Insolvent airport Hahn is due to get a new owner, provided the deal is rubberstamped by judges and the German Federal Government. Russian oligarch, Viktor Charitonin is set to become Hahn’s new boss. The 50-year-old is currently ranked 66th on the Russian Forbes list, with personal assets totaling EUR 1.29 billion (USD 1.4 bn), insiders even speak of EUR 5.5 billion. Since he successfully masks his assets, probably only he himself knows exactly how rich he really is. Read more >>

An emotive image made the rounds on social media this week – the trace of the maiden flight of the last Queen to leave the production site in Everett, Washington, where the iconic Boeing 747 had been manufactured since 1967, in the world’s largest building (by volume) that had been erected especially for the task. To commemorate the occasion, the crew flew a special flight path drawing a huge crown in the sky along with the numbers seven - four - seven. Read more >>

The distance in space between Argentina and the UK (12,207 kilometers) is nothing compared to the distance in time between now and the life of the creature whose replica contents travelled in 32 boxes on board of two British Airways Boeing 787-9 aircraft, recently (95-100 million years). It isn’t every day that you get to transport a dinosaur cast in air cargo. IAG Cargo had the honor, on behalf of London’s Natural History Museum, which had appointed the cargo group back in NOV22 as its official exhibition logistics partner for the upcoming exhibition “Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur”. Read more >>

Digitalization delivers data which in turn delivers efficiency and discloses areas for improvement. Lödige Industries has started the year with the intention to maximize on both. It has joined Cargo iQ as a handling solutions expert member on the one hand, and secured a contract to furnish Cainiao’s Smart Gateway in Hong Kong with a smart handling system, on the other. Read more >>

With an EBIT of EUR 17.5 billion (USD 18.5 billion), the shipping line made a record profit in fiscal 2022. In addition to positive figures, CEO Rolf Habben Jansen also revealed plans to set up a subsidiary for port infrastructure and terminal operations. The executive indicated this during a meeting with media people last week in Hamburg. Read more >>

The appointment of Peter Gerber as the new head of leisure carrier Condor is a sensation in the German and European aviation landscape. The former CEO of Lufthansa subsidiary, Brussels Airlines, will take over Condor’s chair in exactly one year from now, following a contractually binding “cooling down” period. His departure obviously caught Lufthansa by surprise since the airline did not present a successor when Gerber announced his step. To fill the vacant position, Lufthansa nominated Group Board member, Christina Foerster, as interim CEO to run the Belgian subsidiary. Read more >>

For Airbus P2F converter, Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW), it is an unusual premiere: The very first re-delivery of an A330P2F to the original aircraft producer Airbus, and the subsequent delivery of the aircraft by owner Airbus to Turkmenistan Airlines. The central Asian carrier was a loyal Boeing customer thus far but will now operate an Airbus aircraft for the very first time. Read more >>

The provincial Walloon Government has decided to limit the number of aircraft movements at Liège Airport to 55,000 per year. In its first permit, the politicians intended to cap ops more radically, allowing only 50,000 annually for reducing noise and greenhouse gas emissions caused by air traffic. In an initial statement, airport spokesman Christian Delcourt reacted cautiously positive to the government’s decision. Read more >>

Things are moving on the autonomous cargo aircraft scene. In the same week that MightyFly unveiled its second-generation eVTOL and Natilus announced that Ameriflight has agreed to buy 20 of its autonomous feeder cargo aircraft, news outlet Nikkei Asia reported on a hitherto unknown Chinese cargo drone start up, AirWhiteWhale, which has plans that could bring serious weight into the competition. Read more >>

The Dutch carrier has placed a firm order for four Airbus A350 freighters, with the first of the aircraft arriving in Q3 of 2026, followed by the other units in 2027. Once in operation, they will replace the current Martinair Cargo (MP) fleet of one B747-400BCF and three B747-400 ERFs. The order is also life insurance for the airline, which has had a very checkered history since its inception back in 1958 by Dutch entrepreneur, Martin Schroeder. In 2008, KLM took over Martinair. Read more >>

Over 1.25 million officially declared dangerous goods shipments fly on board of the world’s airlines every year. In an industry where the number one rule is ‘Safety First’, the correct identification and handling of dangerous goods is a crucial skill – one that is strictly regulated, requiring clear, solid training and regular refresher courses. Until recently, all dangerous goods training was classroom-based. An enterprising 3-person team successfully endeavored to take it online just prior to the unforeseen outbreak of the global pandemic. CargoForwarder Global (CFG) spoke to Lisa Milton Horner (LMH), Director of Dangerous Goods Online Training Ltd. about its recent IATA accreditation and how online training functions. Read more >>

The Danish ocean freight giant, Maersk, intends to rebrand its logistics subsidiaries. Affected by the decision are most of the company’s 234 affiliates. Among the prominent members of the Group together with Damco and Safmarine, is shipping line, Hamburg Süd. Just six years after the 3.7 billion euro valued takeover from the Oetker industrial consortium was cut and dried, Maersk announced that the name of the iconic container liner will disappear. Exactly 152 years after the naval company’s inception. Read more >>

The paper is a dramatic wakeup call, addressed to European and German politicians in particular. “Enough is enough; we must actively do much more than we have done so far to combat global warming,” the text reads. The instruments for this have long been available, but policymakers are not implementing them or are only listlessly doing so in response to public pressure, criticize the authors. As a result, meeting the Paris climate targets is becoming an illusion. Read more >>

The freight carrier adds Liege and Basel to its European destinations serviced with cargo aircraft. Deployed will be a Boeing 767-300F, capable of uplifting 50+ tons per takeoff.
The new service complements the existing flights to Frankfurt and Madrid. Once LGG and BSL are served, the number of freighter flights between the carrier’s main hub Toronto Pearson Airport and European cities will grow to nine per week. And more are to come, announce Air Canada officials. Read more >>