SHORT SHOTS

IN BRIEF, THE LATEST AIRLINE INDUSTRY NEWS.

LH Cargo recognizes Premium Road Partners
A first time official recognition by Lufthansa Cargo of their Road Feeder Services (RFS) partners has just been set into motion.
The carrier is honouring the cooperation with its logistics partners with a “Premium Road Partner” accolade.
Key factors in the recognition are punctuality, reliability and flexibility.
LH Cargo’s RFS partners move around 600,000 tonnes of cargo per annum for the German carrier. This amounts to 65,000 scheduled RFS movements within Europe and a further 26,000 outside of Europe.
Lufthansa Cargo had already signed contracts with the FRS providers in 2016 and this new recognition of their services is seen as a sign that LH will continue the cooperation during 2017.

China’s SF Express shares up by 10 percent
The fast expanding Chinese freight and small packages handling entity, SF Express, started trading on China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange recently and already reported a jump of 105 in share value during the first days of trading.
SF Express is also the moth company of SF Airlines which now operate a fleet of 37 Boeing 757 and 737 freighters to more than 20 destinations within China and regional southeast Asia. Their main client is Alibaba, the Chinese e-Commerce giant who is said to have plans to expand also into Europe and the USA.
In other Chinese air freighter news - YTO Express has partnered with Xi’an-based China Northwest International Cargo Airlines and both will form an operating joint venture in the near future.

Air Astana expands FRA cargo handling contract with FCS
The Kazakhstan-based Air Astana which has been operating passenger services to various European destinations for some years already, has announced that it has extended its cargo handling agreement with Frankfurt Cargo Services (FCS) for a further unspecified period of time.
Both companies have been working closely together for some years and Air Astana was recognized by FCS during December of last year as being their fastest growing client as far as annual tonnage (percent) increase was concerned.
Air Astana operates long-haul services with a mixed B767 and B757 fleet. The Frankfurt - Astana route is served daily with a B757 in winter and the B767 in summer.

American Airlines Cargo loves the UK
During the first week of March the American Airlines United Kingdom cargo team broke another daily handling record in the country.
In a single day, just under 490 tonnes of air cargo was moved through the AA cargo UK facilities. This, they state, breaks the previous daily record set back in August of 2016.
The figure includes just about 277 tons of exports to the USA along with a further 215 tonnes of imports on daily flights.

UPS creates new e-commerce hub
The U.S. freight carrier UPS has decided to erect a new 78,000 sq meter facility in Salt Lake City which will be four times larger than their present premises there.
The expansion programme is geared towards being in a position to handle goods in the region with the expected e-Commerce boom within the USA.
The new facility, which will be able to handles up to 69,000 packages per hour, is expected to go into operation by the end of 2018.

QR Cargo flew horses to an equestrian event in Doha
Qatar Airways Cargo has transported more than 100 horses from Amsterdam to Doha and back for the annual CHI AL SHAQAB event held in the Qatari capital from 2 – 4 March. The equestrian event consisted of three days of Jumping, Dressage and Para-Dressage, where the best national and international horses and riders battle for one of the most coveted titles in the equestrian calendar. CHI AL SHAQAB is the first equestrian competition of its kind in the Middle East and Asia to be sanctioned by the FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale or International Equestrian Federation) and one of only four CHI equestrian events in the world.
The team handling live animals is thoroughly trained each horse is treated with the utmost care and attention. So our customers can count on us for the safe and reliable transportation of their thoroughbreds,” said Qatar Airways’ Chief Officer Cargo, Mr. Ulrich Ogiermann.
Meanwhile, the horses were flown back to Amsterdam on board the carrier’s B777 freighters.

Recent Movements
Etihad Airways Cargo took delivery of the last of its five ordered Airbus A330-200 freighters from the Toulouse-based manufacturer.
The Abu Dhabi based carrier now has five B777Fs and five A330Fs in their fleet.

Titan Airways who are based at London Stansted Airport has just got their first B737-400 freighter. The aircraft was converted from passenger to freighter (P2F) in Tampa Florida.
Titan is an ACMI and charter airline, which also operates a mixed fleet of passenger A320s, A321s, B757s and one B767-300.

Express Air Cargo, based at Enfidha, Tunisia, has now started operations with its recently acquired B737-300QC aircraft on the Tunis to Paris (CDG) sector. A second B737F is expected to join the fleet soon.

ASL Airlines Belgium has wet leased a Cargo Air Lines (CAL) B747-400F in order to counter capacity losses incurred after the TNT departure from Liege Airport.

John Mc Donagh