Category Archives: Aviation

Highlighting a clear V-shaped recovery, air cargo started the year on a positive note, with industry-wide Cargo Tonne-Kilometres (CTKs) rising above the pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the crisis started. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released January 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that air cargo demand returned to pre-Covid-19 levels. The air cargo volumes in CTKs terms were up by 1.1% in January 2021 compared with 2019 levels and 6.1% year on year. Meanwhile, capacity for the month was down by 19.5% compared with 2019 and 19.3% on last year. As a result, cargo load factors stood at 58.9%, which is a 12 percentage point improvement on 2019 and 14.1 percentage point increase on last year. All regions saw improvement in air cargo demand this month. North America and Africa were the strongest performers, with CTKs up by a robust 11.7% and 21.1%, respectively compared with the pre-crisis period (January 2019). Drivers of air cargo demand related to manufacturing and economic activity remained generally supportive. However, emerging markets reported weaker export demand amidst COVID-19 outbreaks. Alexandre de Juniac, Director General & Chief Executive, IATA said, “Air cargo traffic is back to pre-crisis levels and that is some much-needed good news for the global economy. But while there is a strong demand to ship goods, our ability is capped by the shortage of belly capacity normally provided by passenger aircraft. That should be a sign to governments that they need to share their plans for restart so that the industry has clarity in terms of how soon more capacity can be brought online. In normal times, a third of world trade by value moves …

According to aviation industry consultant IBA, demand for freighter aircraft continues to grow strongly as a result of Covid-19, but values and lease rates remain suppressed by an oversupply of feedstock aircraft. The data from IBA’s InsightIQ platform indicates that since May 2020, almost 200 narrow-body and wide-body aircraft have joined the worldwide freighter fleet. The active fleet of narrow-body freighters has grown by 61 to 625 aircraft with newly converted Boeing 737-800s accounting for around half that growth. The Boeing 757-200 remains the pre-eminent freighter aircraft with a fleet of 298 aircraft (converted and factory delivered), followed by the Boeing 737-400 with 148. The active mid-size wide-body freighter fleet has grown more steeply in the same period by 80 to 624 aircraft. The Boeing 767-300ER is the dominant aircraft in this segment, both accounting for more than half the growth as many ex-passenger aircraft and converted, and in total fleet size which now stands at 315 aircraft when one adds converted and factory delivered aircraft. The A330 freighter fleet is also growing strongly but from a much lower base, with 6 aircraft converted during this period, but with an additional pool of aircraft taking its fleet size to 74. The large wide-body freighter fleet has grown by 55 to 601 aircraft since May 2020. The re-entry into service from storage of 29 Boeing 747-400s and 7 MD-11Fs accounted for around half the growth, with the remainder made up of factory deliveries of 22 Boeing 777Fs and 3 747-8Fs. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, freighter aircraft usage has grown strongly, driven by the fall in belly hold capacity as passenger aircraft were grounded. The number of freighter aircraft …

Cathay Pacific has successfully delivered the first batch of Fosun Pharma/BioNTech vaccines to Hong Kong, drawing on its long-established expertise in pharmaceutical shipments under cold chain protocols to meet the handling demands of the Fosun Pharma/BioNTech product. The first delivery of the first batch of one million Fosun Pharma/BioNTech vaccines to be supplied to Hong Kong arrived from Frankfurt were unloaded as priority from a freighter flight to the Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal. Tom Owen, Director – Cargo, Cathay Pacific, said, “Different vaccines have differing requirements. The Fosun Pharma/BioNTech vaccine must be transported in a deep frozen state, which requires more complex transportation and storage solutions. Our ‘vaccine solution’ has proven itself to be ideally suited to the fast and effective distribution of this and other vaccines across the globe, using our freighter and passenger fleet, and our extensive global network.” The Cathay Pacific shipments to date include the milestone import of the first vaccines for use in the airline’s home city of Hong Kong on 19 February. The one million doses of Sinovac vaccine were loaded inside six temperature-controlled Envirotainer RAP e2 containers, to maintain the vaccine temperature range of 2°C to 8°C, and carried in the belly hold of an Airbus A330 operating the scheduled passenger flight, CX391. Owen adds, “This was also the first shipment to use our new Ultra Track service, a key part of our vaccine solution.” On the same flight, there were 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine destined for Mexico. The single Envirotainer RAP e2 container was towed to the Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal in a thermal dolly and transferred to a cool room set at 15°-25°C, where it was recharged ahead of …

