SHORT SHOTS

Payload Asia’s Don Urquhart quits
The news did not come much unexpected last week to most in the air cargo industry that Don Urquhart, Payload Asia’s Editor, had suddenly vacated his position at cargo magazine Payload Asia in Singapore.
No reason has been given for his departure other than a short note from the journal that “we wish to inform you that Donald Urquhart is no longer with Payload Asia with immediate effect.”
Don’s duties have been taken over for the time being by the editor of the journal’s sister publication, Logistics Inside Asia.
Rumours have it that Don Urquhart was not happy with the way things were being handled and that he himself just got up and quit on the spot.
Neither party were available for an official comment.

Sideral Air Cargo will add older B727 freighter
Brazil’s Sideral Air Cargo which is based in Curitiba and which operates with a fleet of 8 Boeing 737-300 and ’400 series freighters has now decided to add an aged Boeing 727-200 freighter to their fleet.
The aircraft which belonged to Rio Linhas Aereas, another Brazilian carrier, is undergoing maintenance and refurbishing in Brasilia and is expected to join Sideral’s fleet by the end of January or early February.

Express Air Cargo gets their first two B737s
We reported a few weeks ago that Tunisian start-up cargo carrier, Express Air Cargo, had applied for its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and its plans to operate scheduled cargo services from Tunis to various destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
In the meantime the carrier has taken delivery of its first B737-300QC which had previously flown for China’s Yangtze River Express and was converted by FL Technics in Vilnius. The Quick Change (QC) version can fly either in a passenger or cargo configuration.
The second B737-300 aircraft which was flown by Texel Air will be delivered as a full freighter after being converted and is expected to be handed over to its new owner in Tunis shortly.

TIACA partners with Canada’s Freight Forwarders
The Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA) has agreed to partner with TIACA at next year’s Air Cargo Forum which will take place in Toronto in October of 2018. The decision to cooperate was announced by Vladimir Zubkov who has just taken over as Secretary General for TIACA from Doug Brittin who has gone into retirement.
CIFFA will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year and will also host a conference at the TIACA / Multimodal Americas meet next year. CIFFA which was formed in 1948 represents around 260 international freight forwarding companies in Canada.

HACTL runs a record 2016
Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) increased their tonnage in 2016 by 1.7% compared to the previous year.
Total tonnage handled was just over 1.65 million tons, whereby transshipment cargo increased dramatically by +29.6%. Mail and courier traffic also went up - showing an almost 9% increase. The negative side was import cargo which declined for the total year by 8.3%. The Hactl figures show that although the first nine months had shown a negative trend, that the results of the last quarter bounced upwards to allow Hong Kong’s largest cargo handling entity to end the year on a somewhat positive note. A total of 2,579 all freighter aircraft were handled in November alone, topping the 2015 November figure by 15 percent.

John Mc Donagh