Challenge Airlines MT has completed its first flight with special cargo onboard. The Malta-registered cargo carrier, which received its air operator’s certificate (AOC) on November 1, brought the Flemish Tapestries from Liège, Belgium to Malta. Challenge Airlines MT provided logistical support as well as the flight. “320 years ago, these valuable Flemish Tapestries made their way by ship from Belgium to Malta. Today, we are honoured and delighted to have been chosen to return them again to their home in St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta,” said Yossi Shoukroun, chief executive of Challenge Group. The tapestries have belonged to the Co-Cathedral for 350 years and underwent restoration work before their departure from Liège. Challenge Airlines MT, registered as 9H, owns a fleet of two B767-300ER, each with a payload of 60 tonnes. Ten pilots are stationed at Challenge Group’s headquarters in Malta, ready to operate regular flights between Liège (LGG), Tel Aviv (TLV), Sharjah (SHJ), New York (JFK), and Indian Sub-Continent (ISC), in the coming future.

To strengthen last-mile logistics, Blue Dart has plans to set up 25 retail outlets in Tier-I and Tier-II towns as part of its expansion roadmap. Besides these 25 retails outlets, the company plans to establish 100 similar facilities. These stores have opened in Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa, and Gujarat, Blue Dart said in a statement. The company said it now serves over 55,400 locations. “Blue Dart’s store expansion will increase accessibility for our customers and expand our network. To strengthen last-mile logistics to the farthest reaches of the country, we will continue to locate in new areas and broaden our reach,” said Ketan Kulkarni, Chief Commercial Officer at Blue Dart.

Qatar Airways Cargo has introduced new routes and increased flight frequencies to multiple destinations in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas to meet growing demand this winter season. The carrier recently launched a new freighter service to Riyadh, operating Boeing B777 freighters twice a week, with 100 tonnes cargo capacity each way, per flight. Cargo capacity is also set to increase to and from other Middle Eastern cities, as the airline increases its flights from two to four for Kuwait, and from one to three for Muscat by adding two A310Fs per week to each of these cities. The airline recently launched two new freighter stations in Athens, Greece and Vienna, Austria. Qatar Airways Cargo will once a week operate a B777 freighter to Athens with 100 tonnes of cargo capacity each way, per flight. Once a week it will also operate an A310F to Vienna, with over 35 tonnes of cargo capacity each way, per flight. Effective November 15, Qatar Airways Cargo has also introduced Doha-Dusseldorf bellyhold cargo services, expanding its network in the European region. The launch of daily flights between the two cities increases cargo capacity from Germany to over 1,500 tonnes each way, each week. The carrier will also be increasing its flights to Amsterdam by adding three weekly freighter flights effective November 5 and three weekly passenger flights effective December 23.

Boeing, one of the world’s biggest aviation companies, has projected that air cargo traffic will double in the next two decades as the industry shifts its focus to evolving demand following the coronavirus pandemic. The expansion will be supported by a 57 per cent growth in the global freighter fleet, which would put it at 3,600 aircraft, and will require about 2,800 new and converted freighters for growth and replacement until 2041, the Virginia-based company said in its World Air Cargo Forecast. A third of deliveries will be new jets, while the remainder will come from conversions, giving carriers the ability to increase their flexibility in existing and emerging markets, it said. “While the air cargo market is returning to a more normal pace after historic demand in the last two years, structural factors including express network growth, evolving supply chain strategies and new cargo-market entrants are driving sustained freighter demand,” said Darren Hulst, Boeing’s vice president of commercial marketing. “In the global transportation network, air freighters will continue to be a critical enabler to move high-value goods, in increased volume across expanding markets.” Air cargo was a rare bright spot for airlines during the travel-starved years of the pandemic, prompting many to convert older passenger jets to freighters and to invest in new cargo planes. Strong e-commerce demand and the slower return of passenger flights with cargo belly capacity drove airlines to snap up freighters during the pandemic, said reports.

Sumita Dawra (IAS) has been appointed as the Special Secretary – Logistics, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Sumita has experience of more than two decades in public administration in India and abroad. From the districts of India, to the state government and the government of India, she has worked at all levels of governance in India and developed useful insights. Her postings include working with Ministry of Finance, Govt of India, for six and a half years, which included a tenure of about three and a half years in China, as the head of the economic wing in the Indian Embassy. Her tenure in China has given her a very good exposure to economic, financial and developmental issues in China. Her long years in implementing development programmes in the districts of India, interacting with communities and stake holders, has given her a strong understanding of development needs in India, with insights on strategies for effective delivery of public services. As District Collector in a naxal-prone district in Andhra Pradesh state of India, she had the rare opportunity to work as the highest convergence point for development work for a population of 3.6 million people. Successful outcomes in education and child labour eradication in Karimnagar resulted in the International Labour Organization (N Delhi) publishing a manual written by Sumita on child labour eradication through convergence strategies in May, 2007 for their country project.

