Category Archives: International

In spite of the global challenges experienced in 2020, Budapest Airport handled 13,864 tonnes of air cargo this November, which is 6.3% more than a year ago and the strongest monthly cargo performance on record. Meanwhile, the volume of goods received and launched from January to November 2020 has exceeded 120 000 tonnes. With year’s end approaching, we can state with certainty that cargo traffic at the Hungarian capital airport and the BUD Cargo City opened a year ago have proven immune to the pandemic. Dr. Rolf Schnitzler, the CEO of Budapest Airport highlighted that this is attributable not just to pandemic-related shipments, changed purchasing habits and the entire cargo community, but in particular to the 50 million EUR fully private investment undertaken by Budapest Airport into the world-class facilities of the BUD Cargo City, which attracts more and more cargo business. “Seamless cargo traffic at the airport requires many players and precise coordination. Close cooperation between shippers, forwarders, airlines, ground handlers, authorities and all colleagues working at the airport is indispensable in this process,” emphasized József Kossuth, Cargo Manager, Budapest Airport, in adding, “This year was extraordinary and full of challenges for everyone. The fact that cargo traffic at Budapest Airport has remained stable in this changed environment and even showed a significant increase in November is the result of our joint work and the exemplary perseverance of the cargo community. On behalf of BUD’s cargo team, I would like to thank everyone who supported air cargo in Hungary with their work.” The record traffic in November is attributable to several market factors. The year-end peak period usually starts in October in air cargo, and intensifies from November. The …

Jettainer, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo AG, has announced the launch of cool&fly to maximise the efficient use of temperature-controlled ULDs, particularly for COVID-19 vaccines distribution. The product is one of a kind, comprising full cool ULD order management, steering and positioning along with monitoring as well as after-service management. It is available to airlines, no matter their other ULD management setup. Temperature-controlled Unit Load Devices (ULDs) are expected to become a limited resource within air transportation. The increasing demand for cool transport solutions and interaction between the growing number of stakeholders will prove complex and time-consuming. Securing supply and managing containers for temperature-sensitive goods is an extremely complex mission that requires absolutely accurate and attentive management. This includes on-time ordering and positioning, as well as constant traceability and monitoring throughout the entire process chain in order to be ready for an immediate response to all eventualities as there is no margin for error due to the highly valuable and sensitive goods involved. “The logistical challenges involved when transporting vaccines by air are huge. Maximising the efficient use of the cool ULDs will be crucial; reliable management of all interfaces from a single point will minimise risks during the transport. cool&fly and our highly experienced cool competence centre provide customers with the perfect solution,” said Thomas Sonntag, Managing Director, Jettainer GmbH.

TUI, Condor and SunClass Airlines has gone live on CargoAi. Pursuing its digitisation strategy for airfreight, CargoAi offers its users access to a variety of air transport solutions anywhere in the world. The company is increasing its offer to freight forwarders by making real-time prices and electronic bookings available on its platform for major leisure carriers; TUI, Condor and SunClass Airlines. This roll-out has been made possible because of the support of ECS Group, the GSSA of these airlines in Total Cargo Management. ‘These three airlines offer a multitude of destinations. Our users can now benefit from this by reserving their capacities on our platform in a few seconds’, says Matthieu Petot, CEO, CargoAi. For ECS Group, the approach also aims to provide a premium service to its airline customers and above all, to offer an additional sales tool for their cargo capacities. “Our customers need us to support them in new ways to maximise their income, and digitising the distribution processes is one of them. We therefore connect to all major e-booking platforms in the market to sell the cargo capacities of airlines under Total Cargo Management contract in a more efficient way’, explains Cédric Millet, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, ECS Group. This is an important step for CargoAi, which is aiming for a ‘smooth, simple’ digitization of the industry. ‘We offer a turnkey service to our customers by doing all the technical work upstream, without the need for any investment on their part. These are the types of actions that will lead to a digitised industry, equal to its importance in the world economy’, says Peto.

