Category Archives: Aviation

Qatar Airways Cargo has extended its cool chain industry partnerships by joining Cool Chain Association (CCA), a non-profit organisation, effective 28 July 2021. Founded in 2003, the association aims to reduce food wastage and improve the quality, efficiency and value of the temperature sensitive supply chain by facilitating and enabling vertical and horizontal collaboration, education and innovation amongst its members and stakeholders. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar Airways said, “Through our membership with Cool Chain Association, we look forward to collaborating with its members, and contributing to CCA’s vision of improving quality of temperature-sensitive products, increasing sustainability and reducing waste, thereby also contributing to the health of the planet, which aligns with our sustainability programme WeQare.” “CCA members are focused on developing tangible programmes and backing projects which help reduce food waste and ensure that life saving pharma consignments safely reach their destination and this has never been more relevant than now,” said Stavros Engelakakis, Chairman, CCA.

LATAM Airlines has been awarded Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) a cargo handling contract extension at Barcelona Airport, Spain. Having initially appointed WFS in Barcelona in 2018, LATAM has now signed a new three-year agreement for WFS to handle cargo on board its Boeing 767 operations, carrying import and export shipments through Barcelona annually. “WFS is our partner for cargo handling services in Europe. The renewal of our contract for Barcelona is the reaffirmation that our relationship is based on WFS’ good quality service,” commented Eva Penalva, LATAM’s regional operations manager, Cargo. Humberto Castro, WFS’ managing director – Cargo, Spain, said, “It is especially satisfying when our existing customers extend their contracts with WFS because it demonstrates that our handling teams are delivering the service levels, safety and security airlines need, and this is a tribute to their hard work. We remain committed to providing the best airport handling services to support the recovery and growth of the aviation industry in Spain.”

EL AL Israel Airlines is accelerating its digital presence with real-time eBookings, access to live rates, and visible air cargo capacity through WebCargo, a Freightos Group company. With the pandemic fueling digital adoption among both carriers and forwarders, EL AL is tapping into WebCargo’s platform. EL AL Cargo will be rolling out on WebCargo across a network covering the United States, Europe, and Asia, offering freight solutions for all types of customers and freight. This engagement enables more than 2,500 WebCargo forwarders across over 10,000 global branches instant access to capacity, pricing, and booking on EL AL Cargo. “Digital adoption has always been a top priority for EL AL, and as air cargo demand continues to rise, providing our customers with instant and accurate information is essential,” said Ronen Spira, head of EL AL Cargo division.

Lufthansa Cargo is now marketing the freight capacities of the new long-haul flights of Eurowings Discover. Europe’s leading cargo airline is thus adding further frequencies directly from Frankfurt to the range of services it offers its customers. Initially, routes to the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania will expand the offer. As of today, the new Eurowings Discover flights will provide customers with two additional connections per week to Mombasa and Zanzibar. From the second of August, this will be followed by further supplementary services to Punta Cana with a weekly frequency of three flights, as well as to Windhoek on five days a week. “The integration of the freight capacities of Eurowings Discover makes the offer even more attractive for our customers,” emphasises Ashwin Bhat, chief commercial officer at Lufthansa Cargo. “The increasing frequencies ideally complement our existing connections and help our customers in times of still scarce capacities. We are also pleased to be able to make a valuable contribution to the success of the new Lufthansa Airline by marketing the new Eurowings Discover capacities.”

IBM and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) operator of Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR) announced a ten-year partnership under which IBM and Kyndryl will provide the finest IT solutions. The plan is to create a new ‘Airport in a Box’ platform that will support transforming the end-to-end travel experience for passengers at BLR Airport. To achieve this goal, BIAL has selected IBM global business services, IBM hybrid cloud capabilities and Kyndryl, the new, independent company that will be created following the separation of IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, to design and implement a next generation architecture with robust and dynamic delivery model. The new platform will also enable BIAL to improve employee productivity, better utilization of IT assets, reduce costs through streamlined inventory control and improved incident management. IBM and BIAL will work to ensure that the platform supports BIAL’s commitment to sustainability and the community at large. BIAL recently achieved its goal of net energy neutral status in the financial year 2020-21, consuming energy from renewable sources.

