SHORT SHOTS

Columbia welcomes new cargo airline, Panamericana Airlines
Headquartered in Barranquilla, Columbia, and headed by German, Thomas Friese, La Aerolinea Panamericana de Carga y Transporte SAS – in short: Panamericana Airlines – has a pretty international set-up. It is wet-leasing Greek-flagged aircraft that will fly under North American registration and will initially act as that company’s representative in Columbia from the start of official operations on 17AUG20, to the end of the lease contract in AUG24. "We want to be an airline in Colombia that pays its taxes," Thomas Friese stated, adding "We want to change the cargo transportation system in Colombia, to improve." Thus, over the next 3 years, the Columbian company registered with the Barranquilla Chamber of Commerce back in FEB20, will work on obtaining its own operating permit to become an international cargo airline in accordance with current legislation.
With a planned fleet six aircraft: two 767-300s and four 757-200s (according to its website, though other media have stated three Boeing 747-400, two 757-200 and one 777), the company offers air cargo transport, air courier, ground logistics and customs management, and aims to serve 12 destinations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, from BAQ (Barranquilla): BOG (Bogota), CCS (Caracas), UIO (Quito), MIA (Miami), LAX (Los Angeles), JFK (New York), MAD (Madrid), AMS
(Amsterdam), HKG (Hong Kong) PEK (Beijing), PVG (Shanghai) and KUL
(Kuala Lumpur). It has already generated 40 jobs in Barranquilla and is planning to set up branches across the country, eventually looking to employ 2000 staff (300 by the end of 2020 already).
Speaking to the newspaper El Heraldo, Ronald Peña, Panamericana Airlines Expansion Manager, stated that the initial flight will be to Miami and Caracas. “We have projected the maiden flight for this August 17, but it is a process that requires the articulation of many actors, including international airports.” Colombian Transportation Minister, Ángela María Orozco, has indicated that Columbian airports will restart international air operation on 01SEP20, depending also on other countries opening their airports.

Sky Gates launches second Moscow air cargo destination
Moscow Zhukovsky International Airport (ZIA), which only just saw the inauguration of a new, state-of-the-art cargo terminal in JUL20 has, in recent weeks, seen Russian cargo airline, Sky Gates Cargo Airlines, carry out a series of successful technical landings. Based on this, Sky Cargo is now launching new, thrice-weekly, scheduled air cargo services to and from ZIA this month, connecting Frankfurt-Hahn, Baku, and Zhengzhou, and thus adding to its daily, scheduled operations out of Moscow-Sheremetyevo and Novosibirsk.
“This service is unique. Through modern technologies and online customs clearance proceedings, we can offer a truly integrated product, be it through Moscow Sheremetyevo and now as well through Moscow Zhukovsky, covering a dedicated last mile delivery via ZIA,” Sky Gates General Director, Alexander Khmelevskikh, stated, referring to ZIA’s new 9,200 m² cargo terminal which includes a temporary storage warehouse, customs infrastructure and storage areas for temperature-sensitive cargo and live animals. Its 90,000 m² apron can accommodate four Boeing 747 type aircraft or six medium sized aircraft, and thus is perfect for Sky Gates’ 747-400 full-freighter fleet. He went on to say: “We truly appreciate the efforts and partnership we have developed with Zhukovsky Airport which is located near the Eastern municipal borders of Moscow. With our scheduled operations to Moscow Sheremetyevo we complete our product portfolio to and from Moscow, offering a very interesting alternative air cargo gateway to the buoyant Russian capital”.
Based in Moscow and founded in 2016, fast-growing Sky Gates Cargo Airlines operates in partnership with SilkWay West Airlines offering a global air cargo network, and also arranges customs clearance and last mile delivery service within Moscow and the region together with other partner companies.

Bringing shippers and RFS forwarders together in Turkey, too
DHL’s digital road freight platform Saloodo! founded in Germany in 2017 and which serves more than 30,000 shippers and over 12,000 road freight carriers across 35 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, is now expanding to Turkey. The platform brings shippers looking for one-stop cargo handling solutions together with road freight carriers who, in return, also benefit from Saloodo!’s business functions such as a dynamic transport pricing calculator, based on real-time data and specially developed algorithms, enabling carriers to make competitive shipping offers. To assist Turkish customers even further, the application will soon be fully accessible in Turkish.
Antje Huber, Managing Director Saloodo! and responsible for Marketing, stated: “After successfully entering the Middle East and the African continent, we are continuing our strategic growth by expanding to Turkey, which is a key market for us. Besides being a gateway to Asia, we also see an increasing demand for smart logistic solutions in the country. We continuously work towards our vision of a world in which logistics are smart and digitalized, and we are therefore inspired to bring our innovative solution to life in more and more markets.”
Murat Kavrar, Managing Director DHL Freight Turkey, said: “With real-time visibility, Saloodo! will inject greater transparency and efficiency into the regional road network, enabling shippers of all sizes – from small enterprises to large corporations – to find trusted and reliable freight carriers in Turkey. This, in turn, will help carriers manage existing fleets and optimize capacity with full truckload shipments. In addition, communication with drivers is simplified with our Saloodo! driver app, wherein all kinds of information – from order handling to drop-off – can be exchanged.”

