Category Archives: Aviation

Singapore Airlines (SIA) signs a Letter of Intent with Airbus to purchase seven A350F freighter aircraft. The new aircraft will replace the airline’s existing Boeing 747-400F. The agreement includes a swap with 15 A320neo and two A350-900 passenger aircraft that are in the SIA Group order book. This allows SIA to manage its capital expenditure, while continuing with the essential freighter renewal programme. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025, when SIA will become the first airline to operate this new generation widebody freighter aircraft. Goh Choon Phong, chief executive officer, Singapore Airlines said, “This agreement with Airbus reinforces SIA’s position as a leading global air cargo carrier while advancing our sustainability goals. It also ensures that we are prudent with our capital expenditure, and adjusts our passenger aircraft order book to give us the flexibility needed to navigate uncertainties in the recovery trajectory. The A350Fs will replace our seven 747-400F freighters, with the options providing the ability to adapt our requirements to future demand in the cargo market.”

Air Belgium is looking to expand in the air cargo market through the addition of B747-8 freighter aircraft operations.The airline’s expansion in the cargo market shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, Air Belgium already operates four A330-200 freighter aircraft on behalf of French shipping and logistics firm CMA CGM. Also, the airline is headed up Niky Terzakis who until 2014 was managing director/chief executive of express carrier TNT Airways. At this stage details of the airline’s plans for cargo operations are thin on the ground – it is not known how many B747F freighters the airline plans to operate or where it will base them.

GEODIS has entered into a five-year unit load device (ULD) supply, management and repair agreement with Unilode Aviation Solutions, the market leader in outsourced ULD management and repair services. At present, GEODIS leases one A330-300 aircraft, converted into a freighter, and flies to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, O’Hare International Airport, London Stansted Airport and Hong Kong International Airport, to increase supply chain velocity and airfreight capacity for its customers. Unilode supplies containers and pallets to GEODIS and provides its full range of ULD management solutions, including procurement, planning, logistics, repair and digitalisation. Stanislas Brun, senior vice president, Global Air Freight, GEODIS said, “As airfreight capacity offered by airlines has significantly decreased during the pandemic, we decided to lease our own freighter aircraft to ensure air cargo space availability for our customers and increase the speed of their shipments. Unilode’s ULD management services proved to be the most convenient and appropriate solution for GEODIS’ start-up airline activities as in addition to supplying the necessary stock of ULDs at all our destinations, Unilode also takes care of all ULD-related operational tasks.”

Blue Dart announced the launch of two exciting offers ahead of the end-of-the-year festivities – ‘Merry Express’ and ‘Assured Gift’ offer. The ‘Merry Express Offer’ can be availed from December 20th, 2021 until January 15th, 2022. The offer includes an exceptional discount of 40% on all gift shipments including, but not limited to, festive sweets, gifts and apparel weighing between 10kgs to 20kgs. This offer will be applicable on Non-Doc Shipments for Domestic Priority and International shipments. Over and above this, the express logistics provider has also launched the ‘Assured Gift’ offer which can be availed until March 31st, 2022. The exciting offer is in association with Spykar and is available to all retail customers booking a domestic or international shipment at any of Blue Dart’s stores across the nation. Availing this offer would enable customers to redeem a free Spykar Gift of their choice, with only having to pay for the shipping & handling charges. Gifts include but are not limited to, stylish watches that are sure to accentuate your look and handy yet trendy trolley bags & duffle bags that are sure to make travelling even more fun. Blue Dart’s Customer Centricity has always been a key market differentiator in a highly competitive environment. This coupled with its premium capabilities – it’s fleet of Boeing 757-200 freighters, technology-based solutions, an incomparable ground network facilitating trade to over 34,000 locations across India as well as its team of industry experts, all work towards enhancing customer delight by leaps and bounds.

Oracle announced that Wipro Limited has chosen Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to power its next-generation Cargo Reservations, Operations, Accounting and Management Information System (CROAMIS) Application suite. This will allow Wipro to offer CROAMIS as part of Wipro FullStride Cloud Services, to customers worldwide, aiding faster modernization of the air cargo industry amidst growing demand for rapid cargo transportation services. Wipro chose OCI for its superior performance, high availability, built-in security, and lower cost. “There has been significant change in the supply chain, particularly in key industries such as pharma and e-commerce, which need goods to be moved rapidly around the world. While this has led to air cargo gaining share, it has also created the need for this industry to fast-track its modernization through the use of cloud and other digital technologies,” said Gopi Krishnan, Vice President and Managing Partner, Domain & Consulting Services, Consumer Sector, Wipro Limited. “Now, with CROAMIS on OCI, we will further strengthen our position as the technology partner of choice for many air cargo organizations. We envision its use will help our customers to scale faster, achieve increased business efficiencies, accelerate their pace of innovation, benefit from greater security, and reduce their data storage and outbound data transfer cost.”

