SHORT SHOTS

Lufthansa Cargo appoints new Operations Chief
As of 1. April 2016 Lufthansa Cargo’s Executive Board will be strengthened by the addition of Soeren Stark as board member responsible for Operations.
Mr Stark will leave his present position at Lufthansa Technik where he is in charge of aircraft maintenance and cabin modifications.
Soeren Stark, who has been with Lufthansa for the past 28 years will succeed Dr. Karl-Rudolf Rupprecht who will go into retirement at the end of coming March and has held the OPS position since 2011.
Harry Hohmeister, Member of Lufthansa’s Executive Board praised the contribution Dr. Rupprecht has made as regards positioning LH Cargo as a recognised leader in quality. At the same time he lauds Mr Stark’s past experience in logistics and the management of large operational areas, which he feels will be of great value in guiding LH Cargo further in the coming years.

Hahn Airport appoints new Sales Chief
The personnel carousel at Frankfurt Hahn Airport takes another turn.
John Kohlsaat has been appointed as Senior Vice President Sales. He will be responsible for both passenger and cargo sales at the Huensruck airport.
There have been rumours in the past weeks that the Hahn management plans to restructure their sales department once again.
Mr Kohlsaat succeeds Thomas Kurzweg who only held the position for a few months. Kurzweg has in the meantime taken up a new position at Leipzig/Halle Airport.
John Kohlsaat who previously held positions with Easyjet and Germania will be supported on the cargo sales side by Roger Scheifele who has held the position of Senior V.P. Sales Cargo in Hahn for the past few months.

IAG Cargo appoints new CEO
Andrew Crawley who is currently Chief Commercial Officer at British Airways will succeed Steve Gunning as CEO of IAG Cargo.
Mr Crawley will take up his new position on 1. January 2016 and reports directly to the IAG Chief Executive, Willie Walsh.
IAG Cargo also announced last week that they are adding three new routes on their Latin America network in order to cater for the increased demand for pharmaceutical uplift.
Two new routes from London Gatwick to San Jose, Costa Rica and Lima, Peru as well as an additional Madrid to San Juan, Puerto Rico will start as of summer next year.

Jettainer takes up ULD management for Thomas Cook Airlines
The Thomas Cook Group Airlines, of which Condor is a member, have signed a new agreement with Jettainer for the management and maintenance of all containers and pallets for the group.
Jettainer already has such an agreement with Condor and the new deal also adds Thomas Cook Airlines UK and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia to the list.
The agreement covers the steering, positioning, repairing and maintenance of over 1,800 ULD’s for the group.

Sweden’s WACA Airlines get La Poste contract
The French Postal Service - La Poste - in a surprise move has awarded Sweden’s West Atlantic Cargo Airlines (WACA) the contract to carry post from Paris CDG Airport.
The decision has met with strong objections from ASL Airlines France who have petitioned La Poste to reconsider their decision.
ASL, formerly known as Europe Airpost, in a statement issued by their union has described the deal as being socially destructive and which could result in the loss of almost 470 jobs at ASL if the deal starts as planned on 1. January 2016.
WACA is no stranger in flying post around Europe. They operate various mail contracts in Scandinavia which also include a deal recently signed with Norwegian Post.

TNT is fined in French competition case
France’s Competition Authority (FCA) announced on 15. December that they have ordered TNT to pay a fine totally €58 million in relation to alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the French parcel delivery sector.
The authority claims that the fine relates to breaches made before 2010.  TNT states that it has cooperated fully with the FCA in this matter since investigations began in 2010 and that they had in 2014 entered into a settlement agreement with the FCA and had booked a provision of €50 million as a settlement.
TNT however, still wishes to review the FCA decision.
The FCA fine on TNT is just a part of a total €672 million fine imposed on 20 logistics and freight forwarding entities in France. These include such high-ranking names as DB Schenker France, DPD France, DHL Express and FedEx France.

Kalitta pilots vote to authorize a strike
The US based all cargo carrier which has its HQ in Ypsilanti, Michigan is facing possible strike action by its pilots. A majority (213 - 7) of pilots voted for strike action due to their claim that the company management is delaying with their response to union wage and benefit proposals. The delay, they claim, has been going on for more than two and a half years.
Kalitta which operates a fleet of Boeing 747Fs serves various routes on behalf of DHL and other clients.
The pilots have given their management a last warning and also informed Kalitta’s clients that strike action is imminent.
The Kalitta pilots also got support from their colleagues at Atlas Air, ABX Air, and Southern Air, that in the event of a strike they also would pledge solidarity with Kalitta’s pilots.

Yangtze River Express to start passenger operations
The Chinese cargo carrier which is based in Shanghai and operates a fleet of three Boeing 747-400F‘s as well as fourteen B737-300Fs, has now announced it will start passenger operations within China with a B737-800 aircraft.
Yangtze had recently been given authorzation by China’s CAAC to expand their operation to include scheduled domestic passenger services.

Finnair Cargo gets new Head of Global Sales
As of early January 2016, Fredrik Wildtgrube will become Finnair Cargo’s new sales boss.
His appointment to Head of Global Cargo Sales was welcomed by the Finnair VP head of Cargo, Janne Tarvainen.
Mr Wildtgrube brings a wealth of logistic and sales experience with him, having spent many years with freight forwarding companies and most recently at Nokia and Microsoft Mobile

John Mc Donagh