SHORT SHOTS

Strength in numbers… when data makes it big!

“Proud of our team and thankful to our clients for what we achieved in the last two years. And still, there is so much more to look forward to, now that we are part of Xeneta,” CLIVE’s Managing Director, Niall van de Wouw, celebrates on LinkedIn, referring to the acquisition of his company by the leading ocean and air freight market analytics platform, Xeneta. His new position there is Chief Airfreight Officer. A well-deserved move for the man who has positively disrupted load factor monitoring (CFG reported) over the past couple of years. “Xeneta, the leading ocean and air freight rate benchmarking, market analytics platform and container shipping index, has acquired Amsterdam-based air freight data analysts CLIVE Data Services to provide the most timely and comprehensive insights into the global ocean and air freight markets,” the press release announces. Multi-modal has thus also hit the monitoring side of the logistics industry.

“We want our customers to have the best and most timely global ocean and air freight data trends,” Xeneta CEO, Patrik Berglund, stated. “The unique insights and timelines of CLIVE’s air freight data make it a great addition to our freight data offering. Our combined data services and industry expertise make us second to none in providing clear insights into the global freight markets. We gladly welcome Niall’s extensive air freight expertise to Xeneta’s leadership team to strengthen Xeneta’s technology and data-driven approach within the air freight space. Our recent Series-C funding is allowing us to speed up the delivery of new services and to further expand our global footprint.”

Niall van de Wouw, the co-founder of CLIVE Data Services, said: “The recent partnership with Xeneta has given us valuable insights into our respective data offerings, and the additional value we can deliver by combining our expertise and resources. For CLIVE’S clients, this exciting new development will provide opportunities to further populate our data and give us the ability to help them extract more value from our data services. Our decision to team up with Xeneta was not only driven by the complementary service offering. Patrik and his team have built a great company with a unique business culture, and I am really looking forward to becoming part of that.”

China Airlines expanding fleet with four more B777F

Just two weeks after revealing that 2021 – the year that China Airlines switched to a cargo-centric business model - had yielded the best cargo results in the company’s 62-year history, it has now announced that it has ordered another four B777F. Due to go into operation in 2023 and 2024, they will add to the six B777F already ordered, that have been joining the fleet since 2020, and complement the airline’s existing B747F fleet, bringing the total freighter aircraft numbers to 28.
“The non-stop movement of cargo kept the economic lifeblood of Taiwan and the world flowing. Some of the records set by Cargo in 2021 included making over a hundred cargo charter flights in one month, surpassing TWD 15.4 billion in single-month cargo revenues in December, exceeding TWD 10 billion in cargo revenues for five consecutive months, and sweeping past TWD 100 billion in cargo revenues for the entire year,” the press release underlines. It goes on to list a number of other records for 2021, including carrying out 540 freighter flights per month or an average of 120 flights per week, and transporting over 75 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, totaling 350 tons. The airline saw a huge increase in temperature-sensitive shipments – for which is its CEIV Phare certified - doubling the number of temperature-controlled containers in use compared to before the pandemic.

Flexport flexing its flying muscles

Global logistics technology platform, Flexport has signed a long-term charter agreement with Atlas Air for a third B747-400, upping its fleet by 50%: The aircraft will commence operations on Flexport’s behalf in September of this year. Flexport offers a network serving Asia, Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), with Chicago (ORD) to be added soon. Thanks to the third aircraft, the company will be able to add new origins and destinations from this year, and will be in a position to adapt to market requirements more flexibly. “The move eastward across the United States will improve airfreight accessibility for global shippers and enable them to design airfreight networks that best serve their interests as part of strong, resilient multi-modal supply chain strategies,” the press release promises.

“We look forward to enhancing our long-term relationship with Flexport as we continue to support the growth and expansion of its network with dedicated freighters,” Michael T. Steen, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Atlas Air Worldwide, commented. “Atlas Air is strategically positioned to serve Flexport with an unparalleled fleet of widebody freighters and our vast global footprint. Our team is pleased to deliver even more value to Flexport and its customers through the world-class service they can depend on from Atlas Air.”

