SHORT SHOTS

SASI expands team and sets up SASI USA

In a recent white paper on the Post Covid Requirements, Strategic Aviation Solutions International (SASI) President, Stan Wraight concluded “The next three or more years will be an extreme challenge for the global air transport industry, and there will be many casualties along the way. There is very little management “wiggle” room anymore, and no time for trial-and-error. It is clear that in an environment with greatly diminished passenger revenues and market and fleet uncertainties, air cargo can and should take on a much greater importance in planning and decision making for both passenger airline and airport managements, but how this is done cannot be left to chance.”

Now more than ever, airlines and general handling agents are needing to adapt and will continue to have to do so in a changed, post corona environment. In response to the increasing need of established, experienced aviation consultancy to aid aviation industry players in navigating through the after-effects of the crisis, SASI announced the launch of its new subsidiary, SASI USA, and appointed Raleigh-based Charles Edwards and Boston-based Mark Diamond as senior executives to the SASI team. They join Florida-based SASI Co-founder (in 2005), Jack Keery as Vice Presidents of the fully owned subsidiary, SASI USA, which complements existing consultancy bases in Hong Kong and Montreal, Canada, and representation in Moscow, Russia as well as Dubai, UAE.

SASI prides itself on “its management’s C-suite leadership experience and in-depth understanding of aviation industry best practices” across the air cargo industry, and has a highly-experienced team of consultants with proven international track records in a variety of aviation industry segments from handling to forwarding, integrators, both cargo and passenger airlines, airport operations, and looks to implement “practical solutions that work in reality, not just in theory.”

The SASI USA team was launched to ensure “a firm foothold in the United
States air transport market” and its members bring extensive U.S. air transport and logistics knowledge, including FAA experience, thus “can respond quickly to U.S. client needs,” drawing on further support from SASI Global where required.

New cargo-partner Pharma and Healthcare Competence Center in BOM
cargo-partner’s latest GDP-compliant Competence Center for Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare opened in Mumbai, India on 30APR20, bringing the international logistics company’s tally to three. Competence Centers already exist in Vienna, Austria, and Hamburg, Germany. The center offers air, road and seafreight services, as well as warehousing, and a 24/7 service desk for all pharmaceutical and healthcare related transportation questions – with a service standard of 29 minutes for an initial response and a full quotation within two hours.
Awarded "Leading Freight Forwarding Company – Pharma" at the India Cargo Awards earlier this year, cargo-partner looks back on successful representation in India since 2007, with meanwhile 11 offices and 135 employees across the country. Rajiv Singh, Managing Director of cargo-partner in India since the start of this year, explained: "With our new Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare Competence Center in Mumbai, we can ensure full GDP compliance, end-to-end product integrity and professional handling at every step. We have put together a dedicated team of well-trained staff from our air, sea, road transport and quality management departments who can support our customers with in-depth industry expertise. Our processes are based on many years of experience, making use of detailed risk and deviation management procedures to achieve maximum security and efficiency."
India has rapidly grown over the past decade, to become a key global player in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector, exporting to more than 200 countries in the world, with the U.S. as the key market. It now meets more than 50% of global demand for various vaccines, 40% of generics demand in the U.S. and 25% of all medicine in the UK.

CEVA’s Asian Truck-Rail-Truck service
COVID-19 not only continues to affect air cargo services given the decrease in available flights in China and the Southeast Asian region, but also leads to long delays at border crossings. In an effort to circumvent these barriers, CEVA Logistics recently introduced an innovative, multi-modal Truck-Rail-Truck transport solution, shaving up to four days off cross-border transportation times. A number of CEVA customers have already benefitted from the service which is available for customers in Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand sourcing goods from China. There is no difference in export documentation requirements to the all-trucked process, and goods can be customs-cleared within 3 hours.
An example of how the TRT works: “The China-Vietnam road border crossing point between Pingxiang and Lang Son currently suffers from backlogs of 2-4 days. To avoid this, shipments are picked up by CEVA across South and East China and loaded into 45’ hi-cube (HQ) containers. They are taken by truck to the cross-border train which operates three times a day, and into Vietnam, where they are then unloaded onto trucks and delivered to final destination.  Shipments bound for Thailand which were taking up to 8 days are now arriving in 3-4 days.”
Summarizing the company’s strategic move, its Chief Operating Officer, Guillaume Col, said: “With our TRT solution, serious traffic jams at the border crossings can be avoided. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it really is the best solution for customers wishing to move urgent shipments between China and Southeast Asia. As a pioneer in TRT service, we will keep exploring our Road & Rail network between China and Southeast Asia to further develop these services.”

Flowers of Hope take to the skies
The Network Aviation Group recently arranged an extra B747F to transport 100 tons of fresh-cut flowers from Nairobi, Kenya, to Liege, Belgium, for on-forwarding to the UK and Europe both in time for the Continental Mother’s Day on 10MAY20, as well as part of the “Flowers of Hope” campaign. This “Flowers of Hope” initiative was launched by the Kenyan private sector back in MAR20 already, with the goal of distributing flowers in hospitals to support those in the frontline fighting Coronavirus and those who have lost loved ones during COVID-19, as well as in an effort to save the thousands of jobs at risk in Kenya’s floriculture industry given the over 35% drop (by MAR20) in overseas cut flower sales, once lockdowns were imposed to contain the spread of Coronavirus.
Despite the additional difficulties arising through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Network Aviation Group has continued its over 30-year support of Kenya’s horticulture industry, and already arranged flower transports back in MAR20 for the UK Mother’s Day. Commercial Director of Network Airline Management, Andy Walters, stated: “We are proud to be supporting Kenya’s horticulture industry once again this year and to help the industry meet peak demands year after year. By utilizing our managed fleet we’re able to maintain regular scheduled flights into Africa as well as various global charter flights. This allows us to keep air cargo moving around the world during these unprecedented and difficult times.”