Category Archives: Aviation

Airbus reported a 12 percent increase in consolidated revenue at €42.6 billion for the first nine months of 2023 (nine months 2022: €38.1 billion) on higher revenue from commercial aircraft business. A total of 488 commercial aircraft were delivered (9m 2022: 437 aircraft) including 41 A220s, 391 A320 family, 20 A330s and 36 A350s, says an official release. “Revenues generated by Airbus’ commercial aircraft activities increased 18 percent (€31.5 billion), mainly reflecting the higher number of deliveries.” Net income dropped nine percent to €2.3 billion from €2.6 billion from the same period in 2022 on a 10 percent increase in R&D expenses to €2.2 billion. Gross commercial aircraft orders totalled 1,280 (9m 2022: 856 aircraft) with net orders of 1,241 aircraft after cancellations (9m 2022: 647 aircraft). The order backlog amounted to 7,992 commercial aircraft at the end of September 2023.

Emirates registered a double-digit percentage improvement in its cargo volumes in the first half of its financial year as it continued to re-introduce belly capacity following the Covid pandemic. Between April and September, Emirates SkyCargo saw its cargo volumes increase by 11% year on year to 1m tonnes of cargo “despite an overall softening in the global cargo market”. The increase reflects a 25% increase in available tonne km as the carrier ramped up passenger services following the pandemic. Emirates added: “This volume increase reflects the cargo division’s ability to meet customer demand with specialised products, and the excellent network options on offer with its freighter and bellyhold cargo operations.” The cargo volume performance mirrors that of other carriers with passenger operations – IAG and Lufthansa also saw their cargo volumes increase in the first nine months. However, declining rates resulted in lower cargo revenues at both of these European airlines despite the volume improvements. Overall revenues at Emirates – both passenger and cargo – were up 19% to $16.2bn and profits improved by 136% on last year to a record $2.6bn. “The airline’s record performance is attributable to the strong passenger demand for international travel across markets and Emirates’ ability to activate capacity to match demand,” the carrier said.

Ethiopian Airlines has taken delivery of a 10th Boeing 777 freighter to grow its air cargo capacity. The twin-engine commercial cargo plane, due to be operated by Ethiopian Cargo, has a payload of more than 100 tons. We are delighted to announce that we took delivery of our 10th Boeing 777-200LR Freighter aircraft,” said Ethiopian Airlines in a LinkedIn post on November 8. In September last year, Ethiopian Airlines signed up to lease three Boeing 767-300ER converted freighters from Titan Aviation. And in 2021, Ethiopian partnered with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to launch a B767-300ER freighter conversion line at Ethiopian MRO facilities in Addis Ababa.

The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport formally announced the first TIACA BlueSky community program. The TIACA BlueSky program, launched in 2022, is the air cargo and logistics industry’s only program designed to provide individual companies with a verified independent assessment of their sustainability credentials. Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport Company have established a sponsorship fund which will support 15 members with their BlueSky assessment by co-sharing their fees into the globally first TIACA BlueSky community program. Not only will this deliver the individual assessment to the members, more importantly this initiative will also provide a community report outlining Air Cargo Belgium’s shared sustainability objectives. The BlueSky assessment covers 8 crucial areas of a company’s sustainability activity; Decarbonization Elimination of waste Protection of biodiversity Support for local economies and communities Improvement of lives and social well-being Efficiencies and profitability Attraction, retention, and development of employees Building and nurturing of partnerships The program which will run until Q2 2024 will provide additional support for participating organizations and the collective results will also provide Brussels airport and Air Cargo Belgium clear guidance as to where their community could benefit from additional sustainability project initiatives.

Kale Logistics Solutions (Kale) will be implementing an Airport Cargo Community System (ACS) for Istanbul Grand Airport (İGA), making it the first airport in Turkey to embark on digitalising cargo data exchange. The cargo community platform, Airport Kargo Paydaş Platformu (KPP), developed by Kale, will be implemented at İGA in collaboration with TroyNet. The ACS platform will assist İGA in becoming a regional cargo transfer centre for the world’s leading cargo companies by facilitating end-to-end digitalisation, enhancing efficiency, streamlining procedures, and automating communication for stakeholders at its cargo precinct. “Istanbul is a critical air cargo connection point and we are determined to develop and expand our air cargo network – the implementation of KPP is an important milestone in providing best-in-class services to our customers and stakeholders,” said Selahattin Bilgen, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), İGA. “We want to take our place in the sector as one of the world’s most important global transfer centres and with this system, we will encourage digital trade, facilitate business, and establish a digital infrastructure to ensure that cargo moves faster at the least possible cost.”

InterGlobe Enterprises, and Archer Aviation Inc, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the goal of partnering to launch and operate an all-electric air taxi service in India, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals and clearances. Rahul Bhatia, Group Managing Director of InterGlobe, and Nikhil Goel, Chief Commercial Officer of Archer, signed an MOU to form a proposed partnership through which the parties aim to provide a revolutionary transportation solution for the country, improving urban mobility with safe, sustainable, and low-noise electric air taxi service that is cost-competitive with ground transportation. The parties intend to work with select in-country business partners to operate Archer’s aircraft, finance and build vertiport infrastructure, and train pilots and other personnel needed for these operations. The partnership also plans to finance the purchase of up to 200 of Archer’s Midnight aircraft for the India operations.

The Air Cargo Agents Association of India is all set to organise its 47th annual convention in Kuala Lumpur from November 23-26. ACAAI has released agenda comprising interesting topics focused on the theme – AI the Game Changer -Embracing the Intelligent Future, and great line up of speakers who are industry stalwarts. Key topics for panel discussions include, “Tradition to Transformation- AI in Air Cargo, Cargo in the Cloud- AI reforming air freight, emerging technologies and its impact on LSPs, Navigating the future- AI powered transformation in Logistics, AI for safety, security and transparency of cargo and lot more. Stay tuned for more updates.

Global multimodal provider of air, ocean and ground services Omni Logistics has merged with Forward Air, a provider of transportation services across the US, Canada and Mexico. The definitive agreement will create a combined company that generated approximately $3.7bn of adjusted revenue for the twelve months ended June 30. The combination of Forward and Omni creates a scaled, premier, high-value, less-than-truckload (“LTL”) enterprise focused on providing customers with multimodal solutions for complex, high-service, and high-value freight needs,” said Omni Logistics. The deal will provide Forward with access to more than 7,000 customers, an increased domestic footprint, and a portfolio of essential logistics services, multimodal operations, and supply chain services.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for September 2023 global air cargo markets, showing continuing demand recovery. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), increased by 1.9% compared to September 2022 levels (+6% for international operations). Capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), was up 12.1% compared to September 2022 (+0% for international operations). Growth was largely related to international belly capacity which rose 31.5% year-on-year as airlines scaled up operations to meet peak-northern summer travel season demand.

Turkish Airlines has plans to expand its freighter fleet over the coming five to 10 year period. At the ongoing Tiaca Executive Summit hosted by Brussels Airport, Turkish Airlines chief cargo officer Turhan Özen said the carrier had ambitious plans for its passenger fleet and in line with this is also planning to expand its freighter fleet. The carrier is hoping to expand its current overall fleet from around 429 currently to more than 800 in 10 years’ time. On freighters, Özen said that over the next “five years plus” the freighter fleet would expand from its current 24 aircraft to 40 aircraft. Turkish Airlines has been working on an order for 400 narrowbodies and 200 widebodies in order to meet these ambitions. The airline had initially hoped to finalise that deal this summer, but completion has been complicated by challenges securing delivery slots at Airbus and Boeing and current engine supply issues, reports FlightGlobal.