The Swedish air freight industry

Abstract

This study offers a complete description of the airfreight industry with specific relevance to Sweden. The study was done to satisfy the conditions, the way these were specified by its sponsors, Swedish Institute for Communication Analysis (SIKA) and the Swedish Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA). Further, the completion of the study fulfills the requirements of the Gothenburg Graduate Business School for the Masters Program of Logistics and Transport Management.

An introduction to the two main topics investigated in the work along with the methodological framework is presented in Part 1. The findings of the research on the first topic, titled Air Cargo Industry: structure and behavior (found in Part 2), elucidates the structure and behavior of the Swedish Air Cargo Transport Industry. Work in the second topic, labeled as Cost Structure (found in Part 3), identifies the cost structure of the industry and explains the complexities entailed in the task of defining these costs.

The study proceeds in Part 4 with the classification of sub-problems that contribute to the lack of information exchange, among the participants of what is defined as the traditional air cargo transport flow. Such classification leads to the identification of current activities executed by these industry participants that result to inefficiencies in the system. The study concludes with a recommendation supporting a process that will assist the re-engineering of the traditional air cargo segment of the industry.