Etihad Rail is in discussions with airport authorities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to build dedicated rail logistics parks to sit alongside Abu Dhabi International Airport and Dubai World Central, boosting the UAE's integrated trade infrastructure network.
The concept for the two facilities was launched at meetings with relevant stakeholders in late 2013, according to John Lesniewski, Etihad Rail's director of sales and commercial agreements.
“We’re in the concept design of these things as we speak,” he said, noting that the centres would operate alongside existing logistics hubs at the two airports and offer multi-modal solutions to third party logistics providers.
Such centres would offer greater flexibility to third party logistics providers to be able to offer customers a range of logistics options encompassing air, road and rail, as was currently the case in other international hubs such as Forth Worth Alliance Airport in Dallas.
The centres are unlikely to be launched before the completion of the UAE’s national railway network, slated for completion in late 2017/early 2018, said Mr Lesniewski.
He was speaking at the Middle East Air Cargo Logistics Exhibition and Conference, held yesterday in Abu Dhabi.
Logistics parks connecting both rail and air networks would positively impact the country’s air freight sector, according to David Kerr, vice president of cargo at Etihad Airways, which has been party to discussions on the new centres.
“Clearly rail is a high-volume business, and air freight globally is only 1 per cent of the global logistics platform. But if you start to integrate that, any growth in any kind of multi-modal area that taps into the air freight market is going to be good news,” said Mr Kerr.
Etihad’s cargo tonnage increased by 32 per cent to 486,753 tonnes last year. Increases in tonnage in 2014 so far were ahead of global industry averages said Mr Kerr, declining to give further details.
Global air freight demand was up 3.6 per cent in the first two months of this year compared to 2013, Iata said last week.
Etihad’s air freight capacity is forecast to rise by 14 to 15 per cent this year, boosted by organic growth across its network, together with the delivery of a new A330 freighter aircraft in May, Mr Kerr said.
News of the mooted rail logistic centres alongside the airports comes two months after Abu Dhabi Ports Company announced its plans to link its facilities in Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad) and Khalifa Port to the national rail network.
The rail connection into the Abu Dhabi industrial zone is expected to be completed by 2017.
Kizad has already handed over about 85 per cent of the first phase of its Logistics Zone, said Charles Acworth, Kizad’s acting VP for project development.
Work on the second phase of the zone will commence later this year, and is expected to be completed by February 2015, he said.
Etihad Rail is testing and commissioning rail freight services on phase A of its rail network, running from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais, with a view to launching services by the end of the year.
The company last month announced a contract with DB Schenker, Europe’s largest railway company, to operate and maintain the first phase of the network.
Etihad Rail will award a tender for the second phase of the rail network – stretching between Ruwais and Ghweifat on the Saudi border – either this quarter or next, with construction due to commence in the second half of the year, said Mr Lesniewski.
The completed UAE rail network is part of a GCC-wide rail project, due to be connected in 2018. Bahrain's minister of transport earlier this year admitted that its rail link with Saudi Arabia may not be completed according to schedule, with Kuwait and Oman also reported to be facing delays.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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