Category Archives: International

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomes Air Canada Cargo to the association’s IATA Net Rates air cargo rates platform, allowing the Canadian carrier to expand its digital offering to provide an additional digital option to its customers. Under the TACT Air Cargo Solutions umbrella, freight forwarders can access the latest information on rates, rules, tariffs, schedules and compliance information that can be accessed online or integrated with customer systems, accelerating the distribution of rates to market while simplifying and reducing the cost of rate handling procedures. “IATA is very pleased to welcome Air Canada Cargo to the IATA Net Rates platform to support its cargo rates distribution processes. We look forward to future collaboration with Air Canada Cargo,” said Frederic Leger, Interim senior vice president Commercial Services and president, CNS.

Following two years of successful operations at its office in Melbourne, cargo-partner has now strengthened its setup in the country with an investment into the forwarding company Associated Customs & Forwarding (ACF). The acquisition was officially completed as of August 1, 2021. With this step, the international transport and info-logistics provider has gained two new locations in Sydney and Brisbane and grown its team in Australia to 35 employees. ACF was established in 1972 and is a global, IATA-accredited service provider for air and sea freight, customs brokerage and contract logistics. The company operates 3,000 m² of warehouse space in Sydney, including a bonded warehouse with in-house customs clearance as well as a quarantine warehouse serving the requirements of Australian import procedures. Stefan Krauter, CEO of cargo-partner, is convinced that the collaboration is a win-win situation for both companies: “Our partnership with ACF complements our existing service and product portfolio thanks to ACF’s expertise in logistics, value added services as well as domestic transport solutions. With the addition of Sydney and Brisbane to our network, we can now cover the entire east coast of Australia. At the same time, customers of ACF will benefit from cargo-partner’s comprehensive network of offices, warehouses and experienced teams around the globe.”

DP World has completed testing of the BOXBAY high bay storage concept at the first full-size facility constructed at the port of Dubai proving that the innovative technology works in the real world. More than 63,000 container moves have been completed since the facility, which can hold 792 containers at a time, was commissioned beginning this year. The test exceeded expectations with BOXBAY faster and more energy efficient than anticipated. BOXBAY is a Joint Venture between DP World and German industrial engineering specialist SMS group. The system stores containers in slots in a steel rack up to eleven high. It delivers three times the capacity of a conventional yard in which containers are stacked directly on top of each other, meaning the footprint of terminals can be reduced by 70 percent. In BOXBAY containers are moved in, out and between slots by fully electrified and automated cranes built into the structure. Individual containers can be accessed without moving any others. The whole system is designed to be fully powered by solar panels on the roof.

Lufthansa Cargo, one of the world’s leading companies in the transport of air freight, has been making significant strides in the direction of embracing sustainability and digitalization – one innovation at a time. The German cargo carrier has been on an interesting path of forging a future built with sustainability goals in mind and has rolled out a number of decisions exhibiting this especially under the leadership of Dorothea von Boxberg, Chairperson of the Executive Board and CEO of Lufthansa Cargo who took charge this March. This also comes close on the heels of the air carrier having clocked an impressive year after its revenues reached historic highs, even as the global air cargo demand has reached above 2019 levels. Despite global air freight capacity crunch leading to a fall in sales, there was an improvement in its cargo load factor and yields were up in all regions served by Lufthansa Cargo.

Denmark headquartered DSV Panalpina A/S (DSV) announced the acquisition of Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) from Agility, a Kuwait-based leader in supply chain services, innovation and investment. The enterprise value of the transaction is $4.775 billion and the equity value is $4.675 billion. “I am very pleased to welcome our new colleagues from GIL on this important day. There are many similarities when you look at our two companies both in terms of the business models and services and, not least, when we look at our shared focus on local empowerment and putting customers first,” said Jens Bjørn Andersen, Group CEO, DSV. “DSV and GIL simply constitute an excellent match. We will now start the integration, and, together, we are going to grow the business and bring even more value to our many customers, partners and shareholders than we do separately.”

