Abstract : Air transport industry has gradually increased its share of global passenger and freight traffic, and this trend has accelerated in the last 40 years. For the past decade, air-freight traffic growth has outpaced air passenger traffic growth by 1-2% each year. In the past, air-freight sector offered limited services, with heavy reliance on several intermediaries and a significant dependence on air passenger operations. The sector can now be characterized as a sophisticated, innovative one, relying heavily on new electronic technologies, offering a wide range of transport and logistical products through dedicated specialist freight operators. With increasing emphasis on the globalization of trade and economic activity, air-freight growth is expected to continue to outpace air passenger traffic growth. The air-freight growth is expected to be greatest in the Asian markets (intra- -Asia; North America-Asia; Europe-Asia and Australasia). The process of physical distribution of freight has become a highly sophisticated operation, with increasingly greater reliance being placed on the use of new technology to assist in the movement, storage, and tracking of consignments. But transport is just one component in this logistics chain. In this paper, air-freight sector is examined in terms of its structure, organization, its role in the supply chains, the main trends in the recent period, constraints facing the sector and the future prospects in air-freight sector.
? Many of the initiatives have been extensions or modifications to existing strategies that have been used in previous market downturns, but which, as has been seen, have not prevented long-term financial problems for the airlines.
? This raises issues as to the nature of markets that are generally served by a relatively small number of large network carriers, often involving alliances between them.
? A degree of competition exists between the various alliances for the trunk hauls market, and there is also competition at either end of routes with many other, including low cost, carriers competing for passengers in overlapping feeder and origin-destination traffic to international hub airports.
? Security problems are a significant factor constraining the growth and development of both express operations and Air- Trucking.
? Impact of the range of services in the express and small package market.
? Within Europe, competition from surface modes has had, and will continue to have, a downward impact on air-freight growth rates.
? Others have questioned the loss of natural lands, population displacement issues, problems linked to excessive aircraft noise and general lack of urban ambience associated with the aerotropolis model of development.
• Globalization means erasure of national boundaries for economic purposes; international trade (governed by comparative advantage) becomes inter-regional trade (governed by absolute advantage).
• In practical terms, internalization is technically what has largely been occurring in the World with the development of agencies such as the World Trade Organization. Perversely, globalization has been more narrowly geographically concentrated, for example within the EU area. We use the term „globalization? here in is broader sense.
• While it can be used to generate large profits, and this has been done in many industries, its main purpose in air transport is to generate sufficient revenue to earn an acceptable return after all costs, (including those of capital) have been covered.
? Integrated carriers now offer multimodal services that take advantage of the distance, cost, and time trade-offs offered by different modes.
? The advantages offered to the shippers through movement by air include speed, particularly over long distances, lower risk of damage, security, flexibility, accessibility for customers, and good frequency for regular destinations.
? For integrated operators, the guaranteed delivery and the facility to track consignments gives customers additional advantages over standard air-freight carriage.
? This optimism is due to the fact that carriers are currently upgrading their fleets with passenger planes that aircraft manufacturers are converting with more fuel-efficient engines, and on the other side we have more products that accommodate increasingly higher payloads.
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