ACW 06 August 18

The weekly newspaper for air cargo professionals No. 993

6 August 2018

60 Secs of Summer

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mirates SkyCargo has partnered with luxury car distributor, Gargash to transport two Alfa Romeos from Dubai to London for the Gumball 3000 rally.

The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio were transported onboard an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 Freighter, which can carry up to 100 tonnes of cargo and has a wide main deck door allowing it to transport large and outsized cargo.

Both cars will compete as Team Alfa in the Gumball 3000, an annual celebrity rally established in 1999 taking place on public roads in different locations around the world.

During the first leg of the rally in the first week of August, Team Alfa will travel from London to Bologna, with the second leg seeing the cars driving around iconic sites in Japan including Osaka, Kyoto and Mount Fuji.

The rally will end in Tokyo on 12 August and Emirates SkyCargo

dhl forms joint venture with ethiopian

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When steak on a paper plate is best

will fly both cars back home to Dubai from Japan.

Team Alfa’s participation in the Gumball 3000 will mark the 100th year of operations for Gargash, an established name for premium and luxury cars in the UAE. Emirates vice president for cargo product development and UAE national affairs, Moaza Al Falahi says: “Emirates SkyCargo would like to congratulate Gargash Group on their centenary this year. We are excited to be taking part in this momentous occasion by supporting them in the Gumball 3000 rally.

“The Alfa Romeos, which will be sporting the Emirates logo throughout the rally, are getting first class treatment under Emirates Wheels and will be handled by our trained and experienced staff at Dubai, London and Tokyo.”

Gargash Group managing director and chief executive officer, Shehab Gargash says: “In our 100th year, we are proud to be associated with Dubai’s flagship carrier Emirates, a truly iconic representa-

peli biothermal strengthens team

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qatar looks beyond the blockade

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tion of the UAE’s global enterprising spirit. Emirates SkyCargo has proven to be an indispensable partner as we begin our epic journey from London to Tokyo.”

Emirates SkyCargo was also entrusted with transporting a racing car designed, developed and built by university students in Sri Lanka.

The Di-MORA P2 racing car of Team Shark from Moratuwa University was transported to the UK using Emirates SkyCargo’s Emirates Wheel product, so it could take part in Formula Student 2018 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire.

This is the second time that Emirates SkyCargo has transported a custom-built racing car from Sri Lanka, having carried the predecessor, the D-MORA P1 to Silverstone for the same competition in 2016.

Lighter and faster than the previous edition, the P2 (pictured below) was built by students from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Moratuwa with the assistance of Sri Lankan automobile and engineering company, Diesel & Motor Engineering (DIMO).

The car was one of 92 entries to have successfully claimed a place for the competition at the Silverstone Circuit.

DIMO sponsored the entire project from building and testing the car, arranging and financing the team’s logistics including airfreight of the car and inland transport while in the UK, as well as necessary insurance cover for the team and car while in the UK. The P2 was built with high performance materials such as aircraft grade aluminium and carbon fibre enabling the team to reduce the weight of the car to 195 kilos from the 300 kilos of the P1.

A two cylinder 650cc Yamaha engine coupled with a custom engineered paddle-shift transmission propels the race car to 62mph in under 3.5 seconds, and using manufacturing technologies such as 3-D printing means components are designed for performance rather than using offthe-shelf parts.

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60 seconds of summer with glyn hughes

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Humanitarian missions for Dornier 328s

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28 Support Services has signed a letter of intent with AMC Aviation to develop a multi-role/multi-mission humanitarian version of the Dornier 328 turboprop.

The first two 328s are expected to enter modification and maintenance this August at 328 SSG’s Oberpfaffenhofen Airport near Munich, to be ready for delivery in early 2019.

