Liu Shaocheng, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Research Division said on Apr. 24 during the China Air Cargo Development Forum 2012 held in Tianjin that, the domestic air cargo enterprises need to make adjustments on five aspects in order to boost the sluggish Chinese air cargo market.

According to Liu, 10 airports among the top 20 airports by cargo & mail turnover volume reported negative growth in the first quarter of 2012.

"It was mainly caused by the combination of the economic contraction and the surging fuel price", Liu said. The overall growth of the market demand was slowed down by the shrink of the international trade. In addition, from January to March, the domestic jet fuel price averaged 7,735 yuan per ton, up by 34.9% compared to the same period of a year earlier. Meanwhile, impact from the high air transportation cost and the competition from other transportation methods could not be ignored as well.

Liu suggested that, the domestic air cargo enterprises should adjust their marketing strategies in the following five aspects: strengthening the marketing overseas; emphasizing on both the international and the domestic emerging markets; expanding the high-profit business such as air express and special goods traffic; developing the modern air logistics linking the supply parts and the demand parts based on air transportation and supported by the modern information technology; encouraging the merger and reorganization of the air cargo enterprises.

It is learnt that, the three-day China Air Cargo Development Forum 2012 is co-hosted by the China Air Transport Association and the Tianjin Transportation & Logistics Association. Themed after "building the Bohai Rim Area as an international airfreight hub cluster", the forum is planned to fuel the development of the air cargo industry in Northern China and to provide a communication and cooperation platform for the participants.