Category Archives: Aviation

Brussels Airport launched Stargate project, receiving a grant within the European Green deal. In the next five years, Brussels Airport will be working with a consortium of 21 partners on some 30 concrete projects to make aviation and airports greener and more sustainable. Stargate includes building a biofuel blending installation at the airport, electric ground handling material and testing a new innovation that will make engine test runs much quieter. At the end of 2020, following a call of the European Commission, Brussels Airport took the initiative to submit an ambitious programme (“Stargate”) together with 21 partners, including three European airports, airlines, mobility and knowledge institutes and local authorities, to develop innovations and initiatives for an accelerated transition to greener aviation. Brussels Airport’s Stargate project was selected and has received a 24.8 million euros grant within the European Green Deal to implement these projects in the coming years.

Air Charter Service (ACS) recorded its busiest quarter for the cargo division with 1,445 charters in the third quarter of August-October 2021 (the financial year for ACS runs February-January). Along with other divisions, ACS reported its highest revenue in a single quarter of £321.1 million ($430 million) as against £212 million ($282 million) in Q2. “The incredible increase in revenue was, of course, in part due to the current supply chain crisis,” said founder and chairman Chris Leach. “Firstly, revenues have increased due to demand becoming more long haul on larger aircraft which, naturally, are more expensive. The majority of this demand has been from Asia, which has seen an especially significant reduction in belly capacity due to travel restrictions in the region, meaning charter options have also been extremely limited. Our speciality in finding these solutions, along with our strong presence in Asia, has meant that we have been able to find solutions that others simply haven’t.”

With holiday season approaching and a shift from ocean transport to air happening, the cost of air shipments has been on a steady rise. As per the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI), last week’s prices on freight services from Hong Kong to North America had reached USD 11.22 per kg, almost 23% higher than that in the starting of October and highest ever on the BAI. Similarly, fright travelling from Hong Kong to Europe is USD 7.80 per kg which is also relatively inflated. On the other hand, the Freightos Air Freight Index revealed the airfreight rates from Asia/China to West Coast of US reached USD 14.22 per kg and those for East Coast of US reached USD 12.76 per kg. In its weekly market wrap up, Freightos said that with the holidays nearing and ocean delays pushing some shipments to air, peak season air cargo rates have continued to climb

Freighter airline MENA Cargo has partnered with Awery Aviation Software to streamline operations on its scheduled and charter services across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The Bahrain-headquartered MENA Cargo will use Awery’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product, as well as its CargoBooking tool. Awery ERP is a web-based, customisable platform, which MENA Cargo will initially use for flight and crew operations and charter sales management. The CargoBooking tool delivers instant quotes, manages bookings, and has full Application Programming Interface (API) integration. Awery and MENA signed the deal at the Dubai Air Show in the UAE last week, and MENA will be rolling out Awery solutions over coming months. Said Peter Hewett, general manager at MENA Cargo: “In creating a lean and efficient cargo airline with SMART technology at its core, it makes sense for us to collaborate with leading global suppliers of customisable aviation software. We believe that this partnership with Awery, who have the same mindset in business adaptability, will enable the realisation of our strategy to quickly scale, while remaining flexible in our operations and agile in our approach.”

Cathay Pacific Cargo rolled out its latest digital innovation, Click & Ship, an online booking platform that offers registered customers “an intuitive, always-on booking interface”. Said Tom Owen, director cargo: “Our customers have been telling us that they want a quicker and more efficient way to book shipments at any time. “We listened. We’re rolling out Click & Ship progressively across our network and we aim to make real-time flight schedules, space availability, allotments, and updated rate information available on cathaypacificcargo.com and ezycargo.com for all Cathay Pacific Cargo customers over the next year.” Users will be able to book through an easy, three-step process whenever they like, said a Cathay Pacific Cargo spokesperson – with most bookings “confirmed on the spot”. It also gives visibility of pricing and space availability to defined routes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The global roll-out is being led by the South West Pacific region, where customers have been trialling the technology ahead of a wider introduction.

