Category Archives: Aviation

AirBridgeCargo Airlines has awarded a three-year cargo handling contract to Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) in Atlanta. WFS said the carrier is its “launch customer” at its new cargo terminal at Atlanta International Airport. Under the terms of the agreement, the handler will process around 9,500 tonnes of cargo each year from AirBridgeCargo’s Boeing 747-400ERF freighter flights. WFS opened its cargo terminal at Atlanta Airport in May this year under a 20-year lease agreement. The facility is located in the hub’s new Cargo Building C, the first new cargo terminal to open at the airport since the 1980s. Mike Simpson, executive vice president Americas at WFS, commented: “AirBridgeCargo is an important and growing customer of WFS globally. Through multiple contracts in the US and Europe, we are consistently proving our ability to deliver the service excellence ABC demands for its customers, as well as our expertise in supporting the airline’s portfolio of special cargoes services, including for pharmaceuticals and oversized shipments.

Airbus SE is poised to begin taking orders for a freighter version of its A350 wide-body as soon as next month, in a challenge to Boeing Co.’s dominance in the market for dedicated cargo aircraft. The European planemaker has been speaking to more than a dozen potential customers and will seek board authorization to market the new plane in the coming weeks, provided it can line up enough commitments, according to people familiar with the matter. The program could officially launch by year-end, said the people, who sought anonymity discussing confidential matters. Going after a segment where Boeing has long held sway would mark a major strategic push for Airbus. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury told Bloomberg News in April that he’s keen to challenge his U.S. rival and that the A350, a modern, lightweight plane with carbon-fiber wings and hull, would be “a strong candidate” for a freighter.

Cargo.one and Saudia Cargo say their recent partnership comes in light of rising demand for digital services. In mid-April, Saudia Cargo announced plans to add its capacity to the online booking portal as it continues with its digitalisation drive. The rollout is planned for June. Teddy Zebitz, chief cargo officer, Saudia Cargo said, “Overall, digitalisation is playing a vital role in the ecosystem. Everything from shipper to terminal to end user. Today digital solutions offer wide range of tools covering the needs of fast pace life and answer to rising expectation from our customers and partners. Our focus in utilising digitisation is to optimise our operation, provide seamless customer experience and strengthen the relation and help connect all global key players across the supply chain and have better alignment to optimize throughput and available capacity.”

Emirates SkyCargo has announced extension of its fully automated cool room with 94 airline pallet positions at its EU GDP certified dedicated pharma facility at Dubai International Airport, a move which will further strengthen the carrier’s temperature sensitive pharma and vaccine handling capabilities in Dubai. This extension of cool room will provide an additional 2600 square metres of temperature-controlled environment (2-25 degrees Celsius) for the storage and handling of pharma products including vaccines at Emirates SkyCargo’s purpose-built GDP certified facility. The new extension is capable of holding an estimated 60-90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at one time. Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, the airline is playing a leading role in the international distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. It has transported over 75 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on more than 250 flights to over 60 destinations since late 2020.

IATA has reported in its latest market analysis that air cargo volumes in April this year continued to outpace pre-Covid (2019) levels. The association said this was largely due to the strong performance of carriers based in North America, the Middle East and Africa. Global air cargo demand in April 2021, measured in cargo-tonne kms (CTKs), was reported as 12% higher than in April 2019 (used instead of last year for comparison purposes due to impact of Covid). It added: “This solid cargo growth performance this month was primarily driven by North American airlines, but all the regions outside Latin America contributed positively to the growth outcome.” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, commented: “Air cargo continues to be the good news story for the air transport sector. Some regions are outperforming the global trend, most notably carriers in North America, the Middle East and Africa. Strong air cargo performance, however, is not universal. The recovery for carriers in the Latin American region, for example, is stalled.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released April 2021 data for global air cargo markets showing that air cargo demand continued to outperform pre-COVID levels (April 2019) with demand up 12%. As comparisons between 2021 and 2020 monthly results are distorted by the extraordinary impact of COVID-19, unless otherwise noted, all comparisons to follow are to April 2019 which followed a normal demand pattern. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was up 12% compared to April 2019 and 7.8% compared to March 2021. Seasonally adjusted demand is now 5% higher than the pre-crisis August 2018 peak. The strong performance was led by North American carriers contributing 7.5 percentage points to the 12% growth rate in April. Airlines in all other regions except for Latin America also supported the growth. Capacity remains 9.7% below pre-COVID-19 levels (April 2019) due to the ongoing grounding of passenger aircraft. Airlines continue to use dedicated freighters to plug the lack of available belly capacity. International capacity from dedicated freighters rose 26.2% in April 2021 compared to the same month in 2019, while belly-cargo capacity dropped by 38.5%.

Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) is launching a unique half-day virtual “Elementary Cargo Training Program (ECTP)” on Thursday, 10th June 2021 from 09:00 AM to 02:00 PM, on pan India basis. This initiative is first of its kind in the skilling programs happened so far in the air cargo industry. The ECTP course has been designed particularly for the ‘Base Level staff’ (blue collared) of air cargo industry, such as Loader, Helper, Packer, Equipment Operator etc. considering their important role while the EXIM cargo is being handled by them, about the operational aspects, knowledge on the equipment’s being handled by them with all the safety measures including health safety and security aspects while handling various types of cargo/special types of cargo, during their day-to-day routine work. The elaborate course material on ECTP has been developed by an elite group of trainers of ACFI Task Pillar on Skill Development, which will be imparted online during the period of COVID pandemic, first at Delhi on 10th June 2021 and then at the 5 ACFI Regional Chapters i.e. Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi in Hindi/ English or in the regional or local languages of ACFI respective Chapters.

On the eve of the World Environment Day, 2021, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is proud to announce the accomplishment of one of its ambitious goals — Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) achieves net energy neutral status in the Financial Year 2020-21. As part of its sustainability goals, BIAL had set the target to become Net Energy Neutral by 2020-21. As an outcome of energy conservation, BIAL has been able to save nearly 22 lakh units of energy in the FY 2020-21, enough to power nearly 9,000 houses for a month. BIAL saved nearly 5 lakh units (KWH) from lighting, and has implemented chiller plant optimisation in Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), which has resulted in saving of over 17 lakh units (KWH). “As we expand our operations at BLR Airport, we aim to remain the flagbearer of sustainable operations. We have put in place various measures to reduce carbon footprint and protect our environment. Energy security is a very important aspect of our business as it is one of the key indicators to assess our sustainability levels,” said Mr. Hari Marar, MD & CEO, BIAL.

Kale Logistics Solutions (Kale), a UN award winner and a trusted global IT solution partner for several Fortune 500 companies worldwide for the Logistics Industry, has been chosen by dnata, to develop the next generation Airport Cargo Community e-Commerce platform in Dubai. With the two airports Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Center (DWC), handling over 3.5 Million tons of air freight in 2019, there has been several physical and digital infrastructure upgrades taking place in Dubai. dnata has been a pioneer in running one of the most comprehensive airport cargo community eCommerce platform under the brand name of CALOGI, way ahead of its times in the first decade of this millennium. The Calogi business has served the community for over a decade now. dnata has currently envisioned creating the next-generation community platform that would cater to the cargo community’s current and future needs and have the capability to support innovative services like Sea-Air Corridor, 3rd Party services and many more to accommodate end-to-end supply chain needs. The new Airport Cargo Community eCommerce Platform at DXB and DWC by dnata and Kale is the testimony that the region is slated to change gears for Air Cargo to the fast lane.

SAS Cargo has extended its unit load device (ULD) partnership with Unilode Aviation Solutions by five years, up to 2026. Unilode will also continue to supply SAS Cargo with containers and pallets from its pooled ULD fleet, as well as enabling the carrier to use its track and trace solutions. Additionally, SAS Cargo will trial SAS Cargo’s Connect service package, which monitors and and gives notifications about ULDs’ temperature, humidity, shock and light data. Max Knagge, president and chief executive of SAS Cargo Group, said: “We have built a strong relationship with Unilode over the years. Unilode’s pooled fleet significantly increases month-to-month ULD flexibility, enabling us to pay only for the ULDs we need, which is critically important in volatile market situations and during a pandemic. This will also help us reduce our ULD-related spend. In the years ahead we see great opportunity for growth and continued success through our partnership with Unilode.” Babak Yazdani, managing director of ULD Solutions at Unilode, added: “We are proud to have been a long-term trusted partner for SAS Cargo over the past 10 years. This is the second renewal of our ULD management agreement, which is a testament to the mutually beneficial collaborative relationships we build with our customers.