Category Archives: Aviation

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets showing that full-year demand for air cargo increased by 6.9% in 2021, compared to 2019 (pre-covid levels) and 18.7% compared to 2020 following a strong performance in December 2021. This was the second biggest improvement in year-on-year demand since IATA started to monitor cargo performance in 1990 (behind 2010’s 20.6% gain), outpacing the 9.8% rise in global goods trade by 8.9 percentage points. “Air cargo had a stellar year in 2021. For many airlines, it provided a vital source of revenue as passenger demand remained in the doldrums due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Growth opportunities, however, were lost due to the pressures of labor shortages and constraints across the logistics system. Overall, economic conditions do point towards a strong 2022,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. December saw a relief in supply chain issues that enabled an acceleration of cargo growth. “Some relief on supply chain constraints occurred naturally in December as volumes decreased after peak shipping activity ended in advance of the Christmas holiday. This freed capacity to accommodate front-loading of some Lunar New Year shipments to avoid potential disruptions to flight schedules during the Winter Olympic games. And overall December cargo performance was assisted by additional belly-hold capacity as airlines accommodated an expected year-end boost to travel. As shortages of labor and storage capacity remain, governments must keep a sharp focus on supply chain constraints to protect the economic recovery,” said Walsh.

The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) recorded its highest-ever cargo tonnage, despite a turbulent pandemic environment. During the Calendar Year 2021 (CY 2021), BLR Airport processed an all-time high tonnage of 406,688 Metric Tonnes (MT) of cargo, recording a significant growth of 28.6% vs. 316,305MT in 2020. This is 7.2% more than the pre-COVID level tonnage of 379,348MT in 2019. International cargo recorded a 32.8% growth, 265,873MT processed, as compared to 200,209MT in 2020. Domestic cargo grew at 21.3%, 140,815 MT processed versus 116,096MT in 2020. The US and Europe continue to be the top trade lanes from BLR Airport. “The tremendous recovery in air cargo is a positive sign for the aviation sector that has been severely impacted by the pandemic,” said Hari Marar, MD & CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited. “The key factors that contributed to the cargo growth at BLR Airport are our resilient ecosystem that ensured efficient operations round the clock; focus on supply chain efficiencies; conducive geographic location, aided with robust infrastructure and technology; right mix of commodities, and adequate airline capacities to key markets, globally,” Marar added. 13 airlines operate freighters to and from BLR Airport to various domestic and international destinations. Commodities driving the growth are perishables (both agricultural and poultry products), pharma, chemicals and textiles in the exports category, and electronics, heavy machineries, healthcare and life science products in the imports category. Notably, BLR Airport has emerged as the No.1 Airport in the country for perishable exports, accounting for 31.0% of India’s total perishable shipments during FY 2020-21.

Modair Aviation is rapidly adding aircraft to its fleet to expand its air cargo business. Moving ahead at a great pace Modair also launched India’s first tech-enabled air logistics company ‘Modair Express’. Modair Express will be enhancing the cargo experience by offering large varieties of products and best solutions mainly for cargo operation between Tier 1 to Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. Aiming to offer daily scheduled services linking many Indian cities to the main Indian cities, Modair Express with its special small freighter aircraft will offer flexibility in loading cargo, medicines, time-sensitive and any other type of cargo that requires special handling or care. “With plans to emerge as an air cargo behemoth, we aim to connect all the remote locations with Modair Express. The country’s air cargo business is poised to take off in a big way with the fast-emerging need of transporting imported goods and medical equipment from one region to another as quickly as possible. In particular, the growth of the ‘value buying’ segment is quite encouraging for the air cargo segment. However, the segment faces a huge shortage of dependable services providers. Modair is committed to driving the businesses of its client’s several notches higher with a modern, innovative fleet in service and on order. Modair Express experts are ready to take on the challenge to your utmost satisfaction by using our air bridge linking Indian cities, simply because “we cargo India.” said Atul Jain, Chairman, Modair Modair Express will build a strong network ensuring efficient E-commerce services on a single day and maximum connectivity for the export hubs and sub hubs by serving them. Amid the pickup in demand for both consumer and …

Cargolux Airlines has launched a new online booking portal as part of the freighter operator’s investment in its digital capabilities. The new portal enables customers to log on, request an instant spot quote according to personalised criteria, as well as having visibility of allocations, “thereby enabling for the selection and booking of the best option”, the company said. “The online portal offers transaction options for all customer profiles, from international groups to local independent forwarders,” Cargolux said in a release. Mathieu Weber, vice president digital sales & marketing, added: “With this new portal, Cargolux is moving closer to an omni-channel connectivity experience for customers. The portal offers tailored quoting and booking in a few clicks and we are confident that this handy and timely solution will be highly appreciated by our customers.”

