Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
consequences that flows from the fact that such operations typically make use of
older Chapter 2 aircraft types, such as the narrow-bodied Boeing 727 or older vari-
ants of the wide-bodied 747 and MD11 (together accounting for 57 per cent of UK
air-freight uplift in 1998; DETR, 2000), and which are flown predominantly at night.
All modes of transport have negative environmental impacts, some immediate
and direct (for example, noise and air-quality impacts), while others (for example, effects
on climate change) are more distant and their significance still debated (Whitelegg,
1997; Royal Commission, 1995; IPCC SPM, 1999). The particular concern of this
chapter is with the shorter-term quality-of-life issues associated with the local impacts
of aircraft noise as a result of air-freight operations and the nuisance these cause to
communities around airports. After identifying current predictions for the growth
of air freight, the nature of this nuisance is considered and its significance to logistics
operators and their customers is discussed through case studies. A discussion of strat-
egies for the future explores how conflicts of interest might be resolved, ideally to the
mutual satisfaction of the air-freight operators, supply-chain customers and local
communities. Finally, a case study of strategies both proposed and implemented is
considered for an airport that has experienced dramatic growth of night-time air-
craft movements associated with air freight.
G
ROWTH
IN
AIR
FREIGHT
Although at first sight the recent annual growth rate for the world's air cargo market
of 5-6 per cent may not seem spectacular, a different picture begins to emerge when
it is realized that this is ahead of world economic growth by a factor of almost two.
The majority of air freight has, since the start of aviation, been 'belly-hold' freight
(where freight travels in the hold of a passenger aircraft on a scheduled flight across
an airline network). Industry forecasts predict that this form of air freight will more
than treble over the next 20 years (DETR, 2000; Boeing, 2001).
Over the last decade, the role of 'belly hold' has been challenged by the inte-
grated carriers (carriers who offer a predominantly 'one-stop' door-to-door service
using, as far as practicable, their own resources, including their own freighter air-
craft). They now have 9.2 per cent of the global air-freight market and a 5 per cent
share of freight tonne kilometres (FTKs), compared to almost zero two decades ago.
They have, on average, been expanding at an annual rate of around 24 per cent since
1992 (Boeing, 2001; Kingsley-Jones, 2000). Key players in this sector are DHL,
FedEx, TNT Express and UPS, who - between them - account for almost 83 per
cent of the integrator market place (Jones, 2001). Of these four, DHL leads the
international market with 38 per cent. Integrated operators are now forecast to grow
on average by 13 per cent per annum and to take a market share of 31 per cent by
2019; in addition, it is assumed that most of the operations underpinning this growth
will continue to be flown by aircraft that are already flying (freighter conversions of
current passenger aircraft) or that are in the fleet of these air-freight operators (DETR,
2000; Boeing, 2001).
The attractiveness of using an integrated carrier is based upon their offering of a
high-quality single-company point of contact for door-to-door delivery to the major-
ity of places worldwide within 48-72 hours, depending upon the distances involved