LATAM Airlines has announced that the airline will expand its freighter capacity by as much as 80% through the addition of up to eight B767-300ER conversions. The conversion plan will be implemented over two phases; the first phase will see four aircraft converted between 2021 and 2022 and the second phase consists of four additional conversion options for delivery between 2022 and 2023. Upon completion of phase one, LATAM’s cargo fleet will reach a total of 15 Boeing 767-300ER freighters. If all options are executed, LATAM will operate a total of 19 767-300ER freighters. Roberto Alvo, Chief Executive, LATAM Airlines Group, said, “Despite the deep crisis the industry is enduring due to the pandemic, we maintain our commitment to support the region’s exporters and importers by providing them with more and better options to carry their cargo to their destinations. As a result, growth plans have been accelerated with conversion of up to eight Boeing 767-300ERs in the next 30 months.” Andrés Bianchi, LATAM Cargo’s chief executive adds, “Combining the passenger belly operations of LATAM Airlines Group with 15 to 19 Boeing 767-300ER freighters efficiently strengthens our customer value proposition. These conversions will enable the cargo affiliates to grow in key segments such the Colombian flower market or imports to Brazil. It also allows our affiliates to expand their network in domestic markets where e-commerce is rapidly generating an increase in air cargo traffic.” The move comes as airlines explore options on what to do with unused passenger aircraft and expectations of a lengthy recovery in intercontinental passenger flights.

Kuehne+Nagel successfully helped Sinovac Biotech, a leading biopharmaceutical company in China (Nasdaq: SVA), to fulfil its first Covid-19 vaccine shipment from Beijing, China to the Dominican Republic. The pilot shipment containing 768,000 vials of Covid-19 vaccine was stored in active temperature-controlled containers and arrived safely in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, on February 23, benefitting its citizens just before its Independence Day. The shipment was closely monitored and compliant with the most stringent standards to guarantee product integrity. Helen Yang, General Manager of Sinovac Biotech (Hong Kong) Limited said, “The Dominican Republic is 14,000 kilometers away from our factory in Beijing. During the ongoing pandemic, there are very few carriers connecting to this remote destination. However, Kuehne+Nagel responded to us with a feasible solution in just a short span of twelve hours. Even during the Chinese New Year holidays, the Kuehne+Nagel team was diligently preparing this shipment. We look forward to a collaborative partnership with Kuehne+Nagel.” Siewloong Wong, President of Kuehne+Nagel Asia Pacific said: “We couldn’t be prouder to having started shipments of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine. At Kuehne+Nagel, we leverage our global pharma & healthcare network and expertise to bring the Sinovac vaccine to the market. We truly appreciate the trust that Sinovac has bestowed upon us.” Prior to this shipment, Kuehne+Nagel successfully fulfilled multiple crucial assignments for Sinovac, including an air charter from Beijing to Turkey for a door-to-door delivery of nearly a quarter-million flu vaccines. Kuehne+Nagel also helped with the shipment of Hepatitis A vaccine to Guatemala in South America as well as making nucleic acid detection kits available to people in Indonesia. With offices all over the world, 240 GxP-certified operations and more than …

In order to accommodate customer demands in a global airfreight market affected by lack of capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DSV introduces three new intercontinental routes connecting five continents. COVID-19 continues to impact global trade and movement of goods for companies all over the world. Consequently, airports around the world are facing significant cargo congestion, and customers are facing a frustrating lack of capacity. The company continuously seeks to find alternative supply chain solutions for its customers and is once again expanding its air charter network. With the addition of three new intercontinental air charter routes covering five continents, DSV adds a significant amount of air freight capacity to help customers around the world. “We see cargo congestion at both sea ports and airports around the world, hence it’s crucial that we seek to find alternative solutions. I am very pleased that we keep expanding our international air charter services. The aim is to offer more flexibility and security of cargo freight which is crucial and sought after by our many customers,” says, Mads Ravn, head of global air freight procurement at DSV. The DSV Air Charter Network is managed as a fully in-house DSV network and includes road freight to and from the airport, document handling, and freight handling and planning for loading air freight units (ULD’s). The in-house control of the complete process makes the air charter network highly flexible and efficient for customers – all characteristics that are crucial for customers in times of uncertainty. The three new air charter routes Luxembourg – Sao Paulo, Brazil Started Febuary 21st 2021. A weekly direct route from Luxembourg to Guarulhos (São Paulo) with 100 tons of capacity between …

