SHORT SHOTS

Cargolux introduces third weekly Ho-Chi-Minh flight
Cargolux Airlines, the Luxembourg-based all cargo carrier has just increased their operations from Luxembourg to Ho-Chi-Minh (SGN) from two to three weekly rotations.
The third weekly service departs LUX on Tuesday mornings, arriving Wednesdays in SGN after an intermediate landing in Doha.
The return flight routes back to LUX via Singapore and Baku.
Cargolux has been operating regular services to Vietnam since 2007.
Much of the cargo carried into this developing country is made up of consumer goods, spare part and machinery needed by local Vietnamese industries.
Cargolux also operates a weekly freighter service to Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, with a Boeing 747-8 freighter.

AirBridgeCargo moves Microchip production machines to China
Microchip production requires specialized state-of-the-art machinery in order to be able to turn out the millions of sensitive chips produced each day.
AirBridgeCargo has just completed delivery of these cutting-edge microchip machines on board two of their Boeing 747 freighter flights from Amsterdam to the Chinese city of Dalian. Each flight carried two of these sensitive and very expensive machines, which were packed in specially designed containers equipped with an internal climate control designed to protect them throughout the complete transport mode.
The machines were carried on behalf of one of ABC’s key customers, DB Schenker.
Joep Bruijs, Head of Airfreight Cluster Benelux at DB Schenker commented: “Safety, security, speed and reliability are the reasons why we chose AirBridgeCargo to carry out these very important flights.”

Fraport First Quarter figures show increased passenger traffic and lower cargo
The first quarter of 2016 showed Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt, reaching a new passenger record, while cargo figures again declined.
A total of 13 million passengers passed through FRA from January to March.
These were 417,000 more passengers, or plus 3.3% up on the same period in 2015.
Easter holidays started in March this year and this helped passenger figures to grow.
There were no strikes or weather related closures during March.
The March cargo figures show a total of 187,063 tons being moved. This reflects a decrease of 1.3 percent. Here, the Easter holidays were not positive for the cargo community as production slowed in March.

Qatar Airways goes for Express Services
Qatar Airways, which terms itself as the world’s third largest international cargo airline, has just introduced their own express cargo service.
It is called QR Express and is an airport-to-airport freight service aimed at time critical shipments.
QR Cargo’s customers can book time-sensitive shipments through a system that offers high boarding priority and rapid handling. The airline assures that this system has short and flexible close-outs, dedicated ramp transfer as well as priority loading at origin and unloading at destination.
The new QR Express product joins the QR Pharma, QR Fresh and QR Equine services.

Frankfurt-Hahn Airport passenger numbers now up - no mention of cargo
Hahn Airport situated near its large neighbour, Frankfurt-Main, also reports increased passenger figures but make no mention of how air cargo flows are at the airport geographically located between Frankfurt and Cologne.
The first quarter of this year showed that 524,000 passengers came through Hahn-Airport between January and March. This is a 12 percent increase on the same period in 2015.
Here also the early Easter holidays played a positive role.
The airport now offers a total of 50 destinations, the latest being with Ryanair to Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
The press release makes no mention of how the first quarter cargo figures rated.
Compared to the same period in 2015, they must surely be quite somewhat lower.

Unknown client order four B747-8Fs from Boeing
Boeing reports that a yet unnamed clients has ordered four 747-8 Freighters with a list price of around US$7.7 billion from the U.S. manufacturer.
There is some speculation as to who the mystery client could be.
Could it be Saudi Arabian Airlines who are busy with their cargo fleet expansion? Other names such as Silk Way, Air China Cargo, Cargolux and ABC have popped up. However, so far no information or denials have reached our ears.

Zimex Aviation adds an ATR-72 to their fleet
The Swiss based carrier, Zimex Aviation Ltd, which was originally founded in 1969, is adding an ATR-72 freighter to its fleet.
Zimex offers aircraft lease worldwide to the oil and mining industries as well as to humanitarian organizations.
The carrier’s main operating base is in the meantime at Oued Irara-Krim Belkacem Airport in eastern Algeria.
Apart from the newly acquired ATR-72F, Zimex operates a mixed fleet of smaller Beech 1900D, Twin Otter and Pilatus PC6 Turbo Porter aircraft.

John Mc Donagh