SHORT SHOTS

CGN welcomes first P2F converted A330
An Egyptair Cargo operated Airbus A330-200F landed yesterday (23 Sep.) in Cologne, transporting vegetables and fruits destined to the European consumer markets. It was the maiden commercial flight of the aircraft that formerly belonged to Egyptair’s passenger fleet but was converted to a freighter at Elbe Flugzeugwerke in Dresden.
From the beginning, three roundtrips per week between Cairo and Cologne/Bonn are operated. Apparently, they will be upped to five weekly  flights in October. Then, South Africa’s metropolis Johannesburg will be added to the A300F’s route map with two flights per week taking from Cologne via a short stopover in Cairo to Jo’burg. "We are very pleased that Egyptair Cargo is serving our airport with this aircraft and intends to increase its involvement here. This is a strong commitment to our location and once again shows the relevance and potential our airport offers the air freight community,” stated Johan Vanneste, CEO of CGN on the occasion of the arrival of the freighter.
The A330-200P2F replaces the Airbus A300-600F previously operated on that route. It offers uplifting 59 tons per flight, which is 25 percent more compared to its predecessor. 
In Germany, sales agent Skyline Air Services is responsible for marketing the freight business of Egyptair Cargo. Besides the capacity increase their MD Hassaan Aglan is particularly happy about the option to fly consignments from Cologne via Cairo to Johannesburg twice weekly (Mo + Th). “This way we can offer our customers an attractive option to fly their goods from Germany to South Africa,” he told CargoForwarder Global.

Silk Way increases Zhengzhou operations
Baku-based Silk Way West Airlines (SWW) announced at the recently held ICAO Cargo Conference in Zhengzhou, China, that they will increase their present four weekly operations between Baku and Zhengzhou to six frequencies.
Previous meetings between Henan Government officials and SWW managers paved the way for what both parties term as an enhancement of strategic cooperation.
Wolfgang Meier, SWW’s President and CEO stated that: “Within a short period of time we manage to emerge as one of the leading cargo carriers in Zhengzhou and we are aiming to further increase tonnage and flights as Zhengzhou provides for us the perfect platform to grow in view of our core capabilities to serve the Silk Air Route.”

America Airlines Cargo gets new VP 
Dallas/Fort Worth based American Airlines Cargo has announced that Jessica Tyler has been promoted to the position of Vice President, Strategy and Development. Tyler has been with American Airlines since 2012 and it was she who led the team that merged the cargo divisions of US Airways and American Airlines.
One of Jessica Tyler’s main jobs will be to figure out how the carrier should plan and invest in more modern technology as well as enhancing present customer partnerships in order to give an even better service for the future.

Tigers expand in Malaysia and China
The Hong Kong-based global e-commerce fulfillment company, Tigers continues with their expansion plans in the Far East. They recently announced that they have opened a new office in Suzhou, China as well as a new fulfillment centre in Selangor, Malaysia. The move is part of Tigers’ planned e-commerce expansion in both countries. They now have two fulfillment centres in Malaysia, the first one was previously opened in Kota Kinabalu.
The Suzhou office is only thirty minutes driving from the Chinese city of Shanghai where the company has also opened a facility to cater for the growing e-commerce demand in the B2B and B2C sectors.

DHL Express commits to environmental agreement at Brussels Airport
DHL Express was one of eight co-signing parties to an agreement to strengthen environmental cooperation at Brussels Airport. The other seven were Brussels Airport company, Brussels Airlines, TUI Fly, Eurocontrol, Belgocontrol and ACI Europe. The aim is to reduce carbon and noise footprints and to improve local air quality. For DHL Express the effort is mainly in fleet modernisation, said Peter Caes, Airport Affairs Security Director Benelux. At BRU the B757Fs and A300Fs presently deployed by DHL Express will be replaced by three of the four A330Fs purchased from Etihad, he said. The agreement was part of the meeting of the ‘collaborative environmental management’ (CEM), an initiative set up by Eurocontrol. BAC’s CEO Arnaud Feist said that many airlines at BRU are using more environmental-friendly aircraft.

Chris Leach enters TIACA Hall of Fame 
Air Charter Service Ltd (ACS) Founder and Chairman, Chris Leach, has been welcomed into TIACA’s Hall of Fame.
Chris who has been working in the air cargo industry for more than 40 years started ACS almost 30 years ago as a small and at that time insignificant charter company. In the meantime, he has grown it to become a global player and multinational company. They now operate from 22 offices around the globe which offer various aircraft types for almost 15,000 full charters per annum.
Mr Leach will be officially welcomed into TIACA’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony to be held at this year’s Air Cargo Forum in Toronto.

John Mc Donagh / Marcel Schoeters