Cargo gets Korean Air through Corona
Despite an overall revenue drop of 44% compared to the same time in 2019, thanks to its cargo focus and the streamlining of its business, Korean Air was able to post an operating profit of $125.2 million for the second quarter of this year, exceeding its expectations. Its latest financial report shows an increase in cargo revenue of 94.6% compared to previous year. In addition to its existing full freighters, for which it increased its operation rate by 22% (compared to last year), like a number of airlines, it has also been operating cargo-only passenger flights since the pandemic. It has announced plans to convert some of these to preighters next month, removing their seats, and adapting the low interest in international passenger air travel. Despite the promising results, Korean Air remains apprehensive for the second half of 2020, given the strain of the ongoing pandemic on the airline industry.
That strain has been felt by most other Asian carriers: Japan Airlines announced a net loss of $887 million for the second quarter, whilst Cathay Pacific recently saw cargo tonnage even drop 5% and is forecasting a half-year loss of $1.3 billion, whilst All Nippon Airways, though reporting a decrease in cargo sales, managed to finish the quarter almost on a par with previous year.
Asiana Airlines, on the other hand, reported a similar story to Korean Air. Its revenue also dropped by 45% to $690 million compared to 2019 and yet, thanks to a 95% increase in its cargo business coupled with cost-cutting measures, it also reported an unexpected operating profit for the second quarter of 2020 of $97 million. All the more pleasing since over the past six quarters, it has consecutively reported losses, and stood at a loss of $90 million at the same time last year.

SIA supports the World Food Programme
Together with the Singapore-based NPO, Temasek Foundation, Singapore Airlines is partnering with the World Food Programme (WFP) and will support the global Covid-19 response in transporting essential medical supplies and other health and humanitarian items by air to where they are needed across the world. The Temasek Foundation has contributed $6.5 million to cover the flight costs of SIA’s ad-hoc charter flights and the freight space in its scheduled services that it is offering on a cost-recovery basis.
The WFP provides the logistics backbone for global Covid-19 efforts and operates a network of hubs and passenger and cargo airlinks to ensure a steady flow of supplies and support to the frontlines of the pandemic. To date, since MAY20, more than 800 humanitarian flights to 159 countries have been carried out, and the equivalent of 188 jumbo jets of cargo are forecasted as needing transportation over the next weeks, with a $965 million price tag to keep things running: a sum that WFP is struggling to receive. It has currently only been provided 21% of the total amount and therefore the end of August could see the end of these relief flights if not additional support is forthcoming. This is why SIA has stepped up to help out.
“While demand for WFP Common Services grows every week, resources are stretched incredibly thin and additional support is urgently needed,” said Amer Daoudi, WFP’s Covid-19 Corporate Response Director. “We are very grateful to Singapore Airlines and Temasek Foundation for stepping up so we can continue delivering life-saving supplies to those who need them most.”
Chin Yau Seng, Senior Vice President Cargo, Singapore Airlines, said: “It is a pleasure for SIA to partner with WFP and Temasek Foundation in this meaningful programme. This will allow us to draw on our expertise as a global airfreight provider and use our international network to deliver essential supplies to the points of need and help to make a positive impact on the communities that have been directly affected by Covid-19.” Mr Ng Boon Heong, CEO of Temasek Foundation, added: “We are pleased to partner with the WFP and SIA to help make these flights possible. Together, we will be more capable in combating the Covid-19 global pandemic when we enable synergistic collaborations in the international community.”