Qatar Airways Cargo has announced to launch three times weekly Boeing 777-300 passenger freighters to Harstad-Narvik Airport (EVE) located in the Evenes Municipality of Northern Norway, starting December 14. The airport serves the towns of Harstad and Narvik in Nordland County. The freighter will depart on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, providing over 150 tonnes of cargo capacity for exporters from Northern Norway each week. Seafood and salmon will account for the majority of exports on these flights. There will also be 50 tonnes available every week for imports from the airline’s network into Harstad-Narvik Airport. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo, Qatar Airways, said, “In cooperation with NordicGSA, we are pleased to introduce cargo capacity and support Northern Norway’s seafood and salmon exporters who will benefit from direct connection to African, Asian and Middle East markets via Doha. Our state-of-the-art Climate Control Centre has dedicated storage areas for perishables transiting the hub while the use of reefer trucks ensures a seamless cool chain for all perishable shipments.” Stig Winther, CEO, Perishable Center Nord AS, said, “Perishable Center Nord AS is very pleased to cooperate with Qatar Airways Cargo. Operating more direct routes to and from the market will mean a lot for fresh seafood businesses from the North and quality, freshness and competitiveness will definitely improve. We are looking forward to start up, develop and together with Qatar Airways Cargo make seafood from Northern Norway more available globally.” Martin Langaas, Director Traffic Development and Cargo at Avinor, said, “Our partnership with Qatar Airways Cargo has been a true success story for Avinor and the Norwegian seafood industry. With the opening of a second gateway for seafood exports, the connectivity for Norway …

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced the launch of SamrtAir! for the real-time tracking of air cargo shipment. Together with the Bonn-based start-up BlueBox Systems, Hellmann developed a web-based platform, which aims to provide customers with information about their air freight shipments, regardless of airline, route or type of shipment. Based on GPS coordinates, SmartAir! will be providing information on all stopovers and loading times for live tracking of shipments. The system offers numerous analysis options for the performance of individual airlines, routes and airports, aiming towards the optimisation of supply chain management. The company also offers tracking for sea freight and the generally applicable smart visibility tracker. These can record, in addition to tracking data, information on humidity, temperature, incidence of light, vibration and door opening, thus enabling detailed transport control of shipments. “SmartAir! is a real game-changer in the tracking of airfreight shipments, which has not been available in the market in this way before. In times of digitalisation and ever smaller time windows for decisions, quickly available real-time data within global supply chains are becoming increasingly important. This will also be of particular relevance in the upcoming distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” says Henning Pottharst, Product Manager – Smart Visibility, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

In line with the company’s vision, OM Logistics has expanded its warehousing facility with the inauguration of a novel project at Chakan, Pune. The upcoming and actively unfolding industrial hub of Chakan will serve as an ideal location through which the company hopes to serve all industries with logistics solutions. With an investment totaling Rs 125 crore, the new warehousing facility sprawls across 23 acres and is situated near the main highway with proposed warehousing capacity of 3,50,000 square feet. During Phase 1 of construction, 1,50,000 square feet of the warehousing park has already been built, while Phase 2, aiming for another 2,00,000 square feet, is proposed to be completed soon. Raghav Singhal, Director, Om Logistics, said, “We are happy and excited to launch the new, state-of-the-art warehouse facility at Chakan, Pune. With the new facility and investment, we will have an enhanced capability to fulfill logistics and warehousing solution for any business. Our strategy always aims to provide the best-in-class services that reach every corner.” “We are already equipped with advanced warehouse technology system & latest software that spans across 20 million square feet pan India. With the growing facilities, we are currently servicing over 19,000 Pin Codes and more than 1500 locations throughout the country. As the need for logistics and supply chain management grows, we want to enable companies to grow to their full potential, for which, we are looking forward to expanding our base to many more locations in the near future,” he added. Akash Bansal, Marketing Head, OM Logistics, said, “For more than two decades we have been aiming for and have constantly been offering world-class service to our clients with the best facilities and …

GEODIS has structured its internal network of women and its mission is to give GEODIS employees opportunities to express themselves, to propose, initiate or relay actions that positively contribute to gender parity and to the assumption of responsibilities of women. The network also intends to act on the reputation of the logistics and transport industry, a traditionally male sector, in order to change its image and attract more women. The company has held its annual summit of the ‘GEODIS Women Network’ (GWN). “We want to continue the action taken and give women the means to access key positions. Our goal is to increase the number of women in managerial positions”, indicates, Mario Ceccon, Human Resources Director of the GEODIS group. “13% in 2017, they are now 18% women in management positions. We have set ourselves the objective of reaching 25% by 2023.” The GWN works for inclusion, reduction of professional disparities between men and women, improved work-life balance and equal career prospects. “With a President at its head, GEODIS is already sending a strong signal showing the access by women to positions of responsibility” indicates Mario Ceccon. Over the next 3 years, the GWN will focus its actions on the following various objectives: • Study and harmonization of possible pay gaps, • The establishment of a leadership program aimed at empowering women, • The development of the recruitment and representation of women in the transport and logistics industry. Attract more women to the Logistics & Transport sector The other objective of the network is to deconstruct the image of the sector by acting in favour of actions aimed at encouraging women to join the logistics and transport professions. “We encourage …

