Category Archives: Aviation

Qatar Airways Cargo announces the further roll out of third-party eBooking platform WebCargo by Freightos across the United States of America*, effective 19 July 2021. Forwarders in the USA will be able to conduct eBookings with access to live rates and available capacity on the WebCargo platform. This will further improve their booking experience with the airline, resulting in higher efficiencies and instant responses for confirmation. The cargo carrier has an extensive network in the United States spanning 12 cities with 145 weekly flights, thus offering customers more than 4,700 tonnes of cargo capacity every week. Qatar Airways Chief Officer Cargo, Guillaume Halleux said: “Following our successful launch across Europe, we are glad to introduce WebCargo throughout the United States of America, steadily extending digitalisation across our organisation. We are actively pushing for digitalisation in air freight as it brings in efficiencies and provides multiple benefits for our customers such as 24/7 visibility of price and capacity as well as real time confirmation to name a few.”

Lessor BBAM has signed up for more B737-800 freighter conversions from Boeing as it looks to capitalise on the strong express and e-commerce markets. The company announced the order of a further 12 B737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters, bringing its total orders and commitments for the aircraft to 31. The deal also represents the first time that Costa Rica-based MRO COOPESA will convert the model on behalf of Boeing. “The Boeing Converted Freighter programme is extending the life and enhancing the value of the 737-800s in our fleet,” said Steve Zissis, president and chief executive of BBAM. “We are growing our Boeing order book to meet the strong demand we see worldwide for narrowbody freighters, and we are proud to be the launch customer for the conversion lines at COOPESA.”

Air cargo demand returned to growth in June following a drop in May as a result of public holidays. The latest statistics from CLIVE Data Services show that air cargo demand in June increased by 1% compared with the same month in 2019 (used for comparison due to impact of Covid) after declining by 4% in May. Niall van de Wouw, managing director of CLIVE Data Services, said: “June’s performance data was relatively strong and seems to confirm that May’s decline was a one-off, as we anticipated, impacted by the public holidays during that month. The global air cargo market now seems to be back on track, reflecting what The Economist has described as the ‘long goodbye’ to Covid’s impact on our everyday lives”. “In June, we once again saw no signs of recovery in capacity. It is abundantly clear that airlines are micromanaging their flights because the pressure is everywhere and, in the case of cargo-only services by passenger airlines, the capacity out there is expensive to operate.

Etihad Cargo, the cargo and logistics arm of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Aviation Group, and CargoAi, the SaaS application which provides air cargo digital solutions, have partnered to elevate the carrier’s API accessibility for freight forwarders as part of its digitalisation strategy. During the past few years, Etihad Cargo has accelerated its development of technology advancements which have provided simplified customer experiences through a number of partnerships. This has culminated in the launch of its brand new digital platform, etihadcargo.com. Their latest collaboration with CargoAi will further enhance this through the provision of brand-new API accessibility for freight forwarders the world over. “Digitalisation has been at the core of Etihad Cargo’s strategy over the last three to five years, and continues to be a focus in driving digitalisation and streamlining processes across the air freight world. Our partnership with CargoAi supports this vision, and provides an additional tool which delivers a rapid and fluid digital booking services platform,” explained Martin Drew, Senior Vice President Sales & Cargo, Etihad Aviation Group.

Delmos Aviation, a part of Sentro Group continues to ramp up its air cargo network in CIS Nations with the launch of its first smaller capacity aircraft cargo charter flight between India & Uzbekistan. The first flight took place on July 7th on DEL– TAS route on A 320 PTC smaller capacity aircraft to deliver essential medical equipment and pharmaceuticals products from India to the region. The cargo charter flights can also carry cross-border e-commerce products such as apparel and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Delmos Aviation focuses on improving regular cargo operations between India & Uzbekistan and other CIS Nations, as India is the primary exporter of essential pharma supplies to the region. We are so excited to launch regular cargo charter services and are happy to provide an enhanced and streamlined cargo charter experience across the entire network. The charter flight on 7th July is a pilot flight project. It has been a milestone for all.” said Dr Naveen Rao, Group Chairman.

