HNA Group, which is saddled with one of the highest levels of debt in corporate China, is in advanced talks to sell its Swiss cargo handler, Swissport, to Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Bloomberg reported. The Canadian asset manager has emerged as the preferred bidder for Swissport International, the report quoted people as saying. Read more>
Even if the Cool Logistics Conference in Antwerp is traditionally maritime oriented, in its 10th edition air cargo was able to slip in through a debate on the supposed competition with the ocean mode for pharma shipments. Read more>
Chinese carrier Uni-top Airlines will operate B747 freighter services between Kunming in China and Dubai, UAE.
Announcing the new service, the carrier's vice president Yang Fan, who was attending an air transport conference held by Chinese Yunnan provincial delegation in Dubai, said the
thrice-weekly service will support the development of civil aviation and trade between China and the UAE. Read more>
Liege Airport has cemented its MoU with Russian carrier AirBridgeCargo into a strategic agreement for the next 10 years. This is expected to move LGG up into the top-5 of European cargo airports by 2020. Read more>
The new Saudia Airlines Cargo service “Fly Express” offers customers high priority status for airport-to-airport transport of urgent international shipments weighing up to 300 kilograms. Latest acceptance time of the goods is three hours prior to the departure of the booked flight. Read more>
IN BRIEF, THE LATEST CARGO AIRLINE INDUSTRY NEWS. Read more>
Japan's Yamato Holdings has teamed up with Bell Helicopter Textron of the U.S. to jointly develop an unmanned "flying truck" as the logistics industry turns to technology to overcome a shortage of workers, Kyodo News reported. Read more>
Rome-based forwarding agent World Cargo S.R.L. has purchased its northern Italian competitor Esse Emme Transporti Aerei Internazionali (S.R.L.). Through the acquisition World Cargo grows its business and expands its reach to Milan and Bologna, the operational centers of Esse Emme. Read more>
Azerbaijani private cargo airline, Silk Way Airlines, has strongly refuted claims in several online articles that it made numerous secret flights to transport hundreds of tonnes of weapons from Bulgaria to ISIS terrorists in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries between 2014 and 2017. Read more>
Time is getting short for the EU and the United Kingdom to come to terms on an acceptable departure of the UK from the European com-mon market. With now just six months to go before the UK is slated to move out, there still seems to be no real movement by each side to come to terms. On the contrary, the fronts have hardened and industry leaders as well as the common folk are getting extremely nervous. Read more>
An aircraft made of silk fibers? What sounds like an unpalatable sci-fi story could became reality within the next decade. Thanks to a start-up named AMSilk that succeeded in creating an advanced composite fiber based on spider silk. The Planegg near Munich-based company has signed an agreement with plane maker Airbus aimed at jointly launching a prototype composite material for aircraft production next year. Read more>
India's Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating bilateral air services agreements signed with West Asian countries between 2001 and 2012 as well as aircraft purchases by the state
owned Air India during that period, the Economic Times reported, quoting people with knowledge of the matter.
Besides examining the “policy decisions” taken by officials, ED has sought documents from the civil aviation ministry as part of its probe into the procedures followed by the Congress-led
UPA governments (2004-14). Read more>