Cargo Flash Infotech will be replacing Kenya Airways’ manifold of operations and management systems that were either having limited connectivity options or systems working in silos, in which information sharing is restricted due to systems’ limitations. Kenya Airways’ numerous operations and management systems are currently being substituted by Cargo Flash’s single, next-generation ‘nGen’ system that includes Cargo Reservations (RES) System, Cargo Revenue Accounting (CRA) System, Cargo Handling and Warehouse Management, ULD Management Solution, and Customer Portal. Furthermore, the new and additional systems included as a part of this single ‘nGen’ system are Mail Booking and Handling System, E-commerce (Door-to-Door) System, Target Planning System, in addition to Complaint and Claim Management System. The web-based solutions will further bolster the airline’s scope to reap a seamless, error-free and spontaneous management, accumulating several processes under one roof. “Not only will Cargo Flash’s next-generation systems automate documentation and other cargo management processes but will also streamline Kenya Airway’s operational requirements along with boosting their efficiency and increasing revenue,” added Gautam Mandal, Director – Products, Cargo Flash Infotech. “We are pleased to have joined hands with Kenya Airways and deliver such an integrated solution to tackle the crucial concerns of cargo operation and administration,” he further adds.

Singapore Airlines and WiseTech Global, provider of leading logistics execution platform CargoWise, have partnered to provide a direct exchange of eBookings between their systems, adding significant value to many forwarders across the globe. The integration is the first of its kind for SIA and through the use of custom APIs, allows CargoWise customers, including some of the world’s largest freight forwarders, direct access to SIA to book and modify shipments in real-time from within the CargoWise platform. Chin Yau Seng, senior vice president cargo, Singapore Airlines said, “We are committed to the continued digitalization of all areas of our business. Our partnership with WiseTech Global will result in the integration of our eBooking systems, enabling customers to book airfreight directly with SIA via the CargoWise online platform. This is one of the many steps that we are taking to provide a more seamless experience for our cargo customers.”

LATAM Airlines Group and its cargo subsidiaries have collaborated with a leading digital sales platform cargo.one, making the carriers’ network available for instant booking on the cargo.one platform. This milestone is part of LATAM Cargo’s innovative digitalization agenda, with the aim of diversifying its distribution channels while offering its customers best-in-class direct booking options. “We want to provide customers with reliable and efficient solutions and a broad set of options that allows them to choose what works best for them. The LATAM Cargo carriers’ network and product portfolio are great examples of that. Partnering with cargo.one is fully aligned with this goal as it gives customers access to LATAM’s cargo capacity through an innovative way,” comments Andres Bianchi, Chief Executive Officer of LATAM Cargo.

Abu Dhabi has set its sights on Belgium, as a leading global pharmaceutical hub, to establish a global distribution corridor to serve the world in vaccine delivery and future life science needs. The collaboration builds on the capabilities of Abu Dhabi’s healthcare sector as a leading life sciences hub and the efforts of the HOPE Consortium in providing vaccine solutions for the world. This initiative entailed a delegation visit from Belgium to Abu Dhabi, hosted by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH). The visit saw the signing of two declarations of collaboration between Belgium and Abu Dhabi, Witnessed by H.E. Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Hamed, Chairman of DoH and H.E. Peter CLAES, Ambassador of Belgium in the UAE. The first agreement was between the HOPE Consortium, Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), Brussels Airport Company and Pharma.Aero. The collaboration aims to establish a fully compliant origin-to-destination pharma air corridor between Abu Dhabi and Brussels Airports. The dedicated pharma trade lane will unite key compliant and sector certified supply chain stakeholders, including forwarders and ground handling agents.

Cathay Pacific Cargo is launching Click & Ship, its new digital booking platform, progressively across its network starting this month. Click & Ship promises booking transparency and speed, day and night. Customers in South Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can view prices and capacity, and book cargo with instant confirmation in just three steps through the intuitive booking interface. Digitalisation and automation are central to Cathay Pacific Cargo’s vision to become the world’s most customer-centric air cargo service brand. Click & Ship is the latest digital innovation along this journey. “Our customers globally have been telling us that they want a quicker and more efficient way to book shipments at any time,” said Rajesh Menon, Regional Head of Cargo, South Asia, Middle East and Africa. “We listened. We are rolling out Click & Ship progressively across our network including South Asia. We aim to make real-time flight schedules, space availability, allotments, and updated rate information available on www.cathaypacificcargo.com andwww.ezycargo.com for all Cathay Pacific Cargo customers over the next year.”