NEO Air Charter operated 60 widebody freighter charters in the first two months of 2024, to circumvent e-commerce supply chain problems caused by the Red Sea attacks on shipping, which have effectively closed the Suez Canal route.

The 60 B747F and B777F charter flights operated from Hong Kong to points in Europe, the USA and Central America. All flights carried full payloads of e-commerce traffic between multiple shippers and their consignees. In keeping with NEO’s strict trade-only policy, the charters were all booked via major logistics service providers.

READ: Mini freighters are answer for NEO automotive charters

“In case anyone was in any doubt, the Red Sea attacks are causing a lot of time-sensitive traffic to switch to airfreight,” says NEO General Manager Brian Davis. “We haven’t seen demand like this since the early days of COVID.”

READ: Bringing autonomous flights to airfreight

Notwithstanding the urgency of the traffic, shippers and their agents remain extremely cost-conscious, and shop around for deals, continues Davis: “NEO’s instant access to large-scale capacity was a strong factor in winning the business, but we still had to prove we were providing the most competitive quotes.”

2024 has started with a bang for NEO, which has also been handling record levels of traffic in other areas such as automotive and humanitarian aid. Concludes Davis: “We are recruiting extra staff to help us cope with the demand. This is shaping up to be the

best year since our launch in 2010.”