ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is about air cargo in mainland China and Hong Kong. Following the deregulation of its domestic aviation business in the 1980s, China has developed a highly fragmented airline industry with about three dozen carriers, some with only two or three planes. The resulting competition and overcapacity have brought financial losses to the industry and have contributed to a drop in productivity. The emergence of globally integrated, just-in-time production and distribution systems and the emergence of e-Commerce and e-Business over the last two decades have made air cargo in general, and air express in particular, the fastest-growth area in the cargo sector. The subject matter of the book is air cargo. It should therefore be no surprise that authors will be covering aviation industry and policy in the mainland and Hong Kong.
