SHORT SHOTS

AF-KL Cargo turns the corner
Good news for the Franco-Dutch carrier’s cargo segment. The 2017 Q4 figures show an almost 7% (6.8%) increase in cargo revenue. A total of €583 million were generated during the last quarter of the year. Total revenues for 2017 went up by 1.6% to €2,087 billion. Traffic carried for the whole year went up by 1.8%.
The satisfying results are also because of a good demand for the carriers on their Asian and Latin American routes especially during the last six months of 2017. Both airlines added a total of 0.9% more capacity during the year whereby traffic carried went up by 1.8%. Load factors, which in the past had seen a drop, rose by 0.6% to reach 60% for the total combined network. The AF-KL Group revenues for passen-ger and cargo showed a good increase. Total group revenues were €25.78 billion which was an increase of almost 4% on the previous year.

LH Cargo and Plug and Play cooperation
USA-based global technology accelerator, Plug and Play is joining forces with Lufthansa Cargo to develop and implement new digital solutions. In a statement Lufthansa Cargo says that: “the programme provides an opportunity for players in the logistics industry to network with and learn from each other, exchange ideas and drive digitisation.”
Mike Zayonc, founder of Plug and Play Supply Chain & Logistics states: “We are very excited to have Lufthansa Cargo on board as one of our supply chain anchor partners as they are a perfect fit for our ecosystem of industry leading corporate partners.” Plug and Play also work closely with companies such as DHL, the U.S. Postal Service, Panasonic and ExxonMobil.

Hawaiian plans ATR cargo operations
Honolulu-headquartered Hawaiian Airlines plans to start cargo operations towards the end of the first quarter of this year, using ATR 72-200 freighter aircraft. Hawaiian will receive its second ATR 72F towards the end of February, having taken delivery of the first one last September. The freighters will start operations on sectors from Honolulu to Hilo and Kahului. Kona will be added as a further destination once Hawaiian Airlines receives their third ATR freighter. The operation will be run by Empire Airlines under Hawaiian’s Ohana brand. Empire presently also operates three ATR 42-500 passenger aircraft on behalf of Hawaiian. The ATR freighters are confederated so that they can carry LD3 containers which can be transferred from Hawaiian Airlines A330 long haul passenger flights.

Swiftair wants to operate to the United States
The Madrid Barajas Airport-based Spanish operator which has a fleet of just over 40 aircraft has stated that they wish to start cargo operations to the United States using Embraer EMB-120 Extended Range freighters. It has applied to the United States Department of Transport (DOT) for a Foreign Air Carrier Permit (FACP) and an Exemption Authority for both scheduled and charter cargo operations between the EU and the U.S. and beyond. Swiftair’s cargo fleet consists of seven B737-400Fs, one B737-300F, five ATR-42Fs, ten ATR-72Fs and ten Embraer EMB120 freighters.

SQ Cargo and NCA set up partnership deal
Earlier this month, Singapore Airlines Cargo and Japan’s Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), announced that they have signed an MoU with regards to a future strategic partnership. This would allow both carriers to join forces in setting up new opportunities for their customers. Both carriers already have a joint block space agreement and the new partnership will be centred around this. The block space agreement between SQ Cargo and NCA has been in effect for the past five years.
The first planned step will be to operate codeshare flights between Tokyo and Singapore as of 1. April this year. NCA operates six weekly B747F flights between the Japanese capital and Singapore and SQ operates five daily flights to Tokyo - three to Haneda Airport and two to Narita.

Ukraine Airlines celebrates 25 years in the air
Kiev-based Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is celebrating a quarter-of-a-century in the air and has plans to expand their present fleet in order to optimally serve long-haul routes to the USA, Canada as well as the Middle East and Asian cities. UIA was set up back in 1992 and started operations into various European countries. In the meantime the carrier operates 1,100 international and domestic flights weekly to many destinations. The cargo division has expanded quite quickly during the past years and UIA Cargo carried just over 11,000 tonnes of airfreight during 2017. Much of this being seafood, medical products and flowers as well as general cargo.
Ukraine International plans to add four new B777-200ER passenger aircraft to their fleet in 2018. These will replace the B767-300 aircraft on some routes and offer customers more payload to the U.S., China and Thailand. They state that cargo capacity will then increase by 39 percent compared to present.

FLEET NEWS
Northern Air Cargo, the Anchorage-based freighter operator has just introduced their first B767 freighter into service. The first flights are operated to San Juan. A further two B767Fs are expected to join the fleet soon. NAC also has five B737 freighters in operation.
Sarasota-domiciled Western Global Airlines (WGA) has secured an exemption from the U.S. DOT (see CargoForwarder global 19. February) based on its earlier application to expand cargo services to countries where the United States holds Open Skies agreements.

John Mc Donagh