SHORT SHOTS

GEORGI Transport celebrates 5th “Open House“
For the fifth year in a row the  large German air freight trucking entity, GEORGI Transport, held an open house event  with its partner CONNEX Air Cargo Network at Frankfurt Airport’s Cargo City South.
The get together was held on March 28th in the GEORGI / CONNEX new offices at the LUG premises in building 537 and was attended by more than 70 customers and partners.
Both companies have intensified their cooperation during the past couple of years in the transport of air freight shipments by road throughout Germany and Europe.

South Korea’s Incheon Airport reports record cargo growth
The February cargo handling results for South Korea’s capital airport, Incheon, went up almost 17 percent over those of the previous year. A total of 208.000  tonnes are handled during the month. The total volume of cargo handled for January and February amounted to 426.000 tonnes which was a 12.4 percent increase on the year before.

Emirates ceases B747F operations and introduces SkyFresh
Emirate SkyCargo has decided that the two Boeing 747-400ERFs in their fleet will be phased out of service by the end of June this year.
The 747Fs were operating for the Dubai based carrier on an ACMI lease for the past ten years. Originally the lease was with TNT Airways and is now with ASL Airlines Belgium, which acquired TNT Airways after the FedEx - TNT acquisition.
Once the two B747Fs have left, Emirates SkyCargo will only operate with its fleet of thirteen B777 freighters.
Emirates SkyCargo has also introduced its latest product offering called SkyFresh which offers various solutions for optimizing the transport and keeping the quality of fresh and temperature sensitive products in line with producers standards.
The SkyFresh encompasses SkyFresh Breathe and SkyFresh Active which are offered depending on the type of fresh products being flown and their temperature control needed.

SW Italia starts operations for STO
A thrice weekly service from Hong Kong to Italy’s Brescia Airport was started at the end of March by SW Italia, a 100% daughter company of the Silkway Group. The service which utilizes  SW Italia’s B747-400F equipment is operated on behalf of China’s Shentong Express (STO) which has its base in Shanghai.
Rumours have it that the new route is actually operating on behalf of Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba seeing that STO is a part of Alibaba’s Cainiao logistics network.
This is the second service being operated by SW Italia on behalf of STO. The carrier also started a weekly B747F service from Hong Kong to Prague at the end of last year.

Antonov’s new AN-132D makes its maiden flight
Antonov, the Ukraine based aircraft manufacturer is more well known for its massive AN-225 and AN-124 transporters.
At the end of March the company’s new multipurpose aircraft, the AN-132D took to the air for the first time.
An Initial order from Saudia Arabia led to the development of this smaller Antonov version which is capable of carrying loads on short and medium range routes. It is designed for the carriage of raw materials, mail and general cargo and can be either bulk loaded or with ULD’s. On the military side, this new Antonov is said to be able to carry self propelled and non-self propelled vehicles weighing up to 9.2 tonnes.

IAG Cargo changes top management
In what many see as a surprising move, IAG announced that Lynne Embleton is to take over from Drew Crawley as IAG Cargo’s Chief Executive.
Mrs Embleton who was British Airways Managing Director at London Gatwick airport takes up the IAG Cargo CEO position with immediate effect. She will report directly to IAG’s CEO, Willie Walsh.
She brings more than 25 years of experience within the IAG (BA) Group and was also on the IAG Board as a non-executive director for four years.
Mr Crawley moves on to become CEO of Avios, which is the IAG Group’s loyalty programme and will also remain as a member of the IAG Management Committee.
Drew Crawley took over just over a year ago from Steve Gunning who was promoted to become Chief Financial Officer at British Airways.

John Mc Donagh