American Airlines announced a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) off-take agreement with Aemetis to bring the airline’s total SAF commitment to more than 120 million gallons, a signal of the integral role SAF will play in American’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and achieve its ambitious sustainability goals. The airline’s agreement with Aemetis is the result of work with the oneworld alliance, the first global airline alliance to commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 and to publish a pathway for doing so. oneworld is now the first global airline alliance to announce a SAF purchase. “The American Airlines team is committed to reducing emissions from our operations, and sustainable aviation fuel is the cornerstone of our strategy in this decade,” said Doug Parker, chairman and CEO of American. “We’re proud to join with our oneworld partners in supporting the growth of SAF through this agreement with Aemetis, and we’re eager to continue collaborating with like-minded partners to meet aviation’s climate challenge.”

Ecom Express Limited announced the launch of its first all-women Delivery Center in Delhi. The all-women Delivery Center is an initiative towards empowering women and providing them financial independence while strengthening the company’s Diversity and Inclusion agenda. Women force have already been inducted in the Delivery Center and it will be the first time in the company that a 10-member team, exclusively comprising women from the ranks of Delivery Center Head to Delivery Associates, will be engaged independently in all operational activities. Inaugurating the all-women delivery center, Manju Dhawan, Co-founder, Ecom Express Limited, said, “The launch of our all-women delivery center is a conscious agenda and an extension of our continued effort to supporting women with opportunities that empower them to grow and economically elevate them. Our aim is to create more and more opportunities for female team members across roles, including front-line delivery role as we remain steadfast in our approach to support them and their career progression.”

Mahindra Logistics (MLL) and LOGOS have announced a long-term lease agreement for 1.4 million square feet (mmsf) of warehouse facilities at the LOGOS Luhari Logistics Estate in Delhi-NCR. The transaction represents India’s largest warehousing facility in a single park. Under the agreement, LOGOS will develop three Grade-A warehouses totaling 1.4 mmsf for MLL at the LOGOS Luhari Logistics Estate. The first 0.5mmsf warehouse, which was completed in mid-2021, is fully operational and the other two warehouses are currently under development with delivery in late 2021 and early 2022 respectively. The new warehouses will be an important part of MLL’s Pan-India network of multi-client facilities that manage the fulfillment and distribution of its clients’ services within the e-commerce, consumer and engineering industries. The facilities are designed in line with MLL’s sustainability standards, including Liquid Discharge Management and Renewable Energy and Waste Management requirements and state-of-the-art automation. MLL will employ over 2,500 employees and third-party associates across these facilities.

Hapag-Lloyd has agreed upon a three-month charter commencing in January of the 4,253 teu Synergy Oakland for an eye-watering $130,000 a day from Greek non-operating owner Euroseas. The carrier’s in-house charter desk will no doubt have baulked at a charter rate some $50,000 a day above the current bull market, but was clearly unable to fix an alternative to cover a vital commitment. It will now pay the owner some $11.5m for the duration of the time charter. Putting the Hapag-Lloyd fixture into context of today’s market, Euroseas paid just $10m for the Synergy Oakland in November 2019, as part of an en-bloc purchase and, four years ago, owners of similar panamax ships would have been happy to achieve $8,000 a day for a three-month charter.

The covid-19 pandemic brought a paradigm shift in consumer behavior from offline to online shopping leading to increased activity in sectors like e-commerce and third-party logistics, in turn leading to increased logistics and storage requirements in urban settings which is expected to take the warehousing stock in India to 380 million sq ft by 2024, according to JLL report. The total stock of Grade A and B warehousing space in the top 8 cities increased at a CAGR of 16% from 2018 to September 2021. “Growth in the supply of Grade A spaces over the years is due to high demand for spaces with high specifications, citing increased inclination for high-grade structures and introduction of new players in the market. The Indian market has now firmly established itself for a more predominant position in Grade A space as opposed to Grade B spaces,” said Yogesh Shevade, Head, logistics and industrial, India, JLL