dnata has signed a concession agreement with The Government of Zanzibar, along with Emirates Leisure Retail and SEGAP, a joint venture between airport infrastructure and operations specialists Egis, and private equity fund manager AIIM. dnata will oversee the operations of Zanzibar Abeid Amani Karume International Airport’s (ZNZ) newly-built international terminal (T3), with SEGAP supporting the Zanzibar Airports Authority (ZAA) in a management capacity. Emirates Leisure Retail will partner with MMI as master concessionaire for all food and beverage, duty-free and commercial outlets at T3. dnata’s expansion into Zanzibar represents an investment of over US$ 7 million and will create up to 400 direct local jobs with the company. dnata will provide its globally renowned, quality ground and passenger handling services to airline customers at ZNZ, ensuring safe and timely operations of flights and an excellent travel experience for passengers. dnata expects to handle over 4,000 flights annually at the airport.

SpiceJet is looking to not only expand its passenger operations but also its cargo services, both domestically and internationally. The airline plans to induct 50 Boeing 737 Max planes by December 2023, said, Chairman, SpiceJet, Ajay Singh. Twenty additional cargo planes will be added in the next two years, the officials said. The airline may spend $2.5 billion to $3 billion to expand its cargo operations over the next few years. “A fleet of 10-12 wide-body planes and 10 freighter versions of narrow-body planes will be sufficient to expand our cargo operations in the next two years, over and above the 17 aircraft we currently have in our cargo operations,” a senior SpiceJet official said. “The cargo business is growing very rapidly and we are looking at all opportunities to raise funds to grow this business quickly, and that includes selling a stake,” said Singh. As part of SpiceJet’s cargo expansion plans, the airline will create a network for domestic and international operations. It may set up loading docks and storage facilities in India, said the officials.

B&H Worldwide, the specialist aerospace logistics provider has won two Green Apple Awards at a ceremony in London. The first for its Carbon Reduction project – which was achieved in 2020 but the awards were postponed for 12 months due to the pandemic – and the second for adoption of electronic air waybills (eAWBs) for all airlines it works with. The Green Apple Organisation is an independent, non-profit, non-political group that has been rewarding and promoting environmental best practice since 1994. Its annual awards recognise those businesses that make a positive contribution to the environment through carbon friendly initiatives. In the Distribution and Logistics category B&H Worldwide was rewarded for its efforts over two separate years to reduce its environmental impact across its global business. The challenge was to reduce its overall carbon footprint through changing working practices in all its international stations and then educating team members, customers, and suppliers about why and how it was making changes. It now operates a measurable, monitored environment and sustainability policy so that all stakeholders can see the year-on-year carbon reductions which have been made including changing the company’s IT infrastructure, installing LED lighting, introducing in-workplace recycling centres, transport routings and changing working practices. Measurable results have included a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions at its London Heathrow head office since 2018 and an 82% reduction in paper usage by switching to a paperless purchase ledger.

Airfreight rates on the transpacific trade lane continue to surge since the start of November as peak season demand kicks off and modal shift from ocean continues. The latest figures from the Baltic Exchange Airfreight Index (BAI) show that prices on services from Hong Kong to North America reached $11.22 per kg – the highest on (BAI) record and up from $9.12 per kg at the start of October. To Europe, prices from Hong Kong are at 7.80 per kg – also a high for the index. Meanwhile, the Freightos Air Freight Index shows that prices from Asia/China to the US west coast last week reached $14.22 per kg and to the east coast are at $12.76 per kg.

American has partnered with My Pet Cab on its PetEmbark programme to include a home delivery service for pets after being flown to destination. My Pet Cab vehicles are equipped with secondary air systems and electronic monitoring thermometers as well as remote cameras and vehicle monitoring systems. The airline has also launched a new video guide that offers instructions for booking a pet on American, ranging in information from kennel guidelines to approved travel conditions to drop-off and pick-up timing. Vittal Shetty, head of cargo strategy for American Airlines Cargo, said: “These enhancements not only make it easier for pet owners to do business with us but helps to ensure a safe and stress-free journey from start to finish.”