DB Schenker has commenced its one-of-a-kind flight operations in the Indian logistics industry, providing a direct flight connecting Chennai to Munich and Chicago (wheels up-wheels down in less than 23 hours). The weekly flight operations initiative is the second offering under DB Schenker in India, part of the Global Flight Operations Program which further marks the company’s leadership in airfreight services in India. Speaking on this, Keku Bomi Gazdar, CEO of AAICLAS said, “It is a proud moment for us that today at Chennai airport we have added one of the largest global freight forwarders as our customer in India by connecting India to the Europe and the US.” To keep the airfreight supply chain stable during the pandemic, DB Schenker in India deployed over 100 charters to augment capacity challenges for our health care, pharma and other industry verticals. The company efficiently deployed weekly flight operations for both imports & exports between West India & United States & Europe. The new B747F ‘flight operations’ initiative is aimed at simplifying the logistics services of the fast-growing industries in India such as healthcare, retail & consumer, automotive and industrial offering seamless capacity to support customers. The cargo will be secured from departure to arrival with no extra handling requirement during the transit. The temperature sensitive cargo in the ULD’s will be covered with protective material to maintain temperature in transit from Chennai (MAA). Door to Door transit time via DB Schenker in India flight operations would remain 3 – 4 days approximately for Europe & US bound shipments. Vishal Sharma, CEO of the Cluster India and Indian Sub-Continent, DB Schenker said, “The introduction of our second flight operations is a significant …

The Hubballi Airport has announced that the airport will soon commence operations at its dedicated domestic air cargo terminal in coordination with the Airports Authority of India (AAI). It is North Karnataka’s first dedicated domestic air cargo terminal. Final approval from regulatory authority, BCAS to operationalised dedicated cargo terminal is in process and likely to be approved by last week of March; the airport informs in its tweet. Meanwhile, the facilities for cargo operations, such as clearance /approval from BCAS obtained by AAI/AAICLAS for cargo movement from existing passenger terminal building will be provided with approval of BCAS. Dedicated X-ray baggage inspection system has been installed to facilitate cargo movement from passenger terminal building.

While interacting with air cargo industry experts at the Air Cargo Virtual Meet organised by ACFI on the theme of ‘Changing Consumption Patterns– Transforming Supply Chains’, Hardeep Sigh Puri, says, “In all our endeavours in our efforts against COVID, one sector which has outshone all others is air cargo. In April 2020, air cargo handled at Indian airports was just 17 per cent of April 2019 levels. By June 2020, it reached 60 per cent mark. In September 2020, it was 82 per cent. By January 2021, it was 94 per cent of the cargo handled during same period last year. We expect full recovery by March 2021.” “Green shoots are visible across the air cargo sector. Srinagar witnessed 300%+ growth in air cargo as compared to pre-Covid levels. Surat saw a growth of more than 200%. Guru Nagri Amritsar is close to 80 per cent and Varanasi saw a growth of 96 per cent in air cargo movement. These figures confirm our understanding that Civil Aviation is one of the critical drivers of economic growth as well as an important indicator of economic recovery. Aviation industry will soon bounce back to its full potential,” he adds.

Kale Logistics Solutions (Kale) has launched the next generation upgraded Artificial Intelligence based truck slot management through its flagship Airport Cargo Community System (ACS) to avert truck congestion in Airports across North America and other large airports of the world. Truck congestion is a big problem behind the scenes at some major U.S. airports. The coronavirus forced big industry changes that have exacerbated existing inefficiencies due to poor coordination and infrastructure. Long Truck wait-times are a growing problem for Airports and the allied supply chain stakeholders like Transporters, Customs Brokers, and Freight Forwarders. Truckers are waiting in line for hours to pick up and drop off cargo at Airports in North America. Airfreight customers already pay a premium for expedited service, so delays can be particularly costly. International passenger terminals may have little traffic, but at some airports there is so much cargo that frustrated businesses have to wait days for medical supplies and other imports arriving on planes. The unusually heavy cargo volume, driven by a surge in medical supplies to combat the coronavirus pandemic and e-commerce orders from homebound consumers, has exposed long-standing, systemic inefficiencies at major hubs. Manual intervention and document processing further affect the efficiency and the time consumed in cargo handling. Data entry at various stages consumes around 22 hours per shipment. The absence of proactive information to the cargo terminal operators leads to inefficient personnel and asset planning at the gates, peaks and idle times, and long waiting times for freight handlers or trucking companies. Kale Logistics Solutions’ new Artificial Intelligence based Truck Slot Management for Air Cargo helps ground handlers, freight forwarders, and trucking companies to better coordinate their landside freight management so …