Category Archives: Aviation

American Airlines has appointed Air Logistics Group as its Cargo General Sales Agent (GSA) for its operations in India. The new GSA representation will bring added benefits to American’s Cargo customers as the airline continues to expand its cargo capacity and frequency between the two nations. American Airlines Cargo has served the Indian market with a GSA for more than two decades. The United States and India are two of the world’s largest exporters and importers of goods and freight. “India is an important market for American’s cargo operations,” said Tim Isik, Director Cargo Sales – Europe, Middle East and Africa, in adding, “As we prepare to launch our new Seattle to Bengaluru service in 2021, we are delighted to be strengthening our position in India through this exclusive partnership with Air Logistics Group.”

Commenting on how COVID-19 has changed the metrics, Saurabh Kumar, CEO, Hyderabad Air Cargo noted, “Airfreight was growing at a very fast pace in Asia-Pacific and particularly in India before COVID-19 happened. Another important thing to note is that in India the bulk of cargo goes via the belly of passenger aircraft and not via dedicated freighter aircrafts. When international flights stopped in the end of the March, we have missed out in the entire belly capacity and the only capacity which was available was freighter. However, in the last three months we have grown significantly as an industry. The freighter capacity which used to be a miniscule 25-30 per cent across the country has more than doubled, primarily on account of several passenger aircrafts getting converted into cargo (P2C) as well more special charters and additional freighters that started coming into India to facilitate the trade. The air cargo industry has seen a very encouraging recovery in the last three months. Having said that, if we compare air cargo with other segments of the industry, we are in a position where we are at least able to see the dreams of complete recovery. The recovery is few quarters away.”

After returning to all-cargo operations in March, American Airlines will fly more than 1,000 cargo-only flights to 32 destinations across the US, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia in September. The airline re-launched cargo-only flights in March, with 20 strategic flights to two key destinations. Since being reintroduced, American’s cargo-only flights, which hadn’t been operated in more than 35 years, have moved more than 45 million pounds of cargo around the world.” “We didn’t have a playbook. We’d never done this before,” said Maulin Vakil, American’s director of cargo revenue at the time. “We began to explore how much cargo we could take if we couldn’t transport passengers.” After exploring options, the group began planning a cargo-only flight from Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) to Frankfurt (FRA) scheduled to take off on March 20. The airline expanded its cargo-only flights to Hong Kong (HKG), Shanghai (PVG), Beijing (PEK) and Seoul (ICN). “We essentially started our own little airline,” said Tom Howard, Manager at American’s integrated operations center. “We had to build this entire out and coordinate how it flows with our scheduled passenger service because, well, we’re a passenger airline.” This September, more than 1,000 scheduled cargo-only flights will be accompanied by more than 1,200 passenger flights also offering cargo services.

SpiceJet has announced that the airline is set to induct its first wide-body Airbus A340 cargo aircraft which would primarily be used for transporting cargo goods and essential supplies on long-haul routes including to destinations in Europe, CIS and Africa. The aircraft can carry 35 tonnes of cargo per flight. With the latest induction, SpiceJet will have a dedicated fleet of nine freighter aircraft consisting of five Boeing 737s, three Bombardier Q-400s and one Airbus A340. Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, “Very soon, an Indian carrier will be proudly operating non-stop cargo services across the globe to destinations in Europe, Africa and CIS countries which till a few months back would have been unthinkable. We are confident that our long-haul cargo flights would further help boost Indian businesses, farmers, pharma companies providing them seamless access to newer markets.”

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/BLR Airport) facilitated shipment of ~71,406 Metric Tonnes (MT) of cargo including 6,194 MT of perishables and 2,300 MT of pharma supplies between April and July 2020. During this period, BLR Airport’s cargo market share rose to 15.3 per cent from 11.2 per cent. While international cargo throughput was 51,728 MT, domestic was 19,678 MT during this period. Of this, perishables, including 507 MT of mangos, were delivered to 31 international destinations. Apart from perishables and pharma, the other freight processed during this period included electronic and engineering equipment, spares and readymade garments. Before the pandemic, airport’s cargo volumes were distributed between freighter and passenger aircraft in 40:60 ratios. However, the lockdown and subsequent restrictions on international scheduled passenger flights, impacted cargo movements. Several airlines commenced ‘cargo-only’ flights using passenger aircraft to bolster depressed global airfreight capacity and drive a spike in cargo demand. About 40 per cent of BLR Airport’s cargo during the period April to July 2020, was transported by Passenger-to-Cargo (PTC: Passenger flights ferrying cargo) aircraft. As a result, BLR Airport recorded more than 2,990 Cargo ATMs, registering a 79% growth over the same period last year. In addition, BLR Airport processed 341 MT of COVID-19-related cargo from March to July.

