Category Archives: Aviation

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.

According to the latest figures from the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI), airfreight rates on key trade lanes out of Asia continued to weaken in September despite the industry heading towards the peak season. The latest figures show that in September rates from Hong Kong to North America declined by 18.5% compared with a year ago to $7.94 per kg and are also down on the $8.33 per kg achieved in August. The declines are noteworthy for two reasons, firstly rates on the trade lane tend to increase from August to September and secondly it is only the second time since February 2020 that prices on the trade have registered a year-on-year decline. Meanwhile, average prices from Hong Kong to Europe stood at $6.09 per kg in September, which is down on the $6.34 per kg registered in August but remains 9.3% ahead of the year-ago level. Rates on this lane also tend to increase between August and September. The falls come as bellyhold capacity continues to return to the Hong Kong market as Covid restrictions are eased and the air cargo outlook remains cloudy, suggest reports.

Air cargo stakeholders have appealed for extension of GST exemption notification. The GST exemption was valid till 30 September. “With effect from 1 October, there will be an additional upfront of 18 per cent of GST payable on export freight with the facility for input credit. While Commerce ministry wants every district to identify and promote exports of at least one product. Even for the GST registered, this increase its compliance cost as full input credit is permitted, which shall not fetch any extra revenue to the government but increase the compliance cost to tax assesses. Internationally, all export-related charges are Zero rated, except in Indi where the increase in logistics cost increase the cost further,” said J Krishnan, former ACAAI President and Board of Advisors. M Afzal Malbarwala, President, ACAAI sharing his views said, “It will affect us and exporters business. The cash flow will be the biggest hurdle. Every exporter must have made huge investments since all importers are asking for credit and to keep up business and to compete with other countries our exporters must do. On top of it, the rule seriously affects exports. The government wants to promote exports and has launched new NLP which was accepted by all and now a big blow. Anywhere in the world there is no GST on exports and related. The sea freight which is not even 1/3rd cost of airfreight there is no GST then why for air. Air imports have no GST, but sea imports GST have 5 per cent only. We request the government to seriously rethink and charge GST @ 0 per cent, which is the norm in sea and air.”

Air Canada Cargo is all set to launch five times a week B767 freighter service from St. John’s (YYT) to Frankfurt and Madrid. Effective October 1, there will be two non-stop flights per week to Frankfurt and three non-stop weekly flights to Madrid. Air Canada Cargo is the only carrier with a scheduled cargo service from St. John’s to Europe, supporting Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy. These new flights complement Air Canada Cargo services to Halifax, strengthening the carrier’s freighter network, connecting Atlantic Canada globally.

Saudia Cargo has collaborated with IATA for its Center of Excellence for Independent Validators for Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) Certification for safe air transport and handling of pharma shipments. Teddy Zebitz, Saudia Cargo CEO and Frederic Leger, IATA Senior VP Commercial Products and Services, signed the agreement at the recently concluded IATA World Cargo Symposium in London. For the next few months, Saudia Cargo will prepare across multiple aspects of its operations, particularly on staff competency to handle pharma, comply with IATA’s requirements for CEIV Pharma Certification on top of Good Distribution Practices, stated the release. The process is meant to ensure critical healthcare cargo such as COVID vaccines and other pharma and bioscience products are not compromised while they transported by air.

To address issues related to expanding air cargo options and block space agreements, and pending regulatory approvals, Emirates SkyCargo and United Cargo signed an agreement at the recently concluded IATA World Cargo Symposium. The MoU will build on existing cargo interline arrangements between both air cargo operators and offer freight customers access to more capacity on a larger combined global network. United Cargo, which last year had decided against entering the freighter market, will now have access to Emirates SkyCargo’s high frequency distribution network through to over 100 global destinations by 11 B777-F freighters, stated the release. Emirates SkyCargo will have access to over 200 cities in the USA and 300 cities across five continents through United Cargo. The agreement was signed by Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, cargo, and Jan Krems, president, United Cargo.

Mr. Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers Pvt Ltd (CCPL) was honoured at the 23rd Annual General Meet (AGM) of Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India (AMTOI) held on 28 September 2022 in Mumbai where Mr. Xerxess Master, President, AMTOI felicitated Mr. Vohra Vohra for the completion of 50 years of the company in logistics business since incorporation.

To define higher standards and make transactions transparent and customer-friendly for the logistics and air cargo industry, Cargo Flash InfoTech launched a new product range ‘OCTOGO’ at the ongoing IATA World Cargo Symposium (WCS) 2022. Jasraj S Chug, Co-Founder & Director of Cargo Flash InfoTech who recently hosted a workshop on ‘DIGIGASM – The emerging world of Air Cargo’ at WCS said, “Octogo brings in a well-thought and carefully designed product line for the entire Air Cargo ecosystem. Our new and upcoming product lines are made to forecast rates, capacity, industry needs and demands triggering the development of data-driven decisions. We endeavour to tap transactions, supporting the growth of a digital environment that can unfold new opportunities for our customers. It will soon be ready to provide direct access to millions of global Air Cargo and Logistics stakeholders, all on a multi-faceted, cloud-based platform.” Both Jambojet and SalamAir to go live with Cargo Flash’s new Octogen, modular-based Cargo Management System (CMS), an advanced assemblage of its existing ‘nGen’ software, further developed under the ‘Octogo’ portfolio.

Shankar Shinde, Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) said, “Logistics in India is an unorganized sector and there was a need to collate towards progress, achieving the government’s endeavours of striving towards single digit logistics cost aligning with developed countries to compete and promote our products in the international market. The National Logistics Policy (NLP) which was unveiled by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on September 17, 2022, aims towards reducing logistics cost to single digit to make India one of the viable manufacturing hubs in the world. Other key objectives of the NLP are to create common platform for better understanding of Government with stakeholders to assess and take steps towards developments and integrating the modes of transport, Multimodal with Transmodal to make it seamless and effective. In achieving “Atmanirbhar Bharat”and “Make in India” dream come true, the first and last mile delivery needs to be effective on real time monitoring basis to reduce dwell time and logistics cost. The NLP highlighted that present logistics cost is the result of multiple factors including policy framework and constraints of required infrastructure, both physical and IT, and aptly addressed those bottlenecks to facilitate the country’s manufacturing and domestic distribution for international trade supported by domestic connectivity.

The 52nd Annual General Meet of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) was held in Mumbai wherein the following members were elected unopposed: Samir J Shah, Hon. Secretary from Star Freight, Ahmedabad, Praveen Menon – Hon. Treasurer from Interfreight Services, Chennai, Mahesh Trikha, Member Managing Committee from Aargus Global Logistics Ltd, Delhi, Ronald Goveas – Member Managing Committee from Skylink Freight, Mumbai, Vikram Kumar – Member Managing Committee from CTC Air Carriers, Delhi, Chaitaly Mehta – Member Managing Committee from EKF Global Logistics, Mumbai. The outgoing Hony. Treasurer Anil Vazirani of Robinson Cargo and Logistics Pvt Ltd has been co-opted as the Member Managing Committee. While M Afzal Malbarwala and C K Govil will continue as President and Vice President respectively. The AGM was attended by Members, Regional Chairman and Board of Advisors including Sam Katgara, Partner, Jeena and Company, Keshav Tanna, Links Forwarders Pvt Ltd, Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers and T A Varghese, Aroscan Cargo Trade. Radharamana Panicker of DGM India who was a special invitee enlightened the Members regarding the new competence-based training for Dangerous Goods which shall be enforced from 1 January 2023.