“We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Atlas Air Worldwide to bring additional capacity to Flexport clients amid a turbulent time in air freight,” Neel Jones Shah, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Airfreight at Flexport, said. “This strategic agreement will strengthen Flexport’s dedicated capacity network and provide global shippers with additional origins and destinations throughout Asia and the United States, ultimately enabling them to build more flexible and resilient supply chains.”

dnata’s double-CEIV-whammy in Brussels

Upon being awarded both IATA’s CEIV Pharma as well as its CEIV Live Animal certifications at Brussels Airport (BRU), last week, Stef Vanbinst, Managing Director of dnata Belgium, commented: “We are proud to be globally recognized for delivering reliable and safe services at our Brussels hub. These certifications demonstrate our team's ability to handle precious cargo under the strictest international standards, consistently providing best-in-class services to our customers.” Rigorous audits were carried out on dnata’s pharma and live animal handling processes at its BRU cargo facilities (opened in 2019) and the airport’s Animal Care & Inspection Center. The latter 2000 m² facility is operated by dnata. The company employs 120 highly-trained staff at its BRU location. “I thank each member of our team for their hard work and commitment to our robust quality and compliance program that ensures service excellence at every stage of the handling process. We continue to invest in our operations to exceed our customers' expectations and cement our position as a leading cargo handler at Brussels Airport,” he added.

Brendan Sullivan, IATA Global Head of Cargo, congratulated: “The safe and efficient transportation of temperature sensitive Pharma products and live animals is a key priority for our industry. We congratulate dnata for achieving both CEIV Pharma and Live Animals certification at their Brussels hub. Shippers can enjoy additional reassurance that their facilities, equipment, operations and staff comply with all applicable standards, regulations and guidelines.”

Nathan De Valck, Head of Cargo Product and Network Development at Brussels Airport, said: “We are very glad to add dnata to our local community of CEIV Pharma certified partners. As the first and largest airport community in the world with CEIV Pharma certified stakeholders, this certification of dnata further strengthens our position as preferred EU pharma gateway and increases the guarantee of qualitative handling of time and temperature sensitive cargo throughout the entire air cargo chain.”

Qatar Airways Cargo insources its Spanish sales locations

In a press release on 24JAN22, Robertino Veltman, Vice President Cargo Europe at Qatar Airways, thanked ATC Aviation Services for doing such an excellent job as its GSA for the airline’s 8 Spanish locations, since it first commenced operations in 2005. “Qatar Airways Cargo extends its sincere and grateful thanks to ATC Aviation Services, S.L., which, over the past 16 years, has helped to build our Spanish footprint to what it is today: Qatar Airways Cargo is Spain's number one air cargo service provider for the several past years. It is because our operations have now grown to such a large scale, that Qatar Airways Cargo feels the time is right to insource its commercial and customer service activities across Spain. Through meticulous planning and close and professional collaboration with ATC Aviation Services, S.L., we are aiming for a smooth transition so that business continues to run as normal. Our customers can look forward to many familiar contacts in the new Qatar Airways Cargo teams, and simply need to change over to the new central e-mail address in the interim.”

On 01FEB22, therefore, the airline will be insourcing all its Spanish commercial operations. Promising to publish “further details regarding the new organization, contacts, phone numbers and e-mail addresses” in early February 2022, Qatar Airways Cargo requests its Spanish customers to use a new, central, e-mail address in the interim: spainreservation@es.qatarairways.com. “In line with our corporate motto, ‘moved by people’, customers can look forward to direct and personal support from dedicated Qatar Airways Cargo teams across Spain from next month,” the release states, promising enhanced services and products in future, and again thanking ATC Aviation Services “for preparing us to fly”.

“Qatar Airways Cargo offers regular flights into and from Madrid (MAD), Barcelona (BCN), Zaragoza (ZAZ), and Malaga (AGP), while customers can also benefit from services offered at offline stations in Alicante (ALC), Bilbao (BIO), Vitoria (VIT), and Valencia (VLC). These network points and capacities will remain and also will be bookable online via WebCargo by Freightos,” the press release concludes.

And we’re off!

Over in Prague, Czech Republic, Skyport has celebrated the handling of its first Bamboo Airways Charter flight of 2022. “Bamboo Airways, the first carrier to launch a non-stop service between Vietnam and Czech Republic, plans to operate a scheduled service between Hanoi and Prague supported by Skyport,” the press release states, with the first operation already having take place on 18JAN22. Operating a B787-900, Bamboo Airways transported 15 tons of general cargo from Hanoi to Prague. There it was handled overnight by the Skyport team who offloaded the Vietnamese cargo, and loaded around 7 tons of Czech export cargo onto the plane, which departed again the next day.

