Category Archives: Aviation

TechEagle has launched ‘Vertiplane X3,’ the fastest hybrid vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOL) drone ever made in India. TechEagle’s product will be deployed for various use cases across industries such as providing better healthcare access to the remote areas, apart from hyperlocal and e-commerce requirements. The product also aims to also address the needs of maritime and defence sectors and strengthen conventional supply chain with improved and faster accessibility.

Amit Maheshwari, CEO, Softlink Global bagged ‘DDP Game Changer’ Award at India Cargo Awards 2022, held recently in the Capital. Softlink Global was founded by Maheshwari with the objective of providing a single platform software to automate the entire logistics operation of the company. An engineer by education, he is a technology crusader well-known in the logistics business for his leadership skills and game-changing ideas. His attention to detail, has enabled Softlink Global to achieve success with each software product created. Maheshwari’s knowledge and experience include strategic planning, information management, financial resource management, product development, and marketing.

o9 Solutions and Deloitte announced the launch of Smart Planning, a subscription offering that combines Deloitte’s leading supply chain planning and data science capabilities with o9’s visionary planning platform. Smart Planning is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital insights, connectivity, and workflow automation solution that drives strategic- and tactical-level supply chain activities across the enterprise value chain. Combining o9’s technical scale and solution architecture with Deloitte’s production-ready environment and planning-as-a-service capabilities, Smart Planning can help companies level up their planning capabilities in a matter of months versus years.

AviaAM Leasing has acquired another aircraft to convert into a freighter as part of a wider project to expand its all-cargo offering. The aircraft has been ferried to the Taikoo (Shandong) Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (STAECO) facility in Jinan (TNA) where it will be changed to a freighter configuration over the next four months. The aircraft is the fourth Boeing 737-800 inducted to cargo conversion, with the first two already delivered to the lessee and successfully operated by Bluebird Nordic, and one more soon to be delivered.

CargoAi has announced that Air Canada Cargo has selected its eBooking and eQuote platform to accelerate eBooking adoption with freight forwarders. “We’re thrilled to be announcing the partnership between Air Canada Cargo and CargoAi,” says Petot, CEO of CargoAi. “Both organisations share ambitious growth plans in the post pandemic months and years to come, as well as a relentless focus on the customer experience. As such we are looking forward to leveraging this alignment in vision and strategy and bring the best digital booking experience to our joint customers,” he added.

Industry veteran Keku Bomi Gazder, former CEO of AAI Cargo Logistics & Allied Services was honoured with prestigious ‘Industry Ambassador of the Year’ award at the recently held India Cargo Awards, India’s topmost Supply chain awards, which helps to create a platform to recognise those behind the success of the cargo and logistics industry. Gazder said, “I would like to thank India Cargo Awards for organising this event after a gap of two years and for honouring me. It is always a pleasure to be recognised at such forums and it always feels wonderful to meet the industry stakeholders in person than virtual meetings.”

Alpine Air Express, which provides air cargo services to smaller communities in the western U.S. for customers such as FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service has acquired Omaha, Nebraska-based Suburban Air Freight to support growing demand for e-commerce services. The deal positions Alpine Air Express, one of the largest regional air cargo carriers in the U.S., to begin flying for DHL Express and build on its expansion effort. Alpine Air operates a fleet of 50 turboprop aircraft — 35 twin-engine Beechcraft 1900D, 14 smaller Beechcraft 99 and a King Air 200 — that transport mail packages and other time-sensitive cargo in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, California, and Utah.

With the global supply chain operations steadily gaining momentum in the past couple of years, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport’s (CSMIA) air cargo witnessed a fruitful year in terms of EXIM (export and import) movements in FY22. With a total of 5,56,900 Metric Tonnes (MT) of overall cargo facilitated in FY22, CSMIA’s air cargo observed a rise of close to 30% in movement as compared to FY21. Where international cargo volumes grew by 26% whereas domestic cargo volumes were up by 40% over FY 21. The total import of 260,600 MT and export of 296,300 MT of cargo resulted in CSMIA’s overall share of contribution to the global cargo movements.

DHL Express last week launched an air freight route connecting Shenzhen in the Guangdong province of southern China with Leipzig in Germany. With a weekly freight capacity of more than 500 metric tonnes, cargo airline Aero-Logic will be responsible for services in the route, with six weekly round trips made by a Boeing 777 all-cargo aircraft, DHL Express said. The new route can better meet the strong aviation logistics market demand in Shenzhen and its surrounding areas, and further promote economic and trade ties between South China and Europe, Shenzhen Baoan International Airport was quoted as saying by official Chinese media. The company had launched an international air cargo route linking Shenzhen and Los Angeles in October last year. It operates more than 30 international air cargo routes from the Shenzhen gateway.

dnata has inaugurated a new, state-of-the-art cargo centre at London Heathrow airport (LHR). Part of the company’s ‘dnata City East’ complex, the bespoke facility further increases dnata’s capacity at LHR, ensuring continued smooth handling of a broad range of goods amid rapidly increasing demand for reliable and safe air cargo services in the UK. The ground services provider’s expansion makes dnata City East comfortably the largest off-site cargo handling operation at the UK’s largest commercial aviation hub. The new, 10,500 sq mt facility (‘Phase II’) was designed to operate in conjunction with dnata City East’s existing 22,500 sq mt facility (‘Phase I’) which opened in September 2019.