Highlighting the kinds of technologies required navigating through this pandemic, Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions, said, “Going back to pre-COVID and post-COVID, to understand that how can the industry be safer and more efficient, we have to understand the behaviour of the virus. This virus spreads through paper and social interaction.” He added that one has to consider the following facts. • The virus stays on paper for three to four days, thus, we have a war on paper. We have to strongly consider how we can eliminate paper in today’s age when electronic data can be moved. Hence, first we have to ponder on any technology that eliminates paper. • Secondly, the virus can be stopped with social distancing so anything that causes congestion is damaging. Our air cargo complexes, around peak time, are crowded with many people at the terminal, at the documentation counter or queue of trucks; that also doesn’t help social distancing. So, technologies that can reduce congestion are very important.

LATAM Cargo has launched a weekly service from Miami, US, to Florianopolis using a Boeing 767F aircraft with a 53-tonne capacity. Brazilian exports carried on the route include automotive, metallurgical, food, pharmaceutical and electronic products, among others. The route connects North America with Southern Brazil, as well as offering wider connections to Europe and Asia. Gabriel Oliva, Commercial Vice President — North America, Europe and Asia, LATAM Cargo, says, “This new route will allow us to provide a direct, stable and permanent service between the US and Santa Catarina. As strategic partners, we are constantly evaluating routes that promote international trade, bringing buyers and sellers together with the characteristic speed, attention and logistics excellence of our global services network.” “We will continue to be focused on offering more origins-destinations for our international and domestic markets in order to be present in our clients’ relevant markets,” adds Kamal Hadad, Vice President of Alliances and Network, LATAM Cargo, Before the Miami-Florianopolis route was implemented, international cargo entered Brazil through Guarulhos and Viracopos. Hence, it depended on complementary ground transportation in order to reach its final destination.

Ensuring the vaccine reaches every nook and corner of the world, Satish Lakkaraju, CCO, Agility Logistics lists five key areas. Firstly, the vaccine needs greater temperature maintenance between 2 degrees to 8 degrees because otherwise the potency of drug is not going to have the impact and that is one area where airports need to be prepared. Secondly, I want to focus on airports and seaports. Fortunately, all airports have pharma zones and in the present scenario what is critical for us is to increase the awareness of handling at the airports when the vaccine comes. Thirdly, we would need government policy because we don’t have any clear policy in terms of green channels if the vaccine comes into the country. Fourthly, I want to stress on people because we don’t have sufficient trained people to handle the vaccine across the country. Once we are talking about exports, we also have a larger chunk of domestic movement that will happen. The fifth aspect technically would be to see how we price it at this point of time for the common man to also get the medicine because if you are doing by airfreight then it is going to be maintained at a certain temperature. We need to find innovative solutions which will ultimately help everyone get this vaccine.

In order to develop global guidance for the air cargo industry of optimal transportation of the COVID-19 vaccine, The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) partnered with Pharma.Aero, once the vaccine is developed. The guidance will be developed gradually in four work packages through a joint working group to ensure feedback from all stakeholders in the supply chain of air cargo and pharmaceuticals. The aim of this program is to provide the air cargo industry with more clarity of the demands, expectations and quality supply chain requirements, including but not restricted to critical trade lanes, air cargo capacity, handling and storage, track and trace requirements, for the transportation of the vaccines. At the same time, shippers will gain more understanding about the capabilities of the various logistics players. This will ensure that once the vaccine is available in the market, the air cargo industry will be ready to respond to the needs of the shippers and transport vaccines in optimal conditions to all corners of the globe.

Looking at various components of cost, Tulsi Mirchandaney, Managing Director, Blue Dart Aviation, says, “Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) accounts for 40 per cent of total direct cost of aircraft operation. Perhaps it is time now that freighters should be treated differently; at least bring them under the GST regime. Secondly, it is the cost of infrastructure. Now privatisation has brought us many benefits, be it the efficiency that has come in the airport, the kind of facilities we have or reduced dwell times but still the cost is high. The model of revenue sharing needs to be viewed differently so that it is cost neutral between the government as well as the airport operators. Thirdly, it is important that we deliver on time certain modules and for that we need to do our own self-handling which is possible for an airport operator and we have had that in several airports, but some airports still view us differently. The solution to this could be to lease the facility directly from an airport operator rather than from a third party who neither adds quality nor more efficiency in terms of process nor reduces the cost.