Air Canada Cargo, the cargo division of Air Canada announces their quarterly results. They believe this quarter has seen their best performance ever. Canada’s largest airline and the flag carrier’s, Air Canada Cargo, achieved a record $358 million in revenue. This represents an increase of $89 million, or 33 percent compared to the same quarter in 2020. The second quarter results were recently announced and the highlight of the financial numbers for the North American carrier was the cargo revenue. “We’re tremendously proud of the strongest quarterly results Air Canada Cargo has ever seen, which are a testament to our continued efforts to maintain stable and consistent capacity flows for our customers across the globe through cargo-only flying,” said Matthieu Casey, senior director, cargo global sales and revenue optimization at Air Canada.

Lufthansa Cargo, supported by Miebach Consulting, is modernising the infrastructure for its road feeder services (RFS) at its Frankfurt hub. On behalf of the carrier, two mechanical companies — Vollert Anlagenbau and Körber — will carry out the modernisation of the RFS high-rack storage system, including its mechanical, control and IT features. Completion of the RFS stacker conversion is planned for early summer 2023. The complete modernisation of the Lufthansa Cargo Center is expected to be finished in 2029. Harald Gloy, chief operations officer and chief human resources officer at Lufthansa Cargo, commented: “The modernisation of the RFS stacker is another important component of the extensive infrastructure program for the logistics center at the Frankfurt site. In the future, our RFS customers will benefit from shorter turnaround times and more efficient handling of transports by truck. With the help of a modern IT environment, we are ensuring the adaptability of the high-rack storage system with regard to upcoming technological developments.”

The civil aviation ministry has constituted three advisory groups with representatives of airlines, airport operators, cargo carriers, ground handling companies, flight training organisations, and maintenance, repair and overhaul companies to address and solve challenges faced by the sector. These three groups will be chaired by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. The first group will have chiefs of airline companies and includes Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal, IndiGo Promoter Rahul Bhatia, SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh, GoAir Director Ness Wadia, Vistara Chairman Bhaskar Bhat and CEOs of AirAsia India and Alliance Air. The group also has Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Secretary of Civil Aviation and Director General of Civil Aviation as members. The second group comprises of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Chairman, Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Chairman of AAI, GMR Group Business Chairman GBS Raju, Adani Group VP Jeet Adani and BIAL MD and CEO Hari Marar in addition to the civil aviation ministry and DGCA representatives. The third group, which comprises of ground handling organisations, MROs, flying training organisations, etc will delve into air cargo related matters and advise the government on enhancing the participation of Indian carriers in air cargo.

Forwarder charter operations are expected to continue to the main airport hubs as part of efforts to provide service stability. Speaking at the Takeoff Cargo event, which is taking place this week, industry leaders discussed the changing air cargo market. In one discussion moderated by Steven Polmans, chairman of TIACA, Joachim von Winning, executive director of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt at Frankfurt Airport, said that forwarders had launched freighter charter services to the main hubs in response to the loss of passenger operations. While he expects longhaul bellyhold services to return and therefore volumes to increase at all airports, rather than just at big cargo hubs, he said that forwarders may well wish to continue to operate charter operations to the main hubs.

Air cargo has been a “diamond in the rough” for AirAsia during the Covid-19 pandemic and is likely to retain a high importance to the business in the longer term, according to group chief executive Tony Fernandes. “What was a ‘nice to have’ has become something that could be as powerful as our passenger services,” Fernandes said during a CAPA Live event on 14 July. “Covid has driven e-commerce to another level, and hence air cargo has become much more valuable.” Amid that change, AirAsia is expecting to receive its first dedicated freighter in the third quarter of this year and is currently removing the seats from two of its Airbus A320s before deploying them as temporary freight-only aircraft. Air cargo is “no more a step child” in AirAsia’s business, Fernandes said. “I never thought we’d have freighters, I never thought we’d be taking seats off the planes to do cargo.”