Category Archives: Aviation

Atlas Air has ordered two new Boeing 777 freighters that are due to be delivered in the second half of 2024. The company said ongoing strong customer demand for dedicated large widebody airfreight capacity, particularly for cross border e-commerce shipping, prompted it to make the order. The two 777Fs were ordered earlier this quarter. The company most recently ordered four 777Fs in 2021, which are placed on a long-term ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) agreement with MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, for use by MSC Air Cargo. Three of these aircraft have been delivered, with the fourth 777F expected to be delivered in December this year. “We are excited to add these aircraft to our leading world-class fleet. These come at a time when retirements of older widebody freighters will significantly increase and when the introduction of new widebody freighter capacity will be limited,” said Michael Steen, chief executive, Atlas Air Worldwide. “We have a deep pipeline of prospective customers interested in these 777 Freighters, and we’re confident in our ability to place them under long-term agreements.”

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is entering into a pioneering partnership with shipzero with the aim of making road transport more sustainable. Germany-based shipzero specialises in measuring and reducing CO2 emissions in global freight transport. “The co-operation builds on a pilot project that has been running successfully since April of this year. As part of the co-operation, shipzero supports the entire data management process and determines the CO2 emissions for Hellmann’s global road business. In doing so, shipzero also includes primary data from external logistics partners in the calculation, thus ensuring that the CO2 measurements are not based on extrapolations and average values – as has been customary in the market to date – but on actual consumption data,” says a release. To determine emission values, data is exchanged between Hellmann and its transport partners via the shipzero platform so that precise Scope 3 emissions are collected per customer, shipment and route section, the release added. “These are then integrated into the calculation of the corporate carbon footprint, external audits and sustainability reports, thus supporting compliance with new regulatory requirements that will come into effect from 2024. The data-based processing and analysis of transport data enables Hellmann to identify specific decarbonisation projects within the supply chain and implement them together with its partners.”

Bobba Logistics has launched ‘Pay as You Store’ 3PL warehousing service. This game-changing concept offers customers unparalleled flexibility and cost-effectiveness in managing their businesses storage needs. Bobba Logistics’‘Pay As You Store’ solution will help any business with their storage needs irrespective of the time frame they are looking to store goods for. “We have dry and cold storage rentable areas specifically dedicated to on-demand warehousing within our state-of-the-art facility, with complete provision to manage end-to-end supply chain needs. It can be used as a distribution centre (located closer to market) and allows for both fast pick-up and faster delivery. This model allows businesses to dynamically scale their storage needs based on the flow of demand. Unlike traditional storage arrangements that necessitate fixed commitments, pay-as-you-store offers a more agile approach, enabling businesses to pay only for the storage space they use. This not only minimizes costs during slower periods but also ensures that sufficient storage is available during peak times.”

DP World flagged off a first-of-its-kind dedicated rail freight service, ‘SARAL’ from Hazira in Surat, Gujarat, to the North Capital Region (NCR). True to its name, ‘SARAL’ which stands for Sustainable, Assured, Reliable, and Agile Logistics, will provide door-to-door sustainable cargo solutions for businesses based in South Gujarat and connect them to markets in and around NCR region and vice versa. The new SARAL rail freight service will link important markets in South Gujarat such as Surat, Vapi, Valsad, Vadodara, Bharuch, and Ankleshwar to markets in and around the NCR such as Western Uttar Pradesh, Eastern Rajasthan, Haryana, and South Punjab. Commenting on the launch of the SARAL service, Adhendru Jain, Vice President, Rail and Inland Terminals, DP World Subcontinent, said, “Ensuring resilient infrastructure and streamlined logistics is essential for enhancing economic growth and facilitating seamless domestic trade. Currently, the businesses in South Gujarat are primarily using roadways for cargo movement. SARAL, our new rail freight service, offers them a more sustainable way to move cargo with enhanced connectivity between Gujarat and NCR. In addition, our track and trace technology will provide complete visibility of the cargo to customers. We are deeply committed to create innovative solutions for our customers that are sustainable as well as efficient for the supply chain.” The SARAL service along with DP World’s multimodal network which provides the last and first mile connectivity facilitated by container trailer trucks, ensures secure delivery from the factory to the desired drop location within 72 hours. This multimodal play of truck and rail will lead to reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. DP World will also provide cargo owners with a sustainability certificate that highlights the reduction of CO2 …

Dronamics and Qatar Airways Cargo announced an interline agreement. The partnership marks the first interline agreement between an international airline and a cargo drone airline. The interline agreement allows the extension of the delivery networks of both partners, significantly increasing their reach as well as providing access to areas previously hard to reach by traditional air freight. Through the agreement, Dronamics can offer cargo services from any of its droneports, initially in Greece, to the wider Qatar Airways Cargo network – including destinations such as Singapore, China, including Hong Kong, and the United States (JFK). Qatar Airways Cargo is able to access remote locations that Dronamics serves, such as the Greek islands, on the Dronamics cargo drone network. Through this network expansion, Dronamics customers can make a single booking to transport goods from a Dronamics droneport to any destination that the interline joint network covers, and vice versa. The potential for the flow of goods, from pharma to food, from e-commerce, mail and parcels to spare parts, is significant, enabling rapid and reliable shipments to and from locations not sufficiently covered by air freight. ‘’We’re very excited to have the world’s largest air cargo carrier as our partner for the first-of-its-kind interline agreement with our category-defining cargo drone airline. While currently less than 1% of global trade moves by air, the vast global reach of Qatar Airways Cargo and their world-leading capacity and service give us the perfect platform to massively expand air cargo accessibility to countless more communities worldwide, enabling same-day delivery for everyone, everywhere,’’ said Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO of Dronamics. “As a part of our VISION 2027 5-year strategy, we are committed to remaining at the …

