Category Archives: Aviation

Saudi Arabia is seeking companies such as Amazon.com, Alibaba Group, and DHL Express to boost its air cargo and distribution operations, said Mohammed Fahad Alkhuraisi, vice president for strategy at the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation in an event. The country plans to stage a number of roadshows by the end of 2023 as it seeks to persuade the e-commerce and air freight giants to help ramp up its own operations and infrastructure. It will invite private companies from abroad to create local partnerships and set up freight-forwarding and warehousing activities, Alkhuraisi added. In line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 framework to reduce its dependence on oil and diversify its economy, the advance into air cargo and logistics aims to accelerate the capacity of the kingdom’s air cargo sector to more than 4.5 million tonnes per year by the end of the decade as part of a USD100 billion plan to enlarge the aviation sector.

American Airlines has finalised an agreement with biofuel company Gevo, Inc. to purchase 500 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) over five years, the most significant SAF offtake commitment to date for the carrier. “The announcement is a historic step forward for American and our industry as we work to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Jill Blickstein, Vice President, Sustainability, American Airlines. “The use of SAF is a cornerstone of our strategy to decarbonise air travel. While this landmark investment represents meaningful action by American Airlines, driving progress at the scale and pace we need requires critical policy action in Washington and at the state level. Alongside our oneworld partners, we’re proud to lead the way in the shift to SAF and make progress toward our shared climate goals.” American’s Gevo agreement was developed alongside others in the oneworld alliance, said a statement from the airline. “In September 2020, oneworld became the first global airline alliance to announce a target of carbon neutrality by 2050, establishing its commitment to long-term sustainability for the industry. The alliance followed up the commitment with an intermediate goal to achieve 10 percent SAF use across member airlines by 2030.”

Maersk has ordered three new 767-300 freighters from Boeing and arranged with Miami-based cargo airline Amerijet to fly them on trans-Pacific routes as the company’s air cargo division moves to gain a strategic foothold in the U.S. market. During the past eight months, Maersk has poured resources from its hyper-profitable container line business into transforming the in-house airline into a full-service air logistics provider and expanding globally beyond its traditional sphere in Europe. Maersk will receive three 767 all-cargo jets from Boeing’s Everett, Washington, factory in 2022, and outsource their operation to Amerijet, said Maersk spokesman Povl Rasmussen. The freighters are expected to enter service this year between Asia and North America. “As previously announced, A.P. Moller – Maersk is both strengthening and expanding its air freight offering,” the company said in a statement. “Air freight is a crucial enabler of flexibility and agility in global supply chains as it allows our customers to tackle time-critical supply chain challenges and provides transport mode options for high value cargo. Maersk’s owned controlled capacity is designed to make supply chain journeys more resilient and intuitive.  When deployed later this year, the three new 767 aircraft will be based in the U.S. and operated by Amerijet exclusively for Maersk,” the statement added.

Indore’s Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport is all set to increase its cargo handling capacity with the bigger domestic air cargo complex being built at the airport,  finalized by the Airport Authority of India’s Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Limited (AAICLAS). Construction work has also been started and the building is expected to be ready before the end of this year. This new cargo terminal will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs. 15 crore. A 2000 sq. meter land at the airport’s old terminal building area has been identified for this new domestic air cargo terminal. This new domestic cargo complex will also house a dedicated complex to be set up on a 300sq meter area for perishable cargo to allow handling of perishable items like fruits, vegetables, medicines etc. While the rest of the space will be used for handling domestic cargo, as per officials of AAICLAS, the new cargo terminal has been planned to handle a minimum of 73,000 metric tonnes of cargo annually as against existing capacity of the old domestic air-cargo terminal’s capacity of around 12,000- 15,000 metric tonnes annually.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) and airport operators have targeted an outlay of over Rs 90,000 crore from 2019-20 to 2024-25, for expansion and modification of existing airport terminals, construction new terminal buildings, expansion or strengthening of existing runways, aprons, upgrading airport navigation services (ANS), control towers, and technical blocks across several airports in the country. AAI has leased out six of its airports namely, Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport (Lucknow), Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (Ahmedabad), Mangaluru International Airport, Jaipur International Airport, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (Guwahati) and Thiruvananthapuram International Airport for operation, management and development through PPP mode on long-term basis during the past three years.   