Responding to November 2021, FIEO President, Dr A Sakthivel said that the monthly exports performance of USD 29.88 billion with a high double-digit growth of more than 26.49 percent, showcases the continuous resilience of India’s exports sector. The enthusiasm with which the Exim community has impressively performed during the year has further given a boost to the sector, thereby helping the economy move towards recovery following the second wave of Covid-19 earlier this year. The recent GDP numbers also showcases the positive impact of exports, which has contributed in a big way to growth of the economy as a whole, added FIEO Chief. Praising the efforts and hard work of the exporters, Dr Sakthivel also welcomed the steps taken by the government under the able and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and also the Union Finance Minister and the Union Commerce & Industry and Textiles Minister for showing confidence and trust on the exporters.

DRONAMICS, the unmanned aircraft developer and operator and SOF connect, the operator of Sofia Airport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on collaborating on innovation initiatives at the airport. SOF Connect’s CEO Jesus Caballero and COO Henning Pfisterer signed the agreement with Svilen Rangelov CEO and co-founder and Konstantin Rangelov, CTO and co-founder of DRONAMICS. The two companies will collaborate on the upcoming global unveiling of the first unit of the full-scale Black Swan unmanned drone. The event is planned to take place on the airfield of Sofia Airport where the DRONAMICS team will present to the world the first manufactured unit in Bulgaria and plans to expand globally. The Memorandum also envisages collaboration on flight demonstrations, and trials of the logistics service for same-day shipping with the “Black Swan” from Sofia airport as well as to explore further possibilities in expanding DRONAMICS’ current manufacturing and testing facilities with airside access at the airport.

ROM Cargo has appointed Air One Aviation as its Global Sales & Services partner (GSSA). The appointment follows the awarding of the airline’s Air Operators’ Certificate by Romania’s civil aviation authority to begin international Boeing 747-400 freighter services. Air One Aviation expects ROM Cargo’s 747F fleet capable of carrying a payload of up to 112 tonnes – to meet immediate demand for Asia-Europe cargo capacity. Paul Bennett, founder and chief executive of Air One Aviation, said: “We are delighted to welcome another Boeing 747 freighter operator into our fleet portfolio. With the support we are generating from our freight forwarding, logistics and charter broker customers for 747 all-cargo capacity, we are confident of quickly establishing ROM Cargo in the international market and developing a platform for the next stage of the airline’s expansion.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released October 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that demand continued to be well above pre-crisis levels and that the capacity constraints have eased slightly. “October data reflected an overall positive outlook for air cargo. Supply chain congestion continued to push manufacturers towards the speed of air cargo. Demand was up 9.4% in October compared to pre-crisis levels. And capacity constraints were slowly resolving as more passenger travel meant more belly capacity for air cargo. The impact of government reactions to the Omicron variant is a concern. If it dampens travel demand, capacity issues will become more acute. After almost two years of COVID-19, governments have the experience and tools to make better data-driven decisions than the mostly knee-jerk reactions to restrict travel that we have seen to date. Restrictions will not stop the spread of Omicron. Along with urgently reversing these policy mistakes, the focus of governments should be squarely on ensuring the integrity of supply chains and increasing the distribution of vaccines,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

While the congestion at several airports, notably Amsterdam and Chicago O’Hare, has eased, handlers claim one of the biggest issues is lack of freight movements between Friday and Monday. “We are experiencing cargo not being picked up by forwarders – that’s a sweeping statement, but in general, dwell times are increasing,” said Robert Fordree, head of cargo for Menzies. “Forwarders are struggling to get drivers, and their warehouses are full too. We have looked at increasing storage charges, but it’s really a logjam everywhere, and wouldn’t change anything.” Another handler said it had set up its own operations to deliver freight direct to forwarders, but added: “But then, there is no space at their end. Forwarders are congested too. We doubled our storage charges, and then did it again, but still no one picked up the freight. It’s caused congestion in our warehouses and it’s been chaos.” Forwarders can also expect to see a rise in terminal handling charges (THCs) next year.