SHORT SHOTS

Cargolux adds two new Africa destinations
The Luxembourg based all cargo carrier Cargolux, continues with its operational expansion into Africa. The airline announced last week that it is adding two new destinations. One is to Douala, Cameroon and the other to Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Lubumbashi service commences on 15 September and Douala follows as of 3. October. Both destinations will be served on a once weekly basis. Lubumbashi flights depart LUX Friday evenings and return via JNB, NBO and London-Stansted (STN) to LUX by Sunday midday.
The Doula flight leaves LUX Wednesday afternoon and routes via Bamako and returns to LUX by Thursday late morning. Cargolux state that they see good potential for growth in both regions. The DRC has a flourishing copper and cobalt mining industry which is centred around Lubumbashi. Cameroon has Central Africa’s largest seaport and exports large amounts of fruits, coffee, cocoa, metal, oil and timber.  With the addition of both cities, CV now offers services to 35 African destinations.

Logistic Training Center present in South Germany
The Germany-based Logistic Training Center which has its headoffice in Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt Airport, has now branched out into Southern Germany. They have opened a new training centre at Stuttgart Airport which is headed by Thomas Huchler who brings extensive experience and know-how in the logistics branch after having held positions with various logistics companies, in particular with EMO-Trans.
Huchler has in the past coached many management members of quite a few well-known logistics entities. He spent many years in the USA and is also fluent in English as well as German. He will be an important addition to the LTC team in Stuttgart and it is expected that he will, among others, concentrate on and steer activities in training methods for Sales, Management and Personnel development.  

TACA inaugurates U.S. to South America
Lima, Peru based Trans America Airlines (TACA Peru) has initiated direct Lima to Miami flights using an Airbus A330-200 freighter. This is the carrier’s first operation into the United States. In total, four flights per week will operate through Miami with cargo also from Bogota, Buenos Aires and Medellin. TACA Peru also operates various passenger flights throughout South America and the Caribbean from its central hub in Lima.

Cargo operations between Afghanistan and India back on track
CargoForwarder Global reported in an earlier edition on the plans being set-up for the inauguration of an Afghanistan - India air cargo service. Flights commenced as of mid-June 2017 but were suspended again for almost three weeks due to no dedicated carrier being on hand to offer continuity. Flight route planning was from Delhi to Kabul for up to four monthly cargo flights. The suspension was because the Afghanistan national carrier, Ariana, had suspended flights on the sector. The new route, which was agreed upon by both governments as is seen as being an important trade lane for the future is now back on line with services having been agreed with Kabul-based Kam Air using Boeing 737 equipment. There are still ground operational issues such as proper warehousing facilities at Kabul, which have to be sorted out before the service can be seen as being optimal.

Jettainer gets new Operations Director
Frankfurt-based Jettainer which worldwide manages around 90,000 Unit Load Devices (ULD’s), has appointed Frank Muehlenkamp as their new Director of Operations. Muehlenkamp will take over responsibility for the total management and maintenance of the company’s containers and aircraft pallets which are used by a total of twenty-four airlines across the globe.
Mr Muehlenkamp startet his career with Lufthansa in the Ground Operations Department in Frankfurt and after a short sojourn with Augsburg Airways, he moved back to  Lufthansa where he has held several positions in the ground and flight operations departments in Germany, the United States and Europe.

Single AOC planned for Atlas & Southern Air
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWH), which is the mother company of Atlas Air, acquired Southern Air Holdings, the parent company of Southern Air, which is another all-cargo carrier, at the end of the first quarter of 2016. The acquisition cost AAWH around US$110 million and it is said that the plan is to fuse both Atlas Air and Southern Air into one common entity. Before this can be achieved, the company must agree with the unions (Teamsters) on a common labour agreement. Discussions in this direction have it seems already started.
Once things are sorted out, Atlas plans that both carriers should operate by early 2018 under a single operators certificate (SOC). Whether this is achievable depends on how fast both companies can be merged.

B757F capacity increase for First Air
Canadian carrier First Air is looking at leasing in ad-hoc cargo capacity in the form of a B757 freighter to better serve their Kuuijuag destination situated in Quebec. The plan is to lease in a once-a-month B757 service into Kuuijuag from fellow Canadian operator Cargojet Airways. This would be in addition to First Air’s B737 services to the city which presently operate from Montreal.

ABC gains QEP accreditation
AirBridgeCargo has achieved Envirotainer QEP accreditation at its central global hub Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport and in Dallas, Texas. DFW is one of the carrier’s six destinations served in the U.S. Swedish ULD provider Envirotainer created its Qualified Envirotainer Provider Training and Quality Program (QEP) to recognize forwarders and airlines which demonstrate their ability to properly manage temp sensitive shipments in accordance with Good Distribution Practices (GDP).
Fedor Novikov, Director Pharma, Global at AirBridgeCargo, commented: “QEP accreditation is one of the benchmarks we and our customers recognize as being very important as we grow pharma volumes across our network.” Chris Fore, Compliance Manager at Envirotainer, said: “AirBridgeCargo clearly realizes its responsibility to its customers in terms of delivering a quality product to the end user - a patient. QEP accreditation sends a strong message about the high standards the airline is committed to delivering.”

John Mc Donagh  /  Heiner Siegmund