Capacity squeeze inevitable - Menen

The beleaguered airline industry can expect to see a reduction in capacity in the short term as carriers struggle to survive against a background of rising oil prices and static demand. That’s the view of outgoing divisional senior vice-president of Emirates SkyCargo, Ram Menen, who has steered one of the few airlines that has consistently shown a profit, despite the dismal global economic picture. “Freighters are far more exposed than combined passenger and freight operators, and we will see airlines grounded,” he told FTW. “In the short term it will reduce capacity and improve traffic volumes for the existing carriers – but in the long term, we need those freighters. The wheels of commerce will keep on turning and you need capacity to move the cargo.” Emirates has successfully managed to buck the global trend among airlines, with the group turning in a net profit of US$ 575 million for the first six months of its fiscal year that ended 30th September 2012. The secret, in Menen’s view, is geocentricity. “Our network is very potent. We connect all continents and multiple destinations. We are probably the fastest from anywhere to anywhere and we have the capacity to help markets grow. “Emirates has never been shy to put in capacity where it’s needed. We are very agile and we are constantly ensuring that we are firmly in control. “We are also not afraid of uncharted territory which is where we are most comfortable.” Several new destinations are on the radar, said Menen. “We recently started flying into Djibouti – and Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia will continue to be bright stars, having sustained the economic downturn better than the rest of the world.” CAPTION Ram Menen ... freighters will be grounded.