Freight forwarder cargo-partner has commenced the rollout of the CargoWise platform, owned by WiseTech Global, across the global network in 40 countries. CargoWise will enable cargo-partner’s logistics providers to carry out transactions for freight forwarding, customs clearance, warehousing, shipping, tracking, land transport, e-commerce and cross-border compliance, using a single platform. The software is being rolled out in stages across Asia, Oceania, Europe and the US and is expected to be completed by March 2023. Stefan Krauter, CEO, cargo-partner, sees great potential in the new software solution. He says, “CargoWise will be a revolutionary step in our next stage of growth. The ability to manage our global freight forwarding operations from a single platform that provides real-time visibility across our supply chain will enable cargo-partner to increase operational efficiency and focus on driving customer experience. We also expect to significantly improve cost efficiencies and productivity across our teams. The implementation of CargoWise is perfectly in line with our high-tech approach and commitment to providing end-to-end solutions that help us stay ahead of our competitors. Complementing our own visibility and collaboration platform SPOT, CargoWise was the clear leader in being able to provide us with the extensive functionality, configurability and flexibility that will support and drive our future growth initiatives.” He adds, “We see our future role in the digitalization of the global supply chain not in developing own standard software, but in developing individual client solutions, deep integration and ultimately in building clusters of artificial intelligence together with our customers. Of course many of these clusters will be connected and communicating with each other.” Richard White, Founder and CEO, WiseTech Global, says, “This is a fantastic result for cargo-partner and WiseTech …

ECS Group has announced the launch of a unique entity, GSA Mail Solutions, for airlines and postal operators. The structure is entirely dedicated to outsourcing airlines mail and e-commerce activities, as well as offering multiple transport solutions to postal operators by bridging the gap using the world largest GSA Network and proven technical expertise. With GSA Mail Solutions, ECS Group reacts efficiently to the rise in postal flows, particularly linked to the growth of E-commerce boosted by BtoC & CtoC online platforms. ‘Helping airlines to tap into this postal traffic on their destinations and accompanying them on new routes, offers them new sources of revenue. Our expertise in managing these flows along with the digital solutions we offer (customised EDI solutions in particular) also makes it possible to maximise capacities and guarantee parcel traceability’, says Adrien Thominet, CEO, ECS Group. This high-potential market should experience very considerable growth in the coming months and years, with an increased need for air freight solutions for postal operators. ‘We speak the airlines’ and postal operators’ language, so we are the perfect intermediary. With GSA Mail Solutions, postal operators have access to our entire network of airlines without having to go through endless steps. We therefore offer them an unprecedented increase in efficiency, because via a single point of contact – GSA Mail Solutions – they have access to a multitude of air freight solutions to route their postal flows wherever they need them’, says Adrien Thominet. Regulation, technicalities, and business intelligence are key success factors within this sector. Managing postal and E-commerce flows requires cutting edge expertise. GSA Mail Solutions will pair with ECS Group network (140 airlines represented, 155 offices in 50 …

DRONAMICS, the middle-mile cargo drone developer and operator, has unveiled the first five airports in its European network of cargo droneports. The DRONAMICS European Droneport Network is the world’s first cargo droneport network and includes private airports and airport groups operating more than 35 airports in 11 European countries, connecting 300 million people with a low-cost same-day cargo service. The company will operate same-day flights within the network using its proprietary Black Swan large cargo drones, each with a capacity of 350 kilo and range of up to 2,500 km, reducing time, cost and emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to traditional air cargo. The first five airports unveiled are in Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Italy, and Sweden. They include regional leaders in air cargo such as Liège Airport (Belgium), which serves as Alibaba’s European Hub, and Brescia Airport (Italy), the national hub for the Italian postal system, as well as a select number of airports at strategic locations throughout the continent that are on a path to becoming regional air cargo logistics hubs through ambitious investment programs, like Skövde (Sweden), Seinäjoki (Finland) and Osijek (Croatia). “The power of logistics to unlock economic value and opportunity is second to none. This is why especially in a post-2020 world, it is increasingly important to ensure same-day shipping is available not just in big cities, but in every community, no matter how small or remote. Now, more than ever before, it’s vital for countries to ensure uninterrupted trade and supply lines with their neighbours no matter what, and our international droneport network will allow just that. We are starting with Europe not just because our 2,500 km range allows us to …