Cobalt Airlines suspends operations

If your away on holiday this is the news nobody wants to hear,  Your airline has ceased operations and you should not turn up at the airport as you will not be flying.

Yet again another low-cost charter airline appears to have gone to the wall,  and their have been a fair few of them this year.  What most people will not consider, and why would they, is the impact of losing niche carriers from the cargo scene.

Why would this matter to freight forwarders

Cobalt Airlines was a useful little ally in the world of cargo for those in the know.  Direct flights to Cyprus from four airports in the UK.  Nice onward connections into several countries where rates are fairly high on mainstream carriers.   Based in Larnaca quite good connections speeds as the airport doesn’t handle a huge volume of cargo.

Pretty much a win, win situation and one which is replicated across a few airports in the Mediterranean but not all as polished as Cobalt seemed to have it.

Not all low-cost airlines carry cargo,  Easyjet and Ryanair factor that the turn around in transit times is much more of a factor than carrying cargo but for an island like Cyprus you can see the attraction.  As a country that imports considerably more than it exports and within easy reach of several countries it makes an ideal transit location.

Cobalt Airlines best route for UK cargo may well have been Tel Aviv,

The Tel Aviv connection was probably the route which was most of interest to UK freight companies.  Swift connections at highly competitive rates it allowed Freight Forwarders to avoid the likes of B.Airways and El-Al into the bargain.

Not that either airline are particularly bad at what they do but they operate the route at high capacity with rates that are more in keeping with the type of cargo they are looking to attract.

Not every freight forwarding company looks at niche carriers and the routing selection criteria across many freight companies can be quite complex.  Rebating, volume bookings,  P.B.’s, & Space allocation are all important criteria, especially for the bigger freight companies.  Those that provide the more personal touch and look at quality of service ahead of rate rebates may feel that the loss of Cobalt Airlines is a real shame.  Especially any who had cargo transitting on the evening of the 17th October.