Qatar Airways Cargo and IATA proudly concluded the first ever One Record Hackathon in the Middle East, in Doha, Qatar. 17 teams from around the world came together for a thrilling 28 hour competition to submit highly sophisticated and innovative solutions surrounding the IATA ONE Record data sharing standard to showcase use cases that will help shape air cargo. Six core challenges were given to developers to deep dive into the aviation environment and find solutions for the cargo industry including AI-powered tools, enhancing safety and compliance measures in operations, and pre-validation on documentation to expediate processes. These solutions were presented to a jury and after much deliberation the following projects were announced as winners: Qatar Airways Cargo Prize for team CheckSync by Swissport, Lufthansa Cargo, and Lufthansa Industry Solutions, improves cargo check processes with AI, utilizing ONE Record for accuracy and efficiency. ONE Record Prize for team NE:ONE automate by Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Industry Solutions and Fraunhofer automates ONE Record digital cargo ‘Change Requests’, enhancing efficiency and customer experience with AI and a user-friendly interface. Cargo iQ prize for team OnePiece by Turkish Cargo, inspired by Turkey’s 2023 earthquake, focuses on efficient, individual piece level cargo management for better response and communication. Developer Prize for team OneAI by Unisys, leverages Generative AI for air cargo booking compliance, streamlining pet shipment processes with AI and IATA regulations. AWS Prize for team QPay by Awery, a quick book and pay tool, integrates various payment methods with ONE Record, using Qatar Airways API to enhance airline revenue, customer experience, and transparency.

Global air cargo demand in the fourth quarter (Q4) period so far has been stronger than tonnages in the equivalent period last year, and average rates have continued their gradual post-summer rise, according to the latest weekly figures from WorldACD Market Data. “Nevertheless, more than halfway through the market’s traditionally buoyant final quarter, there are few signs of a strong peak season with demand patterns so far broadly mirroring last year’s disappointing Q4 and only moderately ahead in overall tonnage terms.” The improvement compared with last year is more a reflection of the unusually soft demand in Q4 last year while it has held up slightly better this year. “One big difference compared with last year is a recovery of tonnages ex-Asia Pacific compared with last winter’s soft ex-Asia volumes while tonnages ex-North America and ex-Europe remain down year on year.”

WestJet Cargo has expanded its cargo services for the winter schedule 2023 and has introduced new destinations to its network. “With a commitment to meeting growing demand and enhancing connectivity, WestJet Cargo marked its debut in Havana, Cuba while relaunching services to Puerto Plata, Bridgetown and Kingston,” says an official release. The Toronto Pearson Airport-José Martí International Airport route offers a capacity of 20 tonnes per flight. “Havana is currently the sole destination served by WestJet Cargo in Cuba.” WestJet Cargo relaunched services to Puerto Plata last month. “The carrier offers multiple weekly flights with a reliable two-tonne cargo capacity on each flight. The route rotation for this service is Toronto – Puerto Plata – Toronto. In addition to this service, WestJet Cargo currently provides cargo capacity on its passenger services to Punta Cana from Calgary and Toronto.” Services restarted to Kingston, Jamaica with WestJet Cargo operating three weekly flights, each with two-tonne cargo capacity. The route rotation for this service is Toronto – Kingston – Toronto. WestJet Cargo currently provides cargo capacity on its passenger services to Montego Bay from various Canadian cities, the release added.

The air freight market has been on a rollercoaster ride of late but 2024 could see a return of “classic seasonality,” according to Oslo-based Xeneta, an ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and intelligence platform. “2024 could be an opportunity for shippers to catch their breath after the volatility of the past few years,” says Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer, Xeneta. “The rapid rate decline which started earlier this year has calmed down in recent months. It seems to be the market has a new baseline, from which I expect classic seasonality patterns to emerge.” The industry saw the cost of transporting goods by air skyrocket during Covid-19 before plummeting again during 2023 but they are still 32 percent above pre-pandemic levels, the update added. The Xeneta Air Freight Outlook 2024 highlights muted consumer spending as a key factor for the year ahead. “Demand for air freight in 2023 remains down by eight percent compared to pre-pandemic and is only predicted to grow by 1-2 percent in 2024. At the same time, supply is expected to grow by 2-4 percent in 2024.” Van de Wouw says: “The key indicators are not great from a demand point of view. It’s muted and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world. People and companies are a bit more conscious of how they are spending their money and we will likely not see demand pick up in any meaningful way in 2024. Yes, we will see a return of classic seasonality but it will be muted seasonality.”

Kenya Airways is introducing a pair of Boeing 737-800 converted freighters in order to expand its cargo capacity. The flag-carrier says the freighters will contribute to its “diversification strategy” and address a “growing demand” for cargo carriage in the region. Kenya Airways currently operates a pair of older 737-300 freighters. It indicated that it was launching 737-800F operations during a logistics event in Nairobi this week, and said a second aircraft is due to enter service in February next year. “With the addition of this [new] freighter, Kenya Airways will now offer increased cargo capacity to existing routes as well as new cargo destinations,” said chief executive Allan Kilavuka. He said there is a need for African entities to invest in sustainable freight operations – including air cargo – to advance socio-economic development.