The pandemic has fast-tracked the need for innovation and the increased need for transformations in the healthcare sector, especially in the transportation, logistics and last mile delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine. As transportation of medicines and pharmaceuticals is increasing due to the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine, container solution providers around the world who deliver and process temperature-controlled pharma products have been rising to the challenge posed by the pharma industry in several ways. In line with this, va-Q-tec – a German tech firm that sells products for temperature controlling and insulation-vacuum, insulation panels and phase change materials has signed a deal with Turkish Cargo to deploy its thermal container va-Q-tainer on the airline’s fleet. The container has a special low-temperature service free of dry ice down to -50°C, which is best suited for carrying and transporting the Covid-19 vaccines. va-Q-tainers can maintain various temperature ranges between -70 °C upto +25 °C for several days inside the container. In addition, the underlying production processes have been certified as climate-neutral, according to the UN Greenhouse Gas Protocol since 2020.

Cargojet has invested in a minority share of US freighter operator 21Air as it looks to grow internationally. Cargojet will acquire a 25% interest in 21Air and will “continue to collaborate with 21Air on mutually beneficial opportunities in this expanding air cargo market”. 21Air is certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a Part-121 air carrier presently operating a fleet of five Boeing 767 all-cargo aircraft. The company provides charter, ACMI, and CMI services to air cargo consolidators, freight forwarders, couriers, and integrators, including Cargojet. “This transaction is in line with Cargojet’s previously announced international growth strategy. This investment further demonstrates our ambition to build a more diversified and robust global footprint with strategic partnerships,” said Ajay Virmani, president and chief executive.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo and Delta Cargo have extended their long-standing partnership with dnata for five years, continuing the successful operation of ground handing and export services from the joint London Heathrow hub and Manchester Airport. The partnership also includes regional cargo gateways London Gatwick, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle. dnata will continue to support the carriers’ cargo operations from its state-of-theart City East facilities at London Heathrow, boasting new technologies and award winning practices including: • 18 customer delivery doors with a Gatehouse concept • ETV (Elevated Transfer Vehicle), capable of full automation, with 245 pallet positions, up 20 percent, which enables the loading of flights in ‘trim order’ to support the airlines’ on-time performance • High-rise racking with 1,350 positions for storing export freight, eliminating unnecessary movements of shipments • A dedicated Pharma Zone and increased capacity for temperature controlled and perishables cargoes • Special facilities for Dangerous Goods and Live Animal shipment • X-ray technology with enhanced imaging capability, reducing the need for secondary cargo screening • Advanced internal and external high-definition CCTV systems to ensure a safe and secure working environment

Global airlines managed the traditional summer slack season for air cargo space in July by constantly tweaking capacity levels to address flat demand during the month versus pre-Covid levels. New industry volume, loadfactor and rates data from analysts CLIVE Data Services and TAC Index also highlight airfreight rates lagging two weeks behind changes in the demand and supply ratio. As in previous months of 2021, to provide meaningful analyses of the current state of the global air cargo market, CLIVE continues to measure performance to pre-Covid 2019 levels as well as providing 2020 year-over-year comparisons. This shows chargeable weight was flat in July versus 2019 and up by 23 percent over 2020. Capacity, however, remains tightly constrained. Available capacity, up by 29 percent compared to 2020, is still down by 18 percent below the level seen in 2019 before the pandemic took hold. Consequently, CLIVE saw a fluctuating ‘dynamic loadfactor’ in July. Reduced capacity contributed to up by 5 percent pts rise in dynamic loadfactor versus 2019 – measured against both the volume and weight perspectives of cargo flown and capacity available – but down 3 percent pts drop over the same month in 2020.

IAG Cargo has transported over 10 million COVID vaccines, supporting global efforts in the fight against COVID-19. This includes a 4 million dose shipment to Abuja, Nigeria in collaboration with UNICEF and its COVAX initiative and 300,000 doses to Jamaica, donated by the UK government. The Abuja shipment, completed on behalf of UNICEF, departed London Heathrow in July on two British Airways B777-200. The 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines bound for Jamaica also departed in July and were delivered in partnership with Crown Agents on a British Airways B777-200. Darren Peek, Head of Sales at IAG Cargo said, “We’re proud that with our sister airlines, British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus, we continue to support countries across the world on the fight against COVID-19. Last year we delivered over 20,000 tonnes of PPE and today we have delivered over 10 million COVID-19 vaccines working with UNICEF and partners like Crown Agents. We will continue to work with a range of partners in the global response to COVID-19, supporting the efforts to ensure equal access to vaccines for all countries across the world.”