15. ↑ "SIA Cargo pays S$78.5 million to settle class action suit over price fixing in United States". Straits Times. 22 December 2013.
  16. ↑ "SIA Cargo Becomes First Airline in Asia-Pacific to Obtain IATA CEIV Pharma Certification". www.siacargo.com (Press release).
  17. ↑ channelnewsasia.com - Singapore Airlines to re-integrate SIA Cargo division 19 May 2017
  18. ↑ "Annual Report FY2016/17" (PDF).
  19. ↑ "Network". www.siacargo.com.
  20. ↑ GmbH, DVV Media Group. "NCA and Singapore to form strategic cargo partnership ǀ Air Cargo News". www.aircargonews.net.
  21. ↑ "Japan's NCA, Singapore Airlines Cargo ink partnership deal". ch-aviation.
  22. ↑ "Singapore Aircraft Register" (PDF). www.caas.gov.sg. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
  23. ↑ "SIA to phase out passenger 747s by 2011 and rejects 747-8F". Flight Global. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  24. ↑ "Global air cargo demand 16.5% below June 2008 level". airportwatch.

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