SHORT SHOTS

Ziegler grows at BRUcargo
The Belgian Ziegler Group has laid the foundation stone at Brussel Airport cargo zone for their new 5,000 sqm warehouse. The new facility which will have a total surface area of 10,000 sqm also includes 1,000 sqm of new office space. The warehouse, once finished, will be used by Ziegler for the handling and distribution of import and export cargo.
Brussels Airport last week also announced the first all-cargo flight of China’s Sichuan Airlines to the Belgian capital. The service which is operated by one of their three Airbus A330-200 freighters originates in Chengdu and two regular weekly flights are planned.
In other news from Brussels, it was announced that a new mobile App for forwarder’ drivers has been added into the BRUcloud. The Acceptance & Delivery App will enable drivers to easily see which booked slots are assigned to them and it also shows the Master Airway Bills (MAWB) numbers which they need to use to drop off or pick up cargo.

Wideroe appoints e-CARGOWARE to digitize operations
Norwegian carrier Wideroe which claims to be the largest regional airline in Scandinavia has appointed UK-based software specialists e-CARGOWARE to digitize their cargo operations. The carrier which has a staff of 3,000 and an annual turnover of NOK 3.5 billion, serves a total of 42 domestic destinations as well as 9 international ones. The digitized cargo programme is being readied to be introduced into Wideroe’s network in the first quarter off 2020.
e-CARGOWARE was founded by Arun Singh and Ramesh Darbha in order to provide what they term as an easy to use, cost effective airfreight ERP solution which is based solely on cloud technology. Wideroe’s cargo manager, Thomas Lone stated that: “having scanned the marketplace for a user friendly and modern cargo system, I am delighted to have chosen e-CARGOWARE’s cloud-based platform.”
e-CARGOWARE has in the meantime generated a world-wide customer base and their SaaS platform is aimed at helping airlines, GSSAs, ground handlers and couriers to manage their cargo operations.

UPS expands international services
Atlanta, U.S.-based UPS have stated that they are expanding their UPS Express Plus and UPS Worldwide Express products which are a part of their total international shipping offerings.
The company maintains that both UPS Express Plus and UPS Worldwide Express are now able to offer deliveries to over 3,200 new postal code areas in 40 countries. These include the addition of five new countries into the UPS portfolio.
With the addition of the extra postal delivery areas UPS Worldwide Express now has the means to deliver into over 76 countries worldwide. Expansion plans are on the table for additional services and UPS has recently connected Algeria, Namibia, Reunion, Nigeria and Qatar to their portfolio.

IAI grounds P2F B737s
Tel Aviv-based Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) who are specialists for so called P2F passenger to freighter conversions, have been forced to advise all airlines who operate their Boeing 737 converted freighters, to ground the aircraft until further notice. They state that the grounding is necessary due to an unsafe design issue. News out of Tel Aviv is that the unsafe design issue came to light when IAI tests showed that there was some irregularity in the design of the aircraft’s rigid barrier. This would normally not be a problem in normal operating conditions, they state, however it could be a problem in extreme flight conditions whereby the aircraft’s rigid barrier is seemingly not designed to cope with adverse flight conditions. IAI has so far converted almost fifty of the type and has informed Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAI) that they will be submitting a fix for the aircraft to the authorities pretty soon. It is hoped that the CAAI will approve the modifications in the very near future.
IAI has a long and positive history regarding P2F conversions. These have been done over the past years by the company for B737, B747, B767, B757 and MD-11 aircraft.

Etihad extends contract with Hermes Logistics
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Aviation Group has made it known that they are to extend their contract with UK-based Hermes Logistics Technologies (HLT) to upgrade the carrier’s Cargo Management System to the Hermes 5 edition.
Implementation of the Hermes 5 has already started at Etihad’s Abu Dhabi base. The H5 system is said to bring Hermes clients usability improvements, advanced integration with external applications as well as opening up business intelligence capabilities to optimise handling and business processes.
HLT maintains that the H5 provides Etihad with the latest generation of data solutions to enable them next level business as well as enhanced cargo-handling processes. Etihad has been an HLT customer since 2015.

CHAMP signs up Uzbekistan Airways
Luxembourg-based CHAMP Cargosystems has signed up Uzbekistan Airways to use CHAMP’s dynamic online portal, FREIGHT.AERO, which will enable the carrier to expand its online bookings. CHAMP states that FREIGHT.AERO gives customers real time availability and price as well as AWB and HAWB processing and e-booking capability.
FREIGHT.AERO is in the meantime connected to over 20 airlines and CHAMP states that this ‘empowers forwarders to do business online with multiple airlines through a single platform.’

ABC and Schenker collaborate in Cargo iQ rally
Moscow-based AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Germany’s DB Schenker by collaborating together have managed to win the third stage of the Cargo iQ Rally Challenge. The Q-Rally is an initiative for Cargo iQ members to highlight improvements in operations which are developed collaboratively, using data gathered by the Group.
ABC and Schenker won the latest stage of the Cargo iQ rally by improving data quality of shipment reports from Russia to countries within the Schengen Agreement area. Cargo iQ introduced the Q-Rally with the aim of getting their members to get closer together with their relative business partners and identify issues which they collectively can work on and monitor such before presenting them to the various Cargo iQ working groups. ABC and Schenker received the award at last month’s working group meeting which was held in Kuala Lumpur.

K+N joins German climate alliance
The Schindellegi, Switzerland-based logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel has joined in the German government steered Alliance for Development and Climate. They are the first logistics company to take part in the alliance which was formed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The BMZ set up the alliance in 2018 along with the German Research Institute (FAW) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), with the aim of promoting the advancement and development of future climate protection. Their aim is also to attract companies from the private sector to participate in the alliance. K+N are the first major player in the logistics branch who have signed up and who with their Net Zero Carbon Programme will take an active role in supporting the aims of the alliance. The German Federal Development Minister, Dr. Gerd Mueller commented, “that Kuehne + Nagel, a worldwide leading logistics company has joined the alliance is a big step and shows that climate protection and entrepreneurial actions go hand in hand.”