IN BRIEF - THE LATEST AIR CARGO INDUSTRY NEWS.
Saudia Cargo offers new service to Calicut, flies festival equipment
A daily Saudia Arabian Airlines Airbus A330 passenger service to the Indian city of Calicut which is situated in the state of Kerala, now enables Saudia Airlines Cargo Company to offer 60 tons
per week of cargo capacity to and from the region. Four flights operate from Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport and three from Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
Saudia Cargo which operates a fleet of B747 and B777 freighters to destinations in India, Africa, Europe, Far East and the USA, has seen a noticeable demand for more cargo capacity into the
Indian Subcontinent.
In other news, the airline recently used four B747 freighter flights to transport 400 tons of equipment for the famous Cirque du Soleil from Zagreb to Riyadh. The company is performing in the
Saudia capital city until the end of this year.
The Middle East carrier also announced the transport of 60 tons of equipment, tools, screens, and cables from Vatry, France to Riyadh on December 8, and back on 24 December on board a Boeing
747-400F. It was Saudia Cargo’s contribution to the 33rd National Festival for Heritage and Culture, dubbed Janadriyah – 33, celebrated Dec. 20, and organized by the Ministry of National Guard.
MNG Airlines expands services into North America
Istanbul-based MNG Airlines which has a fleet of six freighters, has commenced flights from Germany’s Cologne-Bonn Airport to New York JFK. The flights are operated twice weekly, using MNG’s
Airbus A330-200F aircraft, of which the airline presently has one in operation.
MNG has been operating services from Istanbul to Europe and the Middle East for many years. These have been operated using MNG’s fleet of five Airbus A300 freighters. The expansion of flights to
and from the USA is seen as being a new milestone for future expansion for the Turkish all-cargo carrier.
LH Cargo expands digital offering
Lufthansa Cargo announced that they are the first cargo airline who has made available an application for digital creation of the transport documents which are required for dangerous goods.
This is a new DGD.online application which is said will help shippers to digitize their dangerous goods processes and facilitate paperless cooperation with various logistics providers. Those
developing the new system have been implementing input which was supplied by pilot customers and have focussed on what they state is a ‘very user-friendly application with validation and
convenience features which are designed to add value.’ Siemens Healthcare is an early user of the LH Cargo DGD.online application and they were also on hand from day one in the various
development stages. The new application can be used among others for generating electronically signed dangerous goods declarations.
FedEx won’t serve Cuba
Many U.S. carriers had ambitions to serve Cuba once restrictions had been lifted. In the meantime, some of the passenger airlines who’d had ambitions, either withdrew their applications, stopped
services due to lack of demand or were refused entry.
U.S. air cargo giant FedEx has been trying to get a foothold in Cuba for the past couple of years but have now made it known that they will defer any further plans for services there. FedEx were
at that time singled out as the only U.S. cargo carrier which was granted the necessary license for freighter services into the island. The license allowed them to operate five flights a week
between Miami and Varadero. Since then they have been deferring entry due to alleged regulatory problems as well as low market demand. On December 17th, the carrier finally deferred services
until further notice and handed back their five frequencies to the U.S. Department of Transport.
AF-KL-MP Cargo happy with myCargo services
In a recent release, Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo announced that since the launch of their combined online booking tool, myCargo more than two-and-a half years ago, that customer satisfaction
and acceptance of the system has been high. The carriers claim that since then there have been numerous upgrades to myCargo which have resulted in an enhancement of the online booking
service.
The most recent addition to the portal where clients can request quotes and make bookings, is the 24/7 option of being able to instantly book shipments weighing up to 4 tons as well as a further
new service for the booking of pharma shipments. An Application Programming Interface (API) has been added which enable customers to connect directly with the carrier’s “Quote & Book” online
booking tool.
Hahn Airport shows positive cargo growth
Hahn Airport situated between its larger sisters in Frankfurt and Cologne continues on the road to promote the airport as a user-friendly and efficient cargo handling entity in Germany.
The air cargo development has proven to be positive during 2018 and the airport reports a 58.4% increase in cargo moved there between January and October of this year.
A new freighter route has been opened between Hahn and China with the introduction of a Suparna Airlines B747F flight from Shanghai. This is apparently the first stage in a new air freight
agreement signed by China Aerospace International Holdings limited (CASIL) with Hahn’s management for the distribution of Asian products into Europe. It is said that CASIL, along with various
global logistics providers, have signed up on air freight contracts said to be in the region of around €334 million. The plan is to serve Hahn by utilising cargo carriers from various cities in
China, among them Hong Kong and Zhengzhou
John Mc Donagh
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