1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
SAINTS TRANSPORT Although the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
an 0.8% drop in air freight volumes in June — the first for three years — Steve Beeches, chief executive at Colnbrook, Berks-based Saints Transport, is sanguine. Accepting air freight reacts quickly in times of economic downturn, and with 35 years in the market, he takes a longer view. "It's the first to suffer because of cost, but the first to recover. Every year for the past 25, air freight has had a strong last quarter and an apprehensive first quarter. In the third quarter, there's generally no downturn: any slump is more likely after Christmas. Our business has been increasing month on month, but we work for bluechip airlines and forwarders —we have an exclusive contract with BA and 21 years' unbroken service with it. We've had no downturn yet, because of whom we work for: were not complacent."
However, he is aware that while large in UK terms, Saints is dwarfed by the multinational market leader, DHL.
Saints has seen growth in imports of perishables, mainly food from Africa, adding temperature-controlled vehicles to its fleet in
consequence, and also shares in the market segment no one wants
to emphasise: the large amount of airline freight that travels throughout Europe entirely by road. Beeches expects to see a drop in ad-hoc consignments.
"Our smaller vehicle are more likely to lose work. Large vehicles are in constant demand, the courier side has dropped," Saints has trucks based at most major UK airports serving a mixture of hold and dedicated freighter traffic. The firm's size allows it to pick up airport-related jobs, such as moving aircraft spare parts and inter-airport freight transfers.