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Gulf conflict upsets networks - and fleet size - of biggest feeder operators

The US-Iran conflict and subsequent closure of the Hormuz Straits have upended the networks, and fleet deployment strategies, of the world's three largest common feeder operators - and seen AD Ports' Global Feeder Services significantly close the gap on the market leaders. According to new analysis from Alphaliner, the Middle East conflict, now in its eighth month, has forced the two largest operators, X-Press Feeders and DP Worldm to reduce their offered capacity as the closure of Gulf routes curtailed their networks. "X-Press Feeders remains the world's largest feeder operator by deployed capacity, although its fleet has contracted by 7.1% year on year, as per Alphaliner's survey on 21 September," the analyst writes this week. "Fallout from the Middle East conflict forced X-Press to make service cuts across the region, which is the main reason for the decline." As a result, X-Press Feeders' global capacity is now 182,776 teu, down 13,987 teu from September 2025, with its capacity serving the Middle East region down 34.2% - equivalent to 38,000 teu - which Alphaliner linked to service suspension in the wake of the conflict. To offset this, it has increased capacity in the intra-Europe trades by 7.4%, and intra-Americas by 17.7%, and has even taken the unusual step, for a feeder operator, of joining a deepsea Asia-Europe service, via the deployment of the 4,800 teu X-Press Odyssey on the China-Mediterranean CEX service, jointly run with China United Lines, Uniglory, and Global Feeder Services. Meanwhile, DP World's global capacity, largely made up of the Unifeeder fleet, fell 2.5% during the year, a "modest overall decline, also driven by the Middle East conflict", said Alphaliner. It added: "Its deployed capacity in the ME/ISC related trade fell by 7,500 teu, while its operated capacity in all other regions remained broadly stable year on year. "Most of the cuts came from Gulf-related loops," Alphaliner wrote, noting it had largely redeployed capacity to the Asia-India trade, as well as to a number of extra loaders serving the ME/ISC trade. However, Emirati compatriot Global Feeder Services (GFS), owned by AD Ports, in what appears to be a commercial strategy that closely resembles that of DP World, saw its capacity jump by 31%, and its fleet is now only a fraction behind that of its rival - just 2,800 teu smaller - after it doubled-down on serving the India-Middle East trade corridor. "The ME/ISC trade remains GFS's core market and accounted for the bulk of its growth, in contrast to X-Press Feeders and DP World, which both reduced their presence there," said Alphaliner, calculating that GFS's capacity on that trade grew 26.9% and now accounts for around 70% of its total fleet. "While its two main competitors scaled back in the region, GFS kept its network largely intact. The carrier replaced Gulf calls on existing loops with Red Sea ports, and extended its reach into neighbouring trades. "As a result, GFS has overtaken both rivals to become the largest of the three in the ME/ISC trade, ahead of X-Press Feeders (about 73,500 teu) and DP World (about 70,500 teu)," the analyst added.

