Commenting on no extension being granted on GST exemption notification, Yashpal Sharma, President, Air Cargo Forum India said, “We have been seeking from the government to make the extension of GST exemption notification perpetual. While the net impact on the industry is not much but the full process is painful for the industry stakeholders. If this was the case, then the industry should have been informed before. Everybody could have prepared well in time but suddenly, this has come as a shock to everyone. There is no point in first charging it and then getting it refunded. I feel it’s unnecessary and unrequired, if we talk about ease of doing business (eodb) then we should eliminate anything which does not bring value addition or any additional revenue to the industry.”

Requesting the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman to further extend the GST exemption notification, Dr. A Sakthivel, President, Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) said, “The payment of GST on such high freight rates will affect the liquidity of the exporters to a large extent particularly as the interest rates have also increased with the recent hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The payment of GST on export freight and subsequent refund particularly through ITC mechanism comes with a time lag of 2-3 months or so, though refund through IGST mechanism is faster. Such a move will affect our agriculture exports the most as in many cases of export of fruits and vegetables, the air freight, at times, is much higher than the freight on board (FOB) value of exports. Therefore, exporters would be required to pay a very high GST amount on such freight adversely impacting the cash flow. I request the finance minister to extend the exemption for a further period to free the exporters from the hassle of securing additional funding. This may augment the liquidity of the Government but at the cost of the exporters. Since the cost of credit for the exporters is much high, an exemption will help the export sector to have better liquidity, which is the need of the hour. An early decision will be very much appreciated by the exporting community which is passing through a difficult phase and is likely to become further difficult in months to come.”

Pradhaan Air Express, India’s latest all-cargo airline, operated its first commercial flight earlier this week on the Delhi-Bombay-Delhi route. “It was a significant milestone in the journey of the youngest cargo airline in India as well as for the world’s first A320-P2F,” said a LinkedIn post. “We are confident of playing our part in the government’s vision of increasing air cargo to 10 million tonnes. The aircraft will offer charter capacity to Indian shippers and freight forwarders on domestic and international routes. It will be available for on-demand cargo charters,” the post added. The aircraft offers a payload of 21 tonnes with a fully palletised main deck.

Freight forwarder AIT Worldwide Logistics has entered into a Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) partnership with US-based cargo airline Kalitta Air to strengthen US and global supply chains. The strategic alliance continues AIT’s longstanding designation as a CRAF-sponsored freight forwarder, enabling the company to continue critical supply chain support for US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) missions, while also increasing access to global routes, capacity, and charters for customers. Greg Weigel, AIT’s chief business officer said, “For more than 10 years, we’ve been proud and always at the ready to support USTRANSCOM through the CRAF programme. As AIT continues to grow our global footprint and scope, securing a CRAF partnership with an airline that has similar global reach, with some of the world’s largest cargo aircraft made perfect sense to our team—and that’s Kalitta.”

CMA CGM AIR CARGO, the cargo airline of the CMA CGM Group selects Jettainer, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo to deliver unit load device (ULD) management and maintenance services. Jettainer will provide global positioning, management, maintenance, and repair services for the fleet of a few thousands ULDs under a five-year contract, said an official release. “In addition, CMA CGM AIR CARGO also benefits from Jettainer’s monitoring and a high quality of location data so that the ULDs find their way from their forwarders back to the cargo airline and are thus always available, even for short-term charter flights,” the release added. “With our global team and integrated and intelligent IT solutions, we are able to offer the most efficient ULD management service, guaranteeing the availability of ULDs, reducing costs and additionally contributing to more transparency in the value chain,” said Thomas Sonntag, Managing Director, Jettainer GmbH. “We are pleased to be able to support CMA CGM AIR CARGO’s ambitious growth plans with our ULD service,” he added. Launched in March 2021, CMA CGM AIR CARGO operates a fleet of four Airbus A330-200F, complemented by two recently acquired Boeing 777F aircraft, which will grow up to 12 aircraft by 2026.