A third aircraft with the same modifications and additional systems plus an air operable AFT cargo door and oversized windows on either side of the aircraft will follow. The initial programme of work on the first two 328s will cover C1 through to C4 maintenance checks, upgrades to the existing avionics systems, modifications such as ADS-B out, dual flight management, plus SATCOM with Wi-Fi and satellite tracking capabilities.

The installation of gravel kit for better unapproved runway operations and provisioning for systems including retractable turret for EO/IR camera installations and other systems will further enhance the aircraft’s operational advantages.

The 328 will be delivered with 12 different interior options in passenger/passenger cargo/medevac/casevac versions, with the toilet and galley system being relocated to the forward position of the aircraft for AFT loading and air dropping of cargo.

Hermes 5 to power UASL Santiago terminal Hermes Logistics Technologies has been selected as the cargo management systems provider for UASL for air cargo handling and documentation in Santiago, Chile.

Ultramar Group company UASL will benefit from a single system that is configured to its needs and the changing requirements of its growing customer base.

Hermes 5, the newest version of Hermes’ Cargo Management System (CMS) and Hub Management System applications will be implemented at Santiago’s Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport (SCL) this year.

Hermes Logistics Technologies chief executive officer (CEO), Yuval Baruch says: “Once H5 is implemented at SCL, UASL will have its own, fully integrated management tool that will interface with its local community and customers, allowing for smarter process flows, messaging compliance and more control over key areas such as Customs, service management and revenue accounting.”

UASL CEO, Christian Cood says: “After evaluating different options available in the market, we found in Hermes Logistics

Technologies a world class supplier, with the experience we were looking for in the airfreight industry. We trust that this partnership with Hermes will be long-term.”

Hermes started rolling out H5 earlier this year by implementing the CMS at ALS Cargo Terminal at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Lufthansa Cargo profits rise 50%

The deal was ratified at the Farnborough International Airshow between 328 SSG chief executive officer, Dave Jackson (pictured left) and AMC Aviation general manager, Chris Stern (right).

Jackson says: “We are delighted that AMC Aviation, along with its partners, share our vision about this aircraft and the multi roles it can serve. Not just flying commercial passengers, but for humanitarian use as well.”

Stern says: “The Dornier 328 is the perfect rugged and versatile platform, extremely well suited for our novel approach to bring true multi-mission capability and operational safety to humanitarian operators in difficult environments.”

Oman Air moves into new facility in Muscat

Oman Air Cargo has upgraded its cargo hub facility at the new Muscat International Air Cargo Terminal, which can handle 350,000 tonnes of cargo per annum.

The facility features a 22,780 square metre air conditioned warehouse and other features include 367 pallet or 734 container configurations for unit load device storage over three levels as well as 2,208 skidded pallet positions.

Accompanying these are dedicated bays that can accommodate three Code F Freighter aircraft along with 25 40-foot truck parking bays as well as 400 car parking bays and 34 truck docks.

Oman Air senior vice president for commercial cargo, Mohammed Ali Al Musafir says: “Combined with Oman Air Cargo’s track record of providing high quality services to its logistics customers, the upgraded cargo facility now aligns the company with world-class, globally competitive transport and logistics industry standards and trends.”

Other features of the facility include Bulk Cold Rooms with chilled, freezer and ambient rooms and ULD Cold Rooms with 28 airline pallet positions in the chilled rooms, and eight airline pallet positions in the freezer rooms.

There are also scissor lift and ULD bypass lane facilities, as well as x-ray machines for joining and transhipment cargo screening.

The facility includes a 2,500 square metre Live Animal Centre, a 228 square metre Dangerous Goods Room, a Vulnerable Goods Cage with 264 pallet positions, along with a diplomatic room, human remains room, radioactive room and a strong room.

ACW REWIND 500

FOR the next seven issues, we will take a look at stories and events from our 500th issue, in the run up to our 1000th issue next month.

