Question 1: Turkey's total annual air cargo tonnage - import, export, transshipment?

Answer 1: Including third party and self-handling companies Turkey’s total annual cargo tonnage is 842.241 tons.

Question 2: International and domestic totals if known?

Answer 2:

Turkey Air Cargo Volume

2013       Tons                                                                        2014

Int           631.865                                                                 737.300

Dom       100.097                                                                 104.941

Total       731.962                                                                 842.241

Question 3: Ataturk tonnage for 2014 if known (ACI is slow to collect data and only has 2013 total).

Answer 3 : Including third party and self-handling companies Ataturk’s total annual cargo tonnage is

728.485 ton.

Question 4 : What is Turkey's GDP growth? What is the government doing to stimulate industrial manufacturing and what industries are seen as having growth potential? Could any of these help air cargo exports to grow?

Answer4 : Turkey’s GDP growth might be considered as 3,3-3,6% for this year. Especially construction, telecommunication and aviation industries are playing the leading role in terms of growth potential for Turkey. From a cargo and warehouse perspective, the one visible trend which is expected to shape the future of the industry in Turkey is the 3rd airport.  With the extended capacity and the growing trend of using Turkey as a cargo hub as it has become a passenger hub recently, we expect cargo handling tonnages to increase significantly and investments on transportation to the new airport by land, rail and vessel could be reached by experienced construction industry.

Question 5 : Celebi's share of the cargo handling market at Ataturk?

Answer 5 : Market share of Çelebi is around 55% for cargo handling at Ataturk. (Excluding TK and MNG)

Question 6 : Your year over year growth and current tonnage handled per month or per year?

Answer 6 : In the current situation we have a potential to handle 9.000 ton/month cargo at Ataturk.

As you know, cargo is of growing importance in the aviation sector as we can see from the upward trend of global FTK[1]; especially in the countries in which Çelebi Cargo is present. In terms of warehousing we are expecting to grow around 4-5% by year till the 3^rd airport launch.

Question 7 : Korean Air schedule and rotation? Other new customers in 2014?

Answer 7 : Korean Air has 6 flights per week and operating with 777-200 A/C type, no other new customers in 2014.

Question 8: Are you also handling cargo at Ankara and Izmir?

Answer 8 : Yes, we are handling cargo at Ankara and Izmir however we don’t have a warehouse facility at Ankara & Izmir.

Question 9 : Operating constraints at old IST facility? Have you expanded, relocated or both?

Answer 9: On the cargo side of the equation, we are facing a number of issues which can be regarded as problems. We have expanded and relocated our facilities.

E-Freight is a topic of hot discussions in the industry, and because of the bureaucratic customs procedures, to implement E-Freight realistically in totality will prove to be a bumpy road ahead.

The congestion of Ataturk Airport is a growing problem at this station with a recently broken record of a flight each 65 seconds.  The passenger congestion also reflects on the traffic on the air-side of the airport ranging from plane traffic to vehicle traffic.

Question 10: How do you operate? Do you feed on-airport forwarder facilities or deliver off airport, or do they collect (or all of these)?

Answer 10 : We do have an on airport facility. Import and export operations are separated to each other. For export, once we accept cargo. We measure their volume, weight and define the product type. Depending on reservations from our airline customers, we palletize the cargo which are done with all customs procedures and ready for export. On the other hand, for import, we receive the cargo from airline and de-palletize and settle them on racks in our import warehouse.

Question 11: How will your service improve following your investment? Are imports and exports more clearly separated? Have you upgraded IT?

Answer 11: Import and export operations are clearly separated from each other. In 2014 a project was initiated to renew the internal cargo operating system.  Proposals from local and international entities are being considered by Turkey Cargo and Global Cargo operations departments.

Question 12: What did you invest in the new facility? Why did you do this now if the new airport is coming so soon? How much physical equipment can you transfer when the time comes?

Answer 12: As you know, we have moved to our new import warehouse facility in March. Hence, we have reached the space capacity of 11.500m2. 2 new X-Ray machines which are conforming to US standards, 2 cold rooms (-5/+12 C and -20/+5 C) and radioactive room are some major investments for our export warehouse. On the other hand, 2 new reach trucks (9 meters), CCTV room, 6 tier-racks and radioactive room are some other investments for our import warehouse.

After our assessment, it is seen the fact that air cargo market is still not saturated yet. Due to increase in demand, we decided to do further investment for our new facility.

Question 13: Is there a synergy between cargo handling in IST, FRA and other locations you may develop? Does it benefit airlines or forwarders if the handler is the same at both ends?

Answer 13: There are cargo synergies between cargo handling in IST and FRA,  driven by cargo handling globalization. Streamlining and linkage of processes, completes the end to end service them, connecting the cargo handling in  two or more countries in relevant geographical regions, thus sustaining their costs, increasing level of service, and contributing to business growth. This concept is highly considered by Celebi when deciding cargo investments and expansion in the future to ultimately keep the end customer satisfied.