Brussels Hosts a Growing Cadre of New All-Cargo Airlines

One can never have enough cargo carriers in Belgium, it seems. The euro state is nurturing the birth of no less than three fledgling cargo airlines. Apparently all are determined to grab a share of the same market.

The start-up to watch could be Cargo B Airlines, which expects to begin operations in October with two leased 747-200 freighters. The aircraft are owned by 3P Air Freighters, an investment arm of Belgian bank, Petercam. A third freighter is planned for April 2008.

Most noteworthy about Cargo B is that Rob Kuijpers, former CEO of DHL Worldwide Express, will head the opeation.

"We see this as a golden opportunity in the Belgian market, which is singularly lacking in maindeck capacity," said Kuijpers. "There is also limited widebodied belly space following the demise of national carrier Sabena, which has not been replaced even with the launch of SN Brussels Airlines, which also has a more limited network."

After departing DHL, Kuijpers was for nearly four years executive chairman of SN Brussels. He resigned in September 2005 over apparent disagreements over future strategy.

Kuijpers believes his time with DHL will serve him best in launching Cargo B. It's not incidental, admits the former DHL executive, that the express operator will soon relocate its main European hub from Brussels to Leipzig in Germany.

"This will obviously leave a large capacity vacuum at Brussels, because DHL, besides handling its own express traffic, was also a significant provider of general cargo capacity for other carriers."

Kuijpers sees DHL's departure from Brussels as an ideal opportunity to enlist top-flight staff for his airline as well. DHL announced its departure from Brussels after failing to persuade the Belgian government not to impose a total nighttime flight ban. It was Kuijpers, it turns out, who fought on behalf of his former employer.

"I can't believe the Belgian government intends to sacrifice up to 6,000 jobs," he said.

Kuijpers insists the now-imposed night flight ban will not hurt Cargo B. "The strong likelihood is that we will begin with a rotation to points in West Africa, before continuing on to Johannesburg or Nairobi to pick up return loads of perishables," he said.

Initially, this will be a one aircraft operation, with the second aircraft on standby. "After Africa, we want to launch a similar operation to South America, carrying hard freight to, say, Sao Paulo and again returning with perishables by way of Quito or Bogota," he said.

From 2010, Kuijpers' strategy calls for the Cargo B fleet to be replaced with newer equipment, but he doesn't expect the fleet to grow beyond four or five aircraft.

Gorilla Competes

Another would-be Belgian cargo carrier is Silverfleet Airlines. Rather than wait for DHL to exit Brussels, the beast took advantage of the express operator's existing operation. Since January, Silverfleet has purchased block space on a four-times-weekly DHL DC-10 freighter flight between Brussels and Lagos, Nigeria.

Silverfleet GM Eduard Braken said this available capacity on DHL provided an immediate entry to Africa with up to four ULD positions on each flight.

"We've had delays initiating our own operation, so this has proved to be a very good interim solution," said Braken.

Silverfleet intends to enter the African cargo market for real this month with a 747-200 freighter leased from Evergreen Airlines.

"The original concept was to operate southbound services to Lagos and Brazzaville in the Congo and return by way of Johannesburg or Nairobi with perishables," but that was not cost effective, said Braken.

Silverfleet is the main shareholder of Brazzaville-based carrier Finalair. "The intention now is to use Finalair's (operating certificate) to operate internal routes within Africa, probably using a DC-8 freighter," said Braken. "These operations would then feed 747F flights to and from Brazzaville."