Atlas Air, a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings has taken delivery of a Boeing 747-8 freighter. This is the second of four new 747-8 freighters ordered by Atlas Air in 2021. These are also the last 747-8 freighters ever to be produced by Boeing. “The 747-8F is the most capable, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly widebody freighter, providing 20% higher payload capacity and 16% lower fuel consumption than the very capable 747-400F. This aircraft has been placed under a long-term agreement with an existing customer, said release. John Dietrich, president and chief executive officer, Atlas Air Worldwide said, “We are pleased to receive this additional 747-8F, and to add more capacity and value to our customers. Atlas’ investment in these new aircraft underscores our commitment to environmental stewardship through the reduction of aircraft emissions, resource consumption and noise. The iconic Boeing 747 program has been in operation for over 50 years and these aircraft will continue to play a critical role in keeping global supply chains moving for decades to come. The 747-8 is the only factory-built freighter with nose-loading capability in production, which will serve the long-term needs of the airfreight market.”

To reduce CO2 emissions for road transportation, DHL Freight has introduced the GoGreen Plus service. This is achieved through carbon insetting, which is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases through investments in green road transportation technologies and fuels, said release. “In contrast to offsetting, which helps to compensate carbon emissions through climate protection projects worldwide, insetting focuses on decarbonising road freight by investing in low- and zero emission technologies and fuels such as electric vehicles, biogas (Bio-LNG or Bio-CNG) or hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO),” added release. Uwe Brinks, CEO, DHL Freight said, “This is a major milestone for our company’s sustainability goals. With the introduction of GoGreen Plus at DHL Freight, we at Deutsche Post DHL Group can now offer our customers carbon-neutral transport services across all modes of transport, in line with the Paris COP 21 targets to limit global warming. I am very proud that we are a driving force in the sustainable transformation of our industry. We are making GoGreen Plus services available for every core transport product in our company – be it Eurapid, Euroconnect or Euroline. Our existing green road transportation projects are very popular with our customers, and we look forward to expanding GoGreen Plus services across our entire product portfolio.”

In order to support the New Logistics Policy (NLP), the industry expected the government to extend the Goods and Service Tax (GST) freight exemption notification. However, this has not happened,” said Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers Pvt Ltd. “We genuinly think that this will have a significant financial impact on the freight industry. This move will increase the freight cost and create unnecessary burden on exporter. It is unclear how this action can push the goal of the Commerce Ministry, which introduced NLP with the sole aim of reducing logistics costs and wants every district to identify and encourage export of atleast one product. Also, our industry is still struggling to make a comeback post pandemic and unnatural crisis like Ukraine Russia war. Now onwards, logistics companies will have no choice but to levy 18 per cent GST on air freight and 5 per cent on ocean freight from October 1, 2022 onwards till the notification is issued. I wish there was no GST on export freight and freight forwarding in India, as it is in the majority of other countries,” he added.

Georgia-based cargo airline Geo Sky is growing its freighter fleet with a Boeing B757-200F. The B757-200F recently arrived at Tbilisi International Airport and has been added to the Civil Aircraft Register of the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency, said Geosky in a press release. Aircraft Finance Germany also posted on LinkedIn: “On 28 September 2022 AFG Aviation Ireland Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aircraft Finance Germany GmbH (Germany), completed the acquisition of one (1) Boeing 757-200F aircraft bearing MSN 25622 as well as one (1) Rolls-Royce RB211 engine with ESN 30512 from a subsidiary of ASL Aviation Holdings DAC (Ireland) for its customer Airline Geo Sky LLC (Tbilisi, Georgia).” The company said Geosky, founded in 2017, currently operates two B747-200F aircraft. The airline added that it has started the paperwork to get an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) for the aircraft, with a payload of 29 tons, so it can begin operations.

Budapest Airport is continuing to develop its Cargo City area with the addition of new cargo areas. The airport will extend its cargo area with a further 2,000 sq m of office space on the mezzanine level, and 6,000 sq m of maneuvering and storage areas alongside a 1,450 sq m multi-functional canopy area created for live animal treatment. Work is due to start later this month. The expansion will allow Budapest to handle 240,000 tonnes at the Cargo City with an additional 60,000 tonnes being served via the integrator facilities of DHL, UPS, and FedEx at Terminal one. René Droese, chief development officer, Budapest Airport, said, “Budapest Airport is committed to cargo development. Seeing the rapid increase of our cargo volumes after the initial investment of the BUD Cargo City, this next step has been an obvious choice to enable our growth and progression.