Airlines face a major overhaul of their cargo operations or risk the freighter plane becoming a thing of the past. They've already been reducing their freighter fleets, but more drastic changes to shorten transport times and regain ground lost to the shipping industry.
Nowadays, US$6.8 trillion worth of goods are transported by air cargo every year, representing 35 per cent of international trade by value but only 0.5 per cent of total volumes.
With paperwork increasing, the average time it takes to shift a product from the manufacturer to the final importer stands at 6.5 days, compared with Lufthansa Cargo's boast in the 1960s that the process took only three days, reported Reuters.
The volume of high value goods such as electronics have also become smaller, meaning they take up less space and do not need dedicated freighters for transportation.
These trends are pushing companies such as AstraZeneca, Ericsson and Sony to transport more of their pharmaceuticals and electronics via sea freight at lower cost.
In addition, growing demand for passenger planes means more freight is being transported in bellyholds.
The International Air Transport Association, meeting this week in Doha, predicts cargo volumes will total about 52 million tonnes this year, effectively unchanged since 2010.
"The industry needs a structural redesign," director of cargo industry management at IATA Glyn Hughes said.
"Most are losing money and they respond by cutting capacity to try to break even to survive this slump," said director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, Andrew Herdman.
IATA pointed out that just 14.3 per cent of contracts, known as airway bills, were in electronic form in 2013, short of its target of 22 per cent for 2014.
"As an industry we've been pretty much doing the same things for 50 years, and I think anything like this is a sizeable change," Mr Hughes said.
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