The war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia and stepped-up COVID lockdowns in China caused the air cargo market to contract in March and macroeconomic clouds could further dampen a sector that has performed well during a chaotic pandemic. The impact is being felt in freight rates, which are quickly climbing as capacity disappears faster than demand. Clive Data Services reported that shipment volumes declined 6.5 percent last month compared to the pre-COVID level in 2019 and were 4.5 percent lower than a year ago. Meanwhile, available cargo space on aircraft shrank four percent year-over-year and is now 14 percent less than before the pandemic.

Australia’s national airline Qantas will fly non-stop from Bengaluru to Sydney and is finalising a codeshare partnership with IndiGo to make travel between India and Australia easier. From 14 September 2022, Qantas will operate four weekly return flights between Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport with its widebody Airbus A330 aircraft. These are the first direct flights between Australia and southern India by any airline, cutting almost three hours off the current fastest trip between Bengaluru and Sydney.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) organised a stakeholders’ meet chaired by Shri Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPA, on the completion of seven years of Sagarmala. During the meeting, the Chairman apprised the various projects initiated by JNPA which are in line with the Sagarmala initiative in the presence of Shri Unmesh Sharad Wagh, IRS, Deputy Chairman, JNPA and HoDs. Sethi said, “All the stakeholders play a crucial role in JNPA’s landmark achievements. They are an integral part of the port. Stakeholders’ views and opinions on various ongoing projects are valuable to us. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders for the proactive and constant support in maintaining the country’s growth and ensuring seamless trade.”

IAG Cargo is working with various charities including the Red Cross, Project Hope and SEPLA Ayuda and its sister airlines Iberia, British Airways and Vueling to transport aid for Ukraine. Till dat, the carrier has donated capacity to transport 125 tonnes of aid, including blankets, kitchen equipment and medical supplies. IAG Cargo will continue to support relief efforts into the region. The first aid shipment took place on 4 March from Barcelona to Warsaw, carrying donations from colleagues at its sister airline Vueling.

V-Trans won the “Best Integrated Logistics Service Provider” award by India Cargo Awards, India’s topmost Supply chain awards, which helps to create a platform to recognise those behind the success of the cargo and logistics industry on 30 March 2022. Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans (India) Ltd received the award from Amrit Lal Meena, IAS, Special Secretary (Logistics) – Dept. of Commerce, Gov. of India at Crowne Plaza, New Delhi.

Dachser increased its consolidated revenue by 26.0 percent to EUR 7.1 billion in FY 2021. After the lockdown-driven lateral detour of the previous year, the logistics service provider is back on a dynamic growth track. The positive outcome for 2021 is due to organic growth in shipments and tonnage of 6.3 percent, or 7.7 percent at the Group level. High freight prices, caused by the shortage of load capacity experienced by all carriers, set the seal on this jump in revenue. Burkhard Eling, CEO at Dachser said, “There’s no question that 2021 was exceptional in many ways, with some extreme challenges to overcome. It was marked by Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and global supply chains pushed to breaking point, all of which caused great uncertainty among our customers. Even in this situation, we managed to offer logistics solutions while still maintaining a high level of quality and service.”

As a part of its global expansion strategy, UPS Healthcare has recently completed several significant investments in Hungary to offer customers faster shipping times and greater flexibility as they look to grow their businesses in existing and new markets. These investments include the addition of 13,000m2 of state-of-the-art warehousing space to its hub near Budapest. Housing multiple validated temperature-controlled environments for a variety of temperature-sensitive medicines and biologics, this expansion means that UPS Healthcare’s campus has 37,000m2 of dedicated Healthcare space in the country.

Air Canada Cargo has selected CargoAi’s eBooking and eQuote platform for freight forwarders as it continues to invest in its digital transformation.“We continue to invest in our digital transformation, which is a key pillar of Air Canada Cargo’s strategy as it continues to adapt to the changing landscape in airfreight,” said Matthieu Casey, Managing Director, Commercial – Cargo at Air Canada. He added, “We’re looking forward to further leveraging our API capabilities and the opportunity to reach out to additional users via the CargoAi marketplace. We’re continuing to grow our distribution reach and we’re confident that the features available on CargoAi will be well suited to the large range of our product portfolio.”

Locus announced its strategic partnership with LocoNav, an AI-driven full-stack fleet tech company to enable digital transformation in the logistics industry by automating supply chain operations. Pranjal Swarup, Director of Partnerships, Locus, said, “We are extremely excited about our collaboration with LocoNav and are looking forward to adding more value for enterprise customers with our last-mile optimisation platform. This collaboration will help us empower our enterprise clients with a world-class fleet visibility tool.” This collaboration is a step forward to positively impact the end-user experience by addressing challenges like inadequate tech infrastructure and lack of operational visibility.

SkyCell has launched the new 1500X container, the next generation in its hybrid container portfolio for high value pharmaceutical product transportation. The 1500X enables pharma shipments for products that need to be kept at +2°C to +8°C or +15°C to +25°C and has a tested market-leading independent runtime of 270 hours at 20°C. The container also comes fully equipped with SkyCell’s proprietary SECURE SaaS platform for in-transit monitoring. The 1500X container’s extended 270-hour runtime ensures that the transportation of temperature-sensitive goods remains unaffected even in the event of unforeseen circumstances such as flight delays, re-routing, and delays at customs.