Category Archives: Aviation

Qatar Airways has signed an agreement with Airlink to transport 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid over the next two years for free of charge. The move was undertaken to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer – Cargo, Qatar Airways, says, “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how essential air freight is to responding to crises and we are pleased to support the work of governments and NGOs around the globe, transporting essential supplies to places where they are needed.” Steven J Smith, President & Chief Executive, Airlink, adds, “The 200 tonnes of freight space is a generous donation that will help fragile communities now, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and in future disasters.

Talking in the second digital conclave of CargoTalk, Manoj Singh, Senior Vice President & Head – Cargo, Mumbai Airport shared his experience on how Mumbai Airport has overcome the challenges with the help of stakeholders’ collaborative approach. He said, “We, as an industry, have learned a lot with the Covid crisis. It is a new experience for all of us and as an air cargo industry player we look forward for the continuity even after this Covid gets out. This sector is playing a major role at this stage and in future there is a possibility of further growth.” “We, as a stakeholder, have really worked hard to keep the things moving. It is not possible to achieve these numbers without the combination of all the stakeholders working towards the same goal,” he adds.

Commenting on the cargo stakeholders’ decision of handling shipments only against 100 per cent advance payments by their clients, at CargoTalk’s second digital conclave, Yashpal Sharma, Hon. Secretary, Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI), says, “There are lot of cash and carry requirements and lot of stakeholders currently are in a big cash constraints as well as there is huge credit default risk in the market which is what we as an association would also need to work together with all stakeholders to ensure liquidity, less default risk in the market and least amount of blockage of funds from the shipper, consignee, etc.” “What is important is to make sure the circulation keep going. Diverting it from associations’ perspective to freight forwarders’ perspective, Sharma suggests, “We are prompting everybody to pay at least the current transactions now and also add something for the previous dues they have with us. Ultimately, we also have to help those businesses to run, we cannot ask them to pay 100 per cent,” he continues.

Sharing his perspective on high freight rates at CargoTalk’s second digital conclave, Sunil Arora, President, The Air Cargo Agents Associations of India (ACAAI), said, “The rates have not gone high because of low supply or high demand; it is when both the demand and supply have collapsed yet the freight rates have gone up three or four times. It is a very peculiar and unique situation, we need to consider that the direct impact of the high freight rate are not only on the logistics cost but also on the merchandise. Some sort of rate control mechanism has to come in. We must really be considerate towards the ex-im trade who has been supporting the airlines in good and bad times.”

In order to expand its reach in Spain, Agility has opened a state-of-the-art, 11,000-square-meter warehouse and office facility at ZAL Port (Prat) in the Port of Barcelona. The new building addresses the current needs and planned growth of Agility Spain; equipped with state-of-the-art technology for logistics. Features of the warehouse include free height of 11 meters in the storage area and a deck roof built on site. The plot is equipped with 56 private parking spaces distributed in two areas and 25 loading gates with automatic sectional doors and external shelters. “Agility Spain offers extensive experience with three customs warehouses, temperature-controlled management, and the GDP certification required by pharmaceutical companies,” says Carlos Martinez, Sales Director, Agility Spain, in adding, “We focus on the renewable and engineering sectors, project logistics, transportation management, and turnkey projects for large-scale and complex initiatives.”

To meet the accelerated demand for e-booking solutions, All Nippon Airways (ANA) has announced that the airline would be able to provide real-time quotes for all available air cargo capacity on e-booking platform named cargo.one. The participation was first announced in February. “The Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for the increased digital sourcing and booking behaviour of freight forwarders and has encouraged our companies to join together with an even stronger bond,” says, Toshiaki Toyama, Executive Vice President, ANA. Last week, cargo.one also announced that it had developed ‘plug and play’ capabilities with IBS Software which means that airlines using the iCargo system, such as ANA, could easily offer their capacity on the booking platform.

“We must always keep it in mind that we have pharma and agriculture sector ready to take the lead. The country’s pharmaceutical sector has great potential and government must encourage it by investing in R&D and by providing better facilities and incentives to the private sector to enhance its production for exports.” says Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers at CargoTalk’s, first digital conclave. “This is the right time to maximise opportunity by being innovative, utilising skilled labour, bringing professionalism, networking aggressively and adopting PR strategies along with identifying the latest technology,” he continues. “Secondly, there should be more collaboration and cooperation among each other in order to reduce expenses wherever we can,” he adds.

Alitalia Airlines has launched its first cargo flight from Mumbai to New York via Rome [Mumbai (BOM) – Rome (FCO) – New York (JFK)] with B777-300 / B777- 200 aircraft on June 20, 2020. The airline would be operating a weekly P2C flight on Mumbai – Rome – New York route with B777 aircraft without cabin seats. It is scheduled to operate every Saturday/Sunday, offering a capacity of 50 tonnes per flight. With its strong and robust network, the airline is offering onward connectivity into Europe & USA. Air Logistics Group is the cargo GSSA for Alitalia in India since 2018 with the airlines having had a successful daily operation DEL- FCO pax flight through A330 aircraft in the pre-Covid times. Deepak Kumar, Cargo Manager – Western India, Air Logistics Group, says, “The customers in Mumbai are delighted to have the Italian bird flying back to Mumbai and have given a stupendous welcome to the carrier which is clearly reflected by an overwhelming response to the capacity offered, with the first flight taken off with a whopping success of full capacity utilisation for Italy, Europe and USA.” “We are here to serve during these challenging times and assure our complete support to our cargo fraternity because we firmly believe that problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines,” he adds.

To give its customers more autonomy when booking, schedule searching and submitting claims online, American Airlines Cargo has added new features to its digital booking platform aacargo.com. “Our new technology platform allows for a better experience for our customers, enables them to make bookings at their convenience and offers more flexibility and efficiencies behind the scenes for our team members,” says Angela Hudson, Head of Transformation, American Airlines Cargo. The latest new tools will both streamline and advance business through reduced paper use and an increasingly more touchless system. This type of efficient foundation allows for greater flexibility and speed to market for new products and solutions to continue to provide the best in customer service. The entire technology transition began more than three years ago and involves more than 8,000 team members in cargo and airport operations, and more than 30,000 customers.

Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, has said that they have been able to sail through the crisis owing to their cargo operations. “At SpiceJet, we tried to take a different path, wherein when there was no passenger traffic, we decided early on to use our aircraft for cargo business, which was our most significant reaction to this COVID crisis. In fact, in the last 2-3 months, we have emerged as India’s largest air cargo airline by a very long way. We carried close to 20,000 tonnes of cargo in the last 2 months and this includes flights we have done under Lifeline UDAN, all the medicines, medical equipment, and PPE kits that we got from different parts of the world into India. Also, outside, we sent medicines, fruits, vegetables and other things in support of our farming community and maritime community etc. Hence, we’ve tried to play a positive social role and we were trying to keep ourselves commercially afloat by expanding our cargo operations,” he said.