Admittedly, this is a very provocative headline, but justified by the outcome of a survey initiated by CHAMP Cargosystems. It concludes that the traditional revenue/cost scheme in air freight has had its day. The company’s point: Shipment data, reflecting the business of their 20 top clients, evidence a clear trend: “the number of air waybills rises steeply while the weight of consignments flown aboard aircraft shrinks continuously on a global scale,” CHAMP helmsman, Arnaud Lambert, explains in a bilateral talk with CargoForwarder Global. Read more >>
Nostalgic, but true! The Dutch airline Martinair Holland (MP) was along with its counterparts Cargolux (CV) and German Cargo Service (GCS) - today’s LH Cargo - seen as being one of the important pioneer air-lines which together formed what we see as today’s air cargo industry. All three carriers started flights to the Middle East and later the Far East offering so called ‘split charter services.’ It was the DC-10 that became the Dutch carrier’s cargo workhorse during those early cargo pioneering days. Two of these former MP oldies are still in service, thanks to Texas-based Omega Air Refueling.
Even though Lufthansa Cargo's youngest subsidiary, heyworld, is only six months old, its business is growing at a phenomenal rate right from the start, Managing Director, Timo Schamber, confirms. The volume of parcels and e-commerce packages managed in 2019 will reach seven-digit dimensions, he states. Newcomer heyworld fills a niche in e-commerce services rendered by well-established cargo carriers and integrators. Read more >>
Each year, the 7th December is designated as International Civil Aviation Day. Though the day itself has only been celebrated as such since 1994 (the 50th anniversary of the signing the Chicago convention), ICAO celebrates its 75th anniversary this year – hence the chosen motto. Read more >>
IN BRIEF - THE LATEST AIR CARGO INDUSTRY NEWS
The European Commission is upgrading its air cargo security legislation. A brief outline was presented on 4 December at an event organised by Airlines for Europe (A4E) in
Brussels.
The association was incepted in 2016 and gathers members from full-service and low-cost carriers. Their common aim is to stimulate changes that will increase the member’s competitiveness
and result in lower air fares, reduce airport and air traffic control costs and lobby the completion of the much discussed Single European Sky. Read more >>
Service provider LUG air cargo handling will handle Delta shipments at Rhine-Main Airport effective January 15, 2020. The acquisition adds substantially to LUG’s volumes processed at their Frankfurt warehouse due to the large lower deck capacity offered out of FRA by the Atlanta-based carrier. From there the carrier flies three times daily to Detroit, Atlanta, and New York with a mix of A330 and B767 aircraft. Read more >>
Only recently, the fast-growing Qatari airline announced a massive route expansion to Latin America starting mid-January 2020 and operating from Doha with stopovers in Luxembourg and Liège. The new destinations serviced with a Boeing 777 freighter are Bogotá, Colombia / Lima, Perú / Santiago de Chile and Viracopos in Brazil. Read more >>
IATA-strategic partner, Airport College International, recently teamed up with Merlintech FZE in the UAE, choosing the long-standing Finnish company with Middle East expertise to represent the college’s eLearning services in the Gulf. Read more >>
Three years ago, pharmaceuticals accounted for a meager 0.5% of AirBridgeCargo’s total annual sales. Today, this specific special product contributes nearly five percent to the carrier’s revenues. A clear lesson learned from this development: ABC will take a U-turn in its product philosophy, concentrating primarily on transporting more prosperous high-yield shipments instead of putting general cargo up front. Read more >>
Reports from Hong Kong suggest that the very existence of the city's third largest carrier, Hong Kong Airlines, is under threat, while flag carrier Cathay Pacific has announced capacity cutbacks to cope with declining demand as a result of the citywide anti-government protests, which have paralysed the city for almost sixth months. Read more >>
The launching contract for the Airbus A321 passenger to freighter (P2F) conversion was announced in early 2018 by means of a joint venture between Germany’s Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), ST Aerospace and Airbus. The launching customer was France’s Vallair Solutions which placed an order for 10 A321-200 converted aircraft. Read more >>
Ground handler Swissport’s brick and mortar strategy continues unabated. After inaugurating a state-of-the-art Pharma Center at Brussels Airport (CFG, 29th Oct), the Zurich-based handling heavyweight, together with investor Fraport AG and the Goldbeck construction company, laid the foundation stone for a 17,000m² cargo facility at Frankfurt’s CargoCity South. Once operational, it will increase Swissport’s handling capacity by almost 50 percent. Read more >>
IN BRIEF - THE LATEST AIR CARGO INDUSTRY NEWS Read more >>
Air cargo contributes relatively largely to the economy and prosperity of the Netherlands, two separate studies have revealed. The conclusions were communicated by the minister for Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen in a letter to the Parliament. Read more >>