The challenge presented by road feeder slot management systems

Slot management systems seem to make perfect sense by helping avoid congestion and delays at cargo handler facilities by managing truck arrival times, but there remain plenty of challenges with the solutions. At last month's Aviation Connect event in Athens, Ivan Santoro, head of sales at Road Feeder Service (RFS) provider Georgi Transport, described slot management systems as "challenging". The first issue, he said, was that slots were sometimes not available at the times required to meet schedules. However, the biggest challenge is the fact that trucking operations are dynamic and the systems are not always able to take into account the fluid nature of road transport. "We cannot predict what is happening throughout the trucking journey," he said. "Sometimes the arrival times are unpredictable - you have a slot that is meant to start at a certain time, but they can be stuck in traffic. Things like that make the entire operation more challenging." John Dowds, senior vice president, service delivery for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at cargo handler WFS agreed that improvements could be made. "Sometimes we put staff on that are expected to interface a truck that isn't there for whatever reason," he said. "A lot of this data is available, real-time data - the messaging systems allow for us to know if it has been delayed or a potential estimated time of arrival. "And then on our side, honouring the bookings but also holding to account the large number of no-shows." He added: "Most of the problems we incur and see on both sides are fixable. There is nothing insurmountable that I can see, but we have to be aligned." Santoro added that some of the challenges stem from the fact that RFS providers have no contractual link to the cargo handlers; they are both suppliers to the airline. Jason Breakwell, group commercial officer at RFS firm Wallenborn, added that the agreements that the airline has with the RFS provider and the handler often don't match up in terms of standards. He called for the recently launched International Road Feeder Association (IRFA), of which Wallenborn is a founding member, to look into creating a Standard Ground Transportation Agreement that aligns with the Standard Ground Handling Agreement. On the challenge of monitoring truck progress and updating handlers on arrival times where there are delays, Narendra Wadhwa, managing director of RFS firm Airlift Services India, said that his company monitored the progress of its vehicles in three ways. It uses GPS systems, drivers' mobile phones and road tolls, which are all connected with the company's Transport Management Systems. "We are working on the ability where the standardised messaging (SDM) goes to the airline system without us having to trigger anything. "The airline can choose how often the system is updated, for instance every two hours or 30 minutes, so a customer sitting anywhere in the world tracking an RFS in India can see it on the airline portal without having anything to do with us." There was also a call for airports to be involved in any discussions on slot management systems as they are often the ones that manage the road infrastructure around the airport and may need to provide truck parking areas and associated control mechanisms to ensure the drivers aren't arriving too early and unnecessarily taking spaces. One of the key tasks of the IRFA is indeed to develop standards for slot allocation. Elsewhere, the IRFA will look to develop a standard contract and service level agreement; data standards for cargo on the road to support real-time cargo visibility; sustainability; and improve driver access to facilities at airport cargo terminals. The IRFA said that slot allocation at airports is one of the biggest challenges faced by RFS operators, which "lose many truck and driver hours due to insufficient slot allocation at airport cargo terminals...which often further can lead to service failures as flight connections are missed or ready for pick-up promises not met". "[The] IRFA wishes, with the ground handlers, to create solid standards for slot allocation for truck loading and off-loading, reducing service failures and increasing service efficiency," the association said.

AI could cut eight hours off air cargo collections, says handling chief

Artificial intelligence could save around eight hours per air cargo shipment, by allowing truck dispatch and collection planning to begin before the traditional release-order trigger. At Aviation Connect in Athens last week, CHI Cargo Group CEO Kai Domscheit said the air cargo industry was generating vast quantities of operational data, much of which remained trapped in emails, PDFs, scans, spreadsheets, and other unstructured formats. "The future of air cargo is not going to be a single platform," he said, arguing that the SaaS model was "dead". "It'll actually be an ecosystem, with AI bots speaking to each other." But Mr Domscheit urged that the first step towards meaningful automation was not deploying AI, but making the underlying data usable. "You need to get unstructured data structured. You need to put a context layer over it. Then you can start predicting. And once you've done that, only then you can start playing around with automation." The scale of the problem was illustrated by a single ULD, which Mr Domscheit said could generate more than 100 information flows at different stages of its journey, involving airlines, handlers, forwarders, airports, and other parties. He highlighted several examples at Frankfurt, including release orders that indicated cargo was ready when operational checks had not been completed; unclear information about whether cargo was loose or in a ULD; and multi-master shipments where not all the necessary release forms were available. The resulting inefficiencies included additional storage charges, empty truck runs, and wasted time, he said. Mr Domscheit said handler CHI had analysed the sequence of events around import cargo at Frankfurt and found information was available well before the release order. Under the current process, the release order acted as the trigger for dispatch, but he said AI could allow operators to anticipate the shipment, aircraft arrival, unloading and breakdown stages, and begin planning in parallel. "We could take this and move it [up to] 10 hours," he said. "We can work in parallel." However, despite these promising advances, Mr Domscheit cautioned against viewing AI as a straightforward replacement for people. "We still have the human in the loop," he said, adding that employees who embrace AI could become substantially more productive. The presentation also struck a more cautious note on physical automation. Humanoid robots may eventually play a role in air cargo, but Mr Domscheit said the industry should focus first on preparing its operations and data. "Treat data as a strategic asset, and prepare them properly - because it's all about data."