Category Archives: Aviation

To continue accessing CHAMP’s Traxon cargoHUB and Traxon CDMP solutions, Lufthansa Cargo extended its partnership with CHAMP. The airline will be able to gain synergies and cargo insights through its continued use of CHAMP’s Traxon CDMP, a tool that measures over 40 per cent of the worldwide Cargo iQ airline shipments. The carrier will also benefit from being a part of CHAMP’s air cargo digital interchange community – the Traxon CargoHUB. “Traxon CargoHUB efficiently links the entire global airfreight community, irrespective of their IT configuration or systems resulting in higher productivity and lower costs,” explains CHAMP, in adding. “It improves supply chain quality and completeness; bookings, operations, document handling and customs processes can be executed and confirmed in seconds; it can be aligned with and updated to latest industry standards; it enables standard and custom message processing and conversions.”

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), air cargo demand is recovering slowly from the effect of COVID-19. The association has released data for global air freight markets in June showing improvement, but at a slower pace than some of the traditional leading indicators would suggest. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), fell by 17.6 per cent in June (-19.9 per cent for international operations) compared to the previous year. That is a modest improvement from the 20.1 per cent year-on-year drop recorded in May. However, global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), shrank by 34.1 per cent in June ( 33.9 per cent for international operations) compared to the previous year. This was on par with the 34.8 per cent year-on-year drop in May.

“Over the last half-a-decade, digitisation has been the buzzword in air cargo industry, says, Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions, in adding, “It has been the key topic of every conference or seminar. The most common term used during these conferences was ‘dinosaur’: are we a dinosaur in a digital world?” Calling COVID-19 an accelerator for giving a boost to digitisation, More explains, “It is true that compared to other sectors like automobile, banking and even travel; air cargo has been lagging behind in terms of digitalisation, despite the integrators and the increase of e-commerce. But now we have witnessed that there is a surge in the Cloud-based solutions and platforms. The focus is shifting from documents to data. The infrastructure is there, innovative technology is ready, it’s just a matter of time before we move to data and automate.”

With an aim to reduce its members’ environmental footprint, Delta Cargo has joined the Sustainable Air Freight Alliance (SAFA). The move aligns with Delta’s pledge earlier this year to become the world’s first carbon neutral airline. The airline has committed $1 billion over the next 10 years to mitigate all emissions from its global business. SAFA is collaboration between shippers, freight forwarders and airlines to track and reduce emissions from air freight and promote responsible freight transport. It is facilitated by BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), a global non-profit business network and consultancy dedicated to sustainability. “We are in the midst of the worst global pandemic in living memory, but we can’t afford to take sustainability off the agenda. Through this commitment, we are supporting Delta’s goal to be a more environmentally-friendly airline for generations to come,” said Shawn Cole, Vice President – Delta Cargo.

Serving the air cargo logistics industry, its members from the entire segments of air cargo logistics industry and the nation, Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) has completed its eight constructive and successful years. With the objective of developing the air cargo logistics and supply chain industry and for bringing improvements in the movement and processing of EXIM trade with the help of the government regulatory agencies, ACFI was formed in the year 2012. After completion of two successful years (2018-19 to 2019-20) term of previous ACFI Governing Board, ACFI in its 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) followed by its 63rd Board meeting held on July 17, 2020 has announced the new ACFI Governing Board members for the next two years i.e. 2020-21 to 2021-22 taken over charge under the leadership of Cyrus Katgara, Partner M/S Jeena & Co. as President of ACFI. Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) is the only nationwide association having representation from the entire air cargo logistic supply chain industry i.e. Airport Operators (Government & Private), Freight Forwarders, Airlines, Customs Brokers, Cargo Terminal Operators, Bonded Truck Operators, General Sales Agencies, Express Industry and the Associations of these individual stakeholders. In the international collaboration ACFI is the member of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) and an Association Member of PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry in India.

“Supply has never been a problem in the cargo industry before this pandemic,” says Ashok Rajan, Senior Vice President and Head – Cargo & Logistics Solutions, IBS Software. Calling digitisation a saving grace for most of the air cargo professionals, Rajan shares, “In last three months, nature of operations has started to change considerably. With the work from home concept, interactions have gone digital. People who had strong digital backbone have responded much better to this crisis.” “In the time of crisis people are struggling to get connected to their customers in order to make sales. Hence, people who had access to digital sale channel are actually able to get a bigger chunk of the market than others,” he adds.

As part of its efforts to continue modernising and growing its fleet, DHL Express and Boeing has announced that DHL will add four B767-300 Boeing converted freighters (BCF). According to DHL, the move was a step towards modernising its long-haul intercontinental fleet in order to fly eco-friendlier and more cost-efficiently. Work on the conversions will start in the fourth quarter of this year and is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. “We are excited to introduce additional B767 freighters to the DHL Express air network,” says, Geoff Kehr, Senior Vice President – Global Air Fleet Management, DHL Express. The 767-300BCF has virtually the same cargo capability as the 767-300F production freighter with approximately 50 tonnes structural payload at a range of approximately 5,556 km and 186,880 kg maximum take-off weight.

Air Cargo Forum India has (ACFI) elected Cyrus Katgara of Jeena & Company as the President of ACFI for the year 2020-2022. Katgara, who held the post of Vice President earlier, takes over from Tushar Jani of Cargo Service Centre. Yashpal Sharma of Skyways Air Services, who previously served as Hon. Secretary, has now been appointed as Vice President of ACFI. Sanjiv Edward of Delhi International Airport and Avinash Razdan of Delhi Cargo Service Center have taken over as Hon. Secretary and Hon Treasurer respectively.

Emirates SkyCargo has facilitated the movement of essential commodities and other supplies for individual consumers and businesses across the world by operating more than 10,000 cargo flights to destinations across six continents between April and June 2020. The flights were a mix of scheduled, ad-hoc and charter operations. Nabil Sultan, Divisional Senior Vice President – Cargo, Emirates, says, “Emirates SkyCargo has innovatively adapted our cargo operations and offerings over the last few months in line with rapidly evolving market demand. In keeping with our core value as a global facilitator of trade and economies, we have re-grown our network to over 100 destinations with robust flight frequencies to key production and consumer markets.”

DHL Global Forwarding has opened its first temperature-controlled facility in Hyderabad to meet the growing demand for reliable temperature-controlled transportation from point of departure to arrival. Located in the cargo satellite building close to the airport in Hyderabad, the new facility offers conditioning of packaging materials in different chambers for varying temperatures up to -20̊ C, to meet the stringent needs of pharmaceutical shipments. “To meet the intricate requirements of each life science and healthcare shipment, our goal is to ensure that all goods are vigilantly handled by DHL’s core team of professionals with customised end-to-end solutions,” says, Niki Frank, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding, India, in adding, “By sending pre-conditioned packaging units to our customers’ premises to pick up temperature-sensitive medicines and vaccines, we ensure that the highest possible integrity of temperature control is achieved within the supply chain during export.”