The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) has plans to increase its revenue from international cargo movement, with the construction of the dedicated international cargo terminal. According to reports, the new terminal will feature modern facilities and technologies for storage and warehousing of variety of cargo. The airport aims to provide faster cargo movement and management. “The plan is to transform CIAL into a major cargo hub in the long run anticipating increase in the cargo passing through Kochi in the coming years. The terminal’s structural work is completed and the terminal is expected to be launched this year,” said an airport official in a statement.  

During a discussion at US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) recently, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, said that ramping up regional connectivity is the government’s new focus area. “To facilitate the same, plans are afoot to promote regional airlines, the helicopter industry and, simplify the procedures. A small aircraft scheme has also been rolled out to provide air connectivity to remote regions,” the minister said. Scindia added that the air cargo industry’s growth would be further supported by developments in other segments such as flight training organisations (FTOs), cargo and drones. 

Aircraft leasing company Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) has signed a MoU with Kenya-based cargo airline Astral Aviation to place the first two Embraer E190F passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions. In May 2022, NAC and Embraer reached an agreement in principle to take up to 10 conversion slots for E190F/E195F, with first deliveries starting in 2024. The aircraft for conversion will come from NAC’s existing E190/E195 fleet. Sanjeev Gadhia, founder and chief executive at Astral Aviation, said: “We are honoured to be the launch operator of the Embraer 190F, which will be based in Astral’s Nairobi hub. It will operate on a combination of scheduled and charter flights on our intra-African network. The e-jets are well known for their efficiency, flexibility and sustainability. We are confident that the e-jet freighter platform will be a game-changing addition to our growing fleet.”

MOVIN, a logistics brand launched through a joint venture between UPS and InterGlobe Enterprises, is expanding its reach by adding “Express End of Day” services from Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru to seven more cities. The newly added cities are Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata & Pune. With this expansion, MOVIN is adding more than 500 new PIN Codes to its existing network, now covering 1000+ PIN codes for guaranteed time-definite deliveries. This will further strengthen its offerings and help cater to customer demands in the ever-expanding B2B logistics space. Commenting on this announcement, JB Singh, Director InterGlobe Enterprises said, “MOVIN has received encouraging and positive feedback from its customers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. By expanding its reach to these additional seven markets, MOVIN will now offer greater coverage to its customers along with the promise of time-definite delivery. We remain committed towards our mission of strengthening the network that lays a strong foundation for businesses and boosting opportunities for MSMEs and SMEs to sell and grow. Our focus is to provide best-in-class experience to B2B customers by bringing in higher levels of efficiencies, stronger distribution channels, advanced innovative technology, along with global best practices.”

Menzies Aviation has joined the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP), an alliance of climate leaders focused on decarbonising the world’s highest-emitting industries. “Global aviation is currently responsible for about 3 per cent of total global, anthropogenic CO2 emissions—having seen an increase by over a third between 2010 and 2019 alone. If aviation were unmitigated, it could be responsible for an even greater proportion of global emissions by 2050,” said a statement from Menzies. MPP, in collaboration with the Clean Skies for Tomorrow coalition, has published a new Aviation Transition Strategy that has been endorsed by over 60 aviation leaders, setting out a global strategy to achieve net-zero aviation by 2050. The report, Making Net-Zero Aviation possible: An industry-backed, 1.5°C aligned Transition Strategy, provides a series of actionable steps to be taken over the next decade to secure a transition towards carbon-neutral flying and deliver the goals of the Paris Agreement, said the statement. Actions include drastically improving fuel efficiency gains of aircraft, the rapid roll out of sustainable aviation fuel and market entry of hydrogen, battery-electric or hybrid powered aircraft, the statement added.