Understanding the importance of efficient cargo movement, the Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, in a meeting with officials of his ministry and the Commerce Ministry, emphasized kickstarting multi-modal logistics hubs in India. Taking to his Twitter handle, the union minister said, alongside necessary infrastructure, it was equally important to make our cargo movement processes seamless and customer-friendly. The Minister informed of chairing a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Department of Commerce to discuss the way forward for kickstarting multi-modal logistics hubs in India.

The recently announced Prime Minister of India’s Gati Shakti National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity is all set to revolutionise the way infrastructure and logistic development projects are planned and implemented in India. It will bridge huge differences between macro planning and micro implementation. The Northeast region of India, comprising eight states, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, share almost 12,000 kilometres of international border with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Tibet, and is connected with the rest of India by a narrow chicken-neck, having a width of approximately 20 kilometres, which is popularly known as the Siliguri Corridor in West Bengal. This has primarily kept the Northeast India’s trade potentiality under-utilised, which is understood to be much more than the realisation of Rs 3,577 crores in 2019-20 and Rs 3364.4 crores in 2020-21 as per the data as provided by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Government of India. As a result of this, there is a thrust on implementing a large number of Union and State Government funded infrastructure development projects in Northeast India with the purpose of improving its internal as well as external connectivity. As per the MoSPI, there are 143 ongoing projects in Northeast India, worth an original budget of Rs. 97,418 crores in the beginning of 2021.

Frankfurt Airport handled record volumes of cargo last year despite a reduction in bellyhold capacity. The German hub – which is also the largest cargo airport in Europe – handled a record 2.3m metric tons of cargo last year. This figure is up 18.7% on 2020 levels and 8.9% ahead of the pre-pandemic year 2019. The airport said that airfreight was the main driver behind this growth, while airmail continued to be affected by the lack of belly capacity on passenger aircraft. Airport operator Fraport’s chief executive, Stefan Schulte, said: “Throughout 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to have a massive impact on Frankfurt Airport. Passenger traffic recovered gradually in the course of the year – even rising threefold in the April-to-December 2021 period compared to 2020 – but we are still far away from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Cargo traffic, in contrast, saw very positive growth in 2021. Airfreight volumes in Frankfurt even reached a new annual record, despite the ongoing shortage of belly capacity on passenger flights and other challenges. This underscores our role as one of Europe’s leading cargo hubs.”

Envirotainer and Air France KLM Martinair Cargo (AFKLMP Cargo), the leading airline in pharmaceutical logistics, announced their collaboration on sustainability. Envirotainer and Air France KLM Martinair Cargo each have a strong focus on sustainability and are pursuing multiple initiatives with a view to achieving more sustainable operations. Being long-term close partners, both organisations sought to strengthen the initiatives by collaboration. Air France KLM Martinair Cargo has approved the newly introduced Envirotainer Releye® container and is in the process of implementing it in its booking system as part of its product portfolio. The Releye provides outstanding environmental performance, delivering up to 90% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to available passive solutions, based on life-cycle analysis. Envirotainer will reduce the impact of the use of its containers on the environment by investing in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). SAF offers a cleaner alternative for conventional jet fuel. SAF is produced from sustainable feedstock, such as cooking oil, animal waste or solid waste from homes and businesses. It reduces CO2 emissions by up to 85%, when compared to conventional jet fuel. The reduction occurs throughout the entire lifecycle of producing and using sustainable aviation fuel compared to that of fossil fuel.

Expanding their cargo network, the Munich Airport announced the increase in its cargo-only services with Qatar Airways. As per the details of Qatar Airways’ new route, the flight takes off on Monday from Bengaluru, halts in Doha (Qatar’s capital), leads onto Munich and then further to Chicago. The return flight from Chicago reaches Munich every Tuesday. The first flight departed on 10 January with 100 tonnes of cargo to Germany and the US, and caters to the pharmaceutical, automotive, and other industries. Qatar Airways operates this service on behalf of DB Schenker. The international logistics provider made recent announcement about its plans to expand global flight operations in India. The double benefit of the new weekly flight operations includes marking the Qatar Airways’ leadership in air freight services in India, and the expansion of Munich’s cargo network with more significant destinations.

UPS has added a new freighter flight between Billund in Denmark and its European air hub in Cologne as it looks to meet growing e-commerce demand. The new daily B737F flight means that Danish businesses in the Jutland peninsula, including Vejle, Herning and Horsens will benefit from later pick-up cut off times with packages spending less time in transit. “With collection up to two hours later in place such as Vejle, companies can take advantage of reduced transit time for packages being exported internationally, and potentially increase time in production for goods,” UPS said. Michiel van Veen, managing director, UPS Nordics, added: “We are continuing to develop our European network to meet the growing e-commerce demand for the region. “The launch of the Billund flight will present opportunities for businesses of all sizes in Denmark to expand into global markets faster, thanks to a new connection to our global air network.”