The gigantic whale-shaped plane, the Airbus Beluga, made a return to the City of Joy Kolkata airport on Sunday morning. The Airbus Beluga (No. 3), one of the biggest planes in the world, landed at the airport for crew rest and re-fuelling. The enormous cabin of the aircraft is about four times as big as a typical wide-body aircraft. The Airbus A300 B4-608 ST super transporter, often known as Beluga, is a wide-body airliner that has been adapted to carry enormous cargo and aircraft parts. “Guess who’s back! It’s the whale again! One of the world’s largest aircraft @Airbus #Beluga (No. 3) landed at #KolkataAirport for crew rest and refueling. Here are few glimpses of the majestic beast from the #CityofJoy,” Kolkata airport officials posted on Linkedin.

Onmove, a high-speed, long-distance trucking aggregator, has recently announced that it has acquired 100% stake of Transin Logistics, a Hyderabad based trucking aggregation platform. Transin is a 100% asset light technology enabled trucking solution business operating in the Port ecosystem of India, with an annual revenue rate of INR 200 crores. Powered by a massive network of 34,000+ trucks catering to the EXIM and bulk cargo segments, Transin serves major blue-chip clients such as Aditya Birla, Ambuja Cement, ITC, Adani, Nuvoco among others. Onmove has raised a pre series A round of equity funding led by its existing investors Oliphans Capital with participation from several marquee angel investors like Mr Haresh Chawla. This acquisition is funded through a mix of equity and debt. Venture debt is raised from Chennai based AIF fund Anicut Capital which has also participated in an equity round. This partnership will help Onmove broaden its customer base in the commodity segment which is the largest consumer of trucks. It will further help Onmove strengthen its presence in the southern part of India thus ensuring better load stitching and higher utilization of assets. Besides, it will help Onmove enter the Port logistics business with focus on Port to Plant movement. Transin, in turn, will be able to expand its user services by offering end-to-end logistical assistance for the transport of final products from plant facilities to the end market. With this acquisition, Onmove has achieved an ARR of ~INR 600 crore.

India’s Grade-A warehousing sector is poised to show a growth of 15 per cent by 2025. According to the India Warehousing Report by CREDAI and Anarock, warehousing is poised to become a US$ 2.8 billion industry in the near future. The growth will be driven by increasing demand over Grade-B and Grade-C office spaces which are not big enough for emerging needs for modern and large infrastructure, the report said. “Government thrust on ease of doing business with focus on single window clearances by many states, land allotment, and even faster environmental clearances are aiding this sector extensively. This is the reason that its demand is increasing not only in metro cities but tier-II and -III cities as well rapidly,” said Harsh Vardhan Patodia, President, CREDAI. Over the last decade, India has revamped its outlook toward the warehousing sector from unorganised godown structures to a prominent asset class. Per the report, a total of 48.5 million sq ft of Grade-A warehouses have been leased in top 7 cities in 2021 and it’s expected to reach 55.8 million sq ft by end of 2023. It said that the total area leased for Grade-A warehousing space in 7 cities was 160 million sq ft, with the largest share of 37 per cent leased area in western region (Mumbai and Pune), followed by 32 per cent in southern region (Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad). The top three sectors contributing to the overall warehouse leasing space across 7 cities are third-party logistics, e-commerce and manufacturing.

Aeronautical Engineers Inc (AEI) has gained approval for its B737-800SF freighter conversion STC from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM). The approval for the 12-pallet capacity conversion means that the company has now gained STC approval in: Malaysia, the US, China, the European Union, the UK, Canada, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Brazil. The AEI converted B737-800SF freighter offers a main deck payload of more than 23 tonnes and incorporates eleven full-height 88” x 125” container positions, plus an additional position for an AEP/AEH. “AEI is currently the only conversion company to have ETOPS 180 approval on the 737-800 freighter conversion,” the company said. “Additionally, AEI can convert all 737-800 line number aircraft including those with Flat Aft Pressure Bulkheads, and Split Scimitar winglets.”

To meet the country’s increasing seafood demand, Lufthansa Cargo has added a new A321 freighter service between Evenes Airport in Norway and Frankfurt. The Germany-based carrier said the weekly service would help cut delivery times of seafood in northern Norway in some cases from six days to less than 24 hours with the perishable product being flown to destinations that connect with the airline’s Frankfurt hub. Fast transit is important for seafood as it requires compliance with the highest quality standards, said an official release. The flights started in early November and have been launched in partnership with Norwegian salmon producer and exporter Nordlaks and freight forwarder Salmosped. Evenes Airport is located near the city of Harstad/Narvik and is part of the province of Troms og Finnmark in Norway. “Located north of the Arctic Circle, this region is considered the gateway to the Lofoten Islands, making it a very important market for fish and seafood,” the carrier said in a statement. “The area around Evenes Airport is home to a number of salmon producers. Both the catch of wild salmon and the income from salmon farming are growing steadily. In 2021 alone, more than 1m tons of salmon were exported from Norway.”