Domestic Air Cargo Industry in Australia - Bureau of Infrastructure ...

Occasional Paper 87OUTLINE OF THE PAPERThis Paper describes the development of Australia's domestic air cargoindustry, its current structure and operations and potential futuredevelopments.The two basic components of the air cargo market are freight and mail.The Paper concentrates on freight as it accounts for almost 90 percent of domestic air cargo traffic but there is also some discussionof mail. Although attention is focused on scheduled airlineoperations due to the availability of data, related activities such asfreight forwarding and charter operations are also discussed.The characteristics of air cargo, the comnodities involved and thesize of the domestic air cargo market are described in Chapter 2.There is also a discussion of traffic patterns and competing modes.The evolution of the regulatory framework and the development of theindustry up to 1978 are considered in Chapter 3 while later events arediscussed in Chapter 4. Legislative provisions are outlined and thereis a discussion of the impact of the two ai rl ine pol icy on the aircargo industry. Changes in air line operating strategies and equipmentare also described.Chapter 5 covers the current structure of the domestic air cargoindustry. The impact of fre ight forwarders and their links withcarriers are highlighted. Current operational practices areconsidered in Chapter 6 in terms of aircraft configuration, operatingcosts, freighter aircraft, service networks and capacity utilisation.Rating practices are covered in Chapter 7. The structure of freightrates, including the availability of discounts, is described and thereis a discussion of trends in rates in recent years.Chapter 8 outlines potential future developments in terms of marketsize and industry structure. A sumnary of the main points in thePaper is presented in Chapter 9.2