Lufthansa Cargo is targeting the e-commerce market with the conversion of two Airbus freighters to be used on intra-European services. The Frankfurt-headquartered airline today announced that two of its Airbus A321 aircraft would be converted into freighters to be operated by Lufthansa CityLine. They are set to join Lufthansa’s fleet “from the beginning of 2022”. Lufthansa Cargo chief executive Dorothea von Boxberg said: “Lufthansa Cargo wants to offer customers in the eCommerce segment fast intra-European connections. With the converted A321s, we are meeting our customers’ growing demand for same-day solutions and further strengthening our dense network of global connections as well as our product offering. The selected aircraft type can transport 28t per flight, significantly larger cargo volumes than in the short-haul bellies of passenger aircraft. In addition to forwarders, integrators and postal operators, e-commerce providers will be customers for this offering.”

Chennault International Airport in Louisiana, US, is constructing a new cargo facility that will enable it to enter the airfreight sector. The hub said it started constructing the $4m facility last month. The 10,000 sq ft building is expected to be completed in 12 to 18 months. In a statement, the hub said the project was propelled by $3m in capital outlay funding from the Louisiana Legislature, with the balance of the funding paid by the Chennault International Airport Authority. It also said it is in talks with potential ground handling partners. Currently, Chennault International Airport is recognised as “an emerging aerospace hub” and the new cargo facility is expected to “provide economic diversity and ultimately create new jobs”. Chennault executive director Kevin Melton commented: “Chennault remains a game-changer for Southwest Louisiana — and we’re excited to offer this new opportunity for more development and more jobs.”

Buyers of airfreight capacity should expect the market to get worse before it gets better, according to Bruce Chan, vice president of global logistics at investment bank Stifel. Chan said that belly capacity is not expected to return until 2023 at the earliest. And while rates are expected to ease from their current elevated levels faster than the return of capacity, space shortages in the immediate future are likely to push prices up this year. Chan said: “Does that mean rates will stay this high until 2024? Unlikely, in our view. But there are structural factors that may keep rates higher than before, including the global rise of e-commerce and the fractalisation of supply chains in search of labour, capacity, and production diversification. “And several large freight forwarders have now declared air charter to be a permanent part of their service offering—not just peak capacity infill.” However, in the immediate future “we do expect things to get worse before they get better” for those buying air cargo capacity.

The civil aviation ministry on Tuesday announced setting up of a sub-group comprising members from domestic air cargo agents body DACAAI, AAI logistics arm AAICLAS, various airlines and a joint venture airport, for suggesting ways and means to improve cargo-related infrastructure issues. A virtual conference hosted by the association on Monday on “Rebooting Aviation-DACCAI-Issues and Challenges of Domestic Air Cargo Logistics”, which was attended by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri as chief guest saw the sub groups constitution. The statement said, “With regard to the suggestion of DACAAI for improving infrastructure and other issues concerning domestic air cargo, he (the minister) instantly constituted a sub-group consisting of DACAAI, AAICLAS, airline and JV airport representatives to go into matters that were hindering the growth of domestic cargo by air,”

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/ BLR Airport) has been inducted into the prestigious Airports Council International (ACI) Director General’s Roll of Excellence for the year 2020 for consistently delivering superior customer service. In a letter to Hari Marar, MD & CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), Luis Felipe de Oliveira, Director General, ACI World wrote: “I am delighted to announce that Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru has been chosen by its passengers to join the Airports Council International (ACI) Director General’s Roll of Excellence. I am confident that you will continue to be a role model for airport service quality excellence and work with us to raise the bar in service standards and best practices within the industry.” “BLR Airport is honored to be inducted into the ACI Director General’s Roll of Excellence. I thank our passengers for the trust and confidence that they’ve in BLR Airport. I would like to dedicate this recognition to the BLR Airport community, who came together to ensure seamless operations during these challenging times,” said Hari Marar, MD & CEO, BIAL.