foodpanda-ing to your every need: pandaFly
The familiar bicycles and square-backpacked cyclists could become a thing of the past drone food delivery catches on, though foodpanda insists that customers will still see a friendly human face upon delivery as the pandaFly is “intended as a complement to our pandariders. The drones will ideally be able to pick up and deliver orders at designated collection points located island-wide where one of foodpanda’s 12,000 riders will be waiting to complete the last-mile delivery.”
foodpanda, the Singapore-based food delivery platform which operates in over 120 cities in ten countries across Asia and Eastern Europe, has been looking to reduce long-distance delivery times (because who wants to receive cold food?) and was interested in employing drones for this purpose. It therefore entered into partnership with ST Engineering in March this year, with the aim of using ST Engineering’s DroNet autonomous, urban, end-to-end drone network solution to test food deliveries on short distances of up to 3km. The recent “pandaFly” drone delivery flight bringing an order of 5 packets of Ayam Penyet (smashed fried chicken) from Marina South Pier to PACC Offshore Services Holdings (POSH) Vessel located 3 km off the pier, with the space of 10 minutes, was a success. “Delivering with drones has always been part of our long-term plan, and to see our foodpanda box up in the air today takes us a big step forward to be the first food delivery platform that makes drone deliveries a reality. Much more than a novelty, drone deliveries will help us deliver over longer distances faster, while keeping costs low, so that we can continue to satisfy our customers more instantaneously.” said Luc Andreani, Managing Director of foodpanda.
More tests are planned. foodpanda and ST Engineering want to trial drones with longer range, possibly bringing down delivery times from 30 to less than 15 minutes for longer or difficult distances. ST Engineering is a leader in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) received authorization from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) for the use of UAS to perform the proof of concept
delivery exercise. Jeffrey Lam, Deputy President of ST Engineering’s Aerospace sector said, “In our latest flight exercise, we are pleased to collaborate with foodpanda to adapt our drone network solution to realize a faster and cost-efficient method in food deliveries, one that can also help meet the need for safe distancing under the current COVID19 situation.”

LATAM connects North America to Southern Brazil with MIA-FLN
With the launch of its Miami - Florianopolis cargo route on 10AUG20, LATAM is the first and only airline offering a fast, direct and permanent weekly, B767 service (capacity 53 tons) from North America to Southern Brazil, providing Santa Catarina a welcome link for its economy, which relies on commercial and industrial imports such as automotive, metallurgical, food, pharmaceutical and electronic products. Given the historical moment, the first flight was ceremoniously received at Florianopolis’ local airport by representatives from the state government, the airport, FIESC and LATAM Cargo. The addition of Florianopolis to its network, brings LATAMs operation in Brazil to a total of ten airports with cargo aircraft exclusive service. Before the Miami-Florianopolis route was implemented, international cargo entered Brazil through Guarulhos and Viracopo, and then required additional ground transportation to get to its final destination.
“This new route will allow us to provide a direct, stable and permanent service between the United States and Santa Catarina; it is a concrete example of our efforts to satisfy our clients’ needs. As strategic partners, we are constantly evaluating routes that promote international trade, bringing buyers and sellers together with the characteristic speed, attention and logistics excellence of our global services network”, stated Gabriel Oliva, North America, Europe and Asia’s Commercial VP.
“In addition to the benefits for Santa Catarina, through this new route we also extend our coverage in the country by totaling ten airports with cargo aircraft exclusive operation. As with this route, we will continue focused on offering more origins-destinations for our international and domestic markets in order to be present in our clients’ relevant markets”, stated Kamal Hadad, LATAM Cargo’s Alliances and Network VP.

ABC and DSV transport a 36-ton UNICEF shipment of vaccines
Over 1,000 special boxes containing Yellow Fever vaccines destined for an immunization program in Africa and altogether weighing an impressive 36 tons, recently made their way on board an AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) aircraft from Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (Russia) to Frankfurt (Germany), where it continued on truck to Liege (Belgium). Though already well-versed in healthcare shipments, the UNICEF shipment of vaccines which demands safe and intact transportation, and which is part of a complex delivery plan involving many stakeholders, is a smaller version of what is to be expected once the Covid-19 vaccine is available.
“For the last five years, we have deepened our expertise in the transportation of healthcare products, with vaccines being of paramount importance to prolong the life of the world’s population and facilitate well-timed vaccination, especially for children. While yellow fever still stays a very common disease in Africa and South America, we are honoured to be part of the cold chain to prevent its further spread and support routine immunization programmes of the local population”, - said Nikolay Glushnev, General Director, AirBridgeCargo Airlines.
“DSV Russia focuses on arrangement and securing uninterrupted supply of vaccines for UNICEF and other vital supplies for people in need. ABC is the leader in pharma transportation and our reliable carriers, who is always trusted by us and accomplishes this important mission”, – commented Ivan Shevchenko, Airfreight manager Air&Sea, DSV.

Brigitte Gledhill

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