Dang Tat Thang, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bamboo Airways, who has collaborated with Skyport at PRG since 2019, commented: “With the valuable support of Skyport, Bamboo Airways has had a very successful flight to PRG and we strongly believe that this flight will be a stepping stone for a fruitful partnership between Bamboo Airways and Skyport in the future. Bamboo Airways is the first Vietnamese carrier to launch a non-stop flight to Prague before the pandemic. We expect to rebuild the bridge connecting Vietnam and the Czech Republic through Bamboo Airways' regular nonstop flights as soon as the conditions allow.”

Ad hoc charter services have so far been operated, with plans for the Vietnamese carrier to operate a regular flight schedule as soon as possible.

“As the chosen handling partner for Bamboo Airways at Prague, Skyport is ready to support the airline in its aim to bridge the gap between Vietnam and the Czech Republic with the provision of both scheduled and ad hoc services, such as this charter flight,” David Adámek, CEO, Skyport, guaranteed.
“We look forward to the start of regular services with Bamboo Airways as the Covid situation improves and airline operations return to regularity.”

From Vienna to the Windy City, and other things

cargo-partner’s air cargo charter operations which it started in early 2020, appear to be working well. The company has now installed a weekly, part-load Vienna-Chicago connection, complementing its other U.S. and Asian destinations out of Europe. It began at the end of last year, in response to the tight capacity in the market. “cargo-partner has recognized customer demand for highly time-critical transports on this route and is able to ensure immediate availability as well as the fastest possible response times,” cargo-partner CEO, Stefan Krauter, said. In particular the automotive, high-tech, and retail industries were seeking alternatives, also because of the ongoing crisis in ocean freight. cargo-partner operates its own warehouses at both at Vienna and Chicago O’hare, so is in a position to offer flexible door-to-door solutions, including comprehensive customs and last-mile services.

Planespotters are always excited to see an Antonov-124 land, and cargo-partner was responsible for making a number of them happy recently, when it arranged an ad hoc charter from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Linz, Austria, for a lifestyle segment client. The time-critical operation involved the collection of 92 tons of cargo from two locations in Vietnam, building this up on 287 pallets, leading to a total volume of 550 m³, clearing these through customs, flying them to Austria, and then onforwarding across Western Europe, on board of twelve trucks.

cargo-partner has also been busy in Indonesia, where it recently promoted its local office to a fully operational branch office, as a result of over 15% in cargo in the world’s 16th largest economy. “The expansion was made possible after the Indonesian government amended local regulations in 2021 allowing foreign logistics companies to incorporate as wholly foreign-owned enterprises,” the press release stats. Stefan Krauter, CEO of cargo-partner, adds: "We seized this opportunity given to us by the Indonesian government to turn our representative office into a fully operational branch office in Jakarta. We recently expanded our branch office network in Australia and with the addition of Indonesia we continue to pursue our expansion strategy in the region. This was the next important and logical step for us. We look forward to supporting our Indonesian customers as best we can as the customer is at the heart of everything we do."

Another step closer to greener European skies

On 27JAN22, EUROCONTROL and ACI EUROPE replaced an existing agreement from 2008, with a new Memorandum of Understanding, focused on two main areas: Efficiency and Sustainability in air transport. Efficient air transport will be achieved through increased integration between operations at and around airport platforms and Air Traffic Management, moving to collaborative decision making. Sustainable air transport will be reached through the continued development and outreach of Airport Carbon Accreditation, as well as the continued rollout of EUROCONTROL’s Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM).

“For Europe’s airports, recovering from COVID-19 and the imperative to ‘Build Back Better’, means chasing every opportunity to increase their operational efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint. Over the past years, EUROCONTROL has come to play an increasingly important role in supporting not just airports, but the whole aviation eco-system in that direction,” Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE, explained. “The challenges we face in progressing further, and the interconnected nature of aviation means enhanced collaboration and integration are key. This is precisely what this new agreement between ACI EUROPE and EUROCONTROL is about. We look forward to our continued collaboration.”

Eamonn Brennan, Director General of EUROCONTROL, added, “Flights were down 44% last year across Europe to 6.2 million, whilst at the same time passenger numbers were down 59% - a loss of 1.4 billion. EUROCONTROL is focused on supporting European aviation, and is working closely with airports to deliver enhanced operational efficiency and sustainable solutions as we recover from the pandemic. Time and again, our organizations have shown that working together in areas as diverse as innovation, R&D, urban air mobility, and optimizing performance at all levels, reaps even greater benefits for aviation. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration even further for the benefit of the wider aviation network as a whole.”

The two organizations, together representing 41 Member States, 2 Comprehensive Agreement States and all of Europe’s airports, thus pledge to work towards European aviation’s future-facing stability, safety, and sustainability.

Brigitte Gledhill

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