SHORT SHOTS

WCA holds its first Worldwide Conference
WCA World with their more than 5.300 members across 190 countries and which claims to be the world’s largest independent freight forwarders association, has just held its first worldwide conference in the Middle East.
The conference which was sponsored by Etihad Airways was held in Abu Dhabi.
A total of 2,585 members representing 1.358 companies from more than 100 countries turned up for the seven day one-on-one and networking sessions.
WCA’s new consolidation exchange platform, Consol2Xchange, was also launched at the AUH venue. The platform enables members to search, negotiate, sell and purchase consols online.
The WCA managers also came up with a new initiative which is said to help members become proactive leaders ready for future e-commerce logistics.
David Yokeum, WCA’s Supervisory Board Chairman sees that freight forwarding will be 20% e-commerce driven by the year 2020.
WIN is which a member of WCA and is an online platform for independent freight forwarders, announced during the meeting that they would give all WCA members free access to WIN’s e-Air Waybill platform for the rest of the current year.
The platform connects to more than 90 airlines worldwide.
Dan March who was previously WCA’s Communications Director was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

IL-76TD is a popular freighter in Moldovia
Another Moldovian air cargo carrier, Oscar Jet based in Chisinau, has acquired their first aircraft, an Ilyushin IL-76TD freighter which can carry up to 40 tons of cargo. The aircraft which made its first flight on March 3, is registered as ER-IAX and will be available for charter work in the region.There are another three IL-76TD operators in Moldovia and all are based also at Chisnau Airport. They are Aerotrans Cargo (ATG), SkyPrim Air (KPM) and Air Stork.

Kale Logistics again voted best IT Solution Provider
The Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at this year’s 6th Indian ICC Supply Chain meeting held in Mumbai has recognized Kale Logistics as ‘Best IT Solution Provider’ for the 7th year in a row.
Kale has been recognized many times at prominent industry forums for its innova-tive IT solutions that help drive efficient processes.
The award went to Kales again for their innovations and initiatives during the past year.
The ICC states that they give this prestigious award to IT service providers for work done in creating global industry benchmarks and adopting industry standard best practices in delivering Logistics IT solutions to the Indian logistics community.
Seems that Kale is way out front there.

SWISS post operating profit for 2015
The Swiss national carrier - Swiss International Airlines achieved an operating profit (adjusted EBIT) of 453 million Swiss Francs in 2015.
This is a 34% improvement on their 2014 results and claimed to be the third best operating result in the company’s history.
Swiss feels that it is well positioned for the future as it continues to rearrange its processes and organization as part of the Lufthansa Group’s competitive strategy.
The fleet renewal is within plan for this year with the arrival of the first of its new flagship, the Boeing 777-300ER. A total of nine of this type will enter into the fleet, giving the carrier also more belly capacity for cargo.
The company which employs over 8,500 staff expects to add another 800 jobs by the end of 2018.
There were no specific cargo results mentioned in the company release on its 2015 results.

MASkargo to operate only A330 freighters in future
The air cargo arm of Malaysian Airways plans to retire their two Boeing 747-400 freighters and concentrate all cargo operations with their fleet of four Airbus A330-200F aircraft. One of these A330’s is presently on lease to Turkish Airlines.
The MASkargo A330F fleet will be operated on intra-Asian routes such as India, China and Japan. It was just over a year ago that Malaysian Airlines said their cargo operations would be restricted to the holds of their passenger aircraft. This thinking has now changed somewhat and it is expected that the carrier will in future look for block-space agreements with other B747F airlines to Europe and North America

Other Chinese logistics companies looking at IPO’s
China’s SF Express recently took the lead in going for an International Public Offering (IPO) and it seems that others are considering following suit.
CargoFacts reveals that Hangzhou based YTO Express Airlines is considering an IPO on the Shanghai stock market.  Also, that the Shanghai based ZTO Express considers a listing in both Hong Kong and the  United States.
Shun Tong (STO Express), also with its base in Shanghai may well be the first of all four companies to list themselves by the end of this year.

Chilean Airways Cargo to become airborne
Chilean Airways, which is based in Iquique and which presently operates a single passenger Boeing 737-200, has now added a 64-year old Convair CV-580 freighter to its fleet. The aircraft, which has the manufacturers serial number 29, was recently ferried from Miami where it had undergone repainting.

John Mc Donagh