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rofits for Lufthansa Cargo have increased by almost 50 per cent in the first half of 2018 helped by substantial cost savings and increased demand for airfreight services.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased by 48.8 per cent to €125 million, pushing the EBIT margin up 2.9 percentage points to 9.6 per cent for Lufthansa’s Logistics business segment, which includes Lufthansa Cargo as well as Jettainer, time:matters, AeroLogic and equity investments in various handling companies.

It says the global airfreight market remains volatile and challenging, but its strategic efficiency programme introduced in 2016 targeting savings of €80 million by the end of 2018 has almost been achieved already.

Lufthansa Cargo says it benefited from the unusual sharp market-wide increase in demand at the end of 2017 “overproportionally” and demand in the segment developed “better than expected” in the first half of 2018.

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The airline is upgrading its freight centre in Frankfurt by expanding capacity and further improving infrastructure of the cool centre, with the upgrade expected to be under way by the end of 2018.

Two Boeing 777 Freighters will be joining the fleet in early 2019 to replace MD-11 Freighters in the medium term.

Lufthansa Cargo says digitalisation is an important part of its Cargo Evolution programme, focusing on process automation, connectivity and new business models as the airline plans to digitalise relationships with all partners in the transport chain to improve transparency, speed, quality, flexibility and efficiency.

Revenue for Lufthansa Cargo increased by 12.6 per cent in the first half to €1.2 billion with the Americas up 14.6 per cent to €517 million and Asia Pacific by 16.2 per cent to €532 million.

Capacity in available tonne kilometres was up six per cent to 6.5 billion though volumes measured in cargo tonne kilometres grew more slowly, rising 2.5 per cent to 4.4 billion, meaning load factors fell 2.3 percentage points to 66.9 per cent.

aircargoweek.com

“It won’t last six issues” Volume 11 Issue 47 24 November 2008

it is with fondness that we remember the words of some veteran air cargo pundits commenting on the launch of Air Cargo Week on 18 September 1998: “It won’t last six issues.”

Well, this is the 500th issue and we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our launch earlier this year with a special bumper issue on 15 September, followed quickly on 6 October by the largest issue we have ever published - even set against the background of increasing economic gloom.

Surviving the financial aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, the depression of the SARS crisis, the effects of the US-Iraq war and most recently the US$147 a barrel cost of oil that has seen a number of long-standing names go out of business, ACW has become the air freight professional’s favourite way of keeping in touch with what’s going on in the industry.

Ian Martin Jones, ACW editor

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DHL and Ethiopian Airlines form joint venture

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HL Global Forwarding and Ethiopian Airlines have signed an agreement to form a joint venture company to provide much needed freight capacity and logistics infrastructure in Africa.

The new Ethiopian-based company will be called DHL-Ethiopian Airlines Logistics Services, with majority stakeholder Ethiopian Airlines providing regulatory and operational support, and DHL will establish air, ocean and road freight connections between Ethiopia’s main trade hubs and the rest of the world.

DHL veteran Pramod Bagalwadi will lead the new organisation, adding to his portfolio, which consists of leading industrial projects team for DHL in Sub-Saharan Africa and a strategic business partner in the region.

DHL Global Forwarding Middle East and Africa chief executive officer (CEO), Amadou Diallo (pictured right) says: “With its GDP growth, Africa is stepping into the spotlight as production hub.

Recent moves to open up the economy will continue to boost Ethiopia’s position as the fastest-growing economy in Africa, and under Pramod’s leadership, the company will be able to provide a scalable and durable logistics infrastructure to safely handle the sensitive needs of its core industries.”

Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO, Tewolde GebreMariam (pictured left) says: “Logistics is key to support Africa’s fast economic growth and industrialisation drive. Ethiopian has, therefore, partnered with DHL who has a proven expertise and experience in the logistics sector, with a view to avail the right logistics solutions in terms of cost, time and quality.

“We have had a longstanding and mutually rewarding partnership with DHL, and with this JV we aim to make the country a logistics hub for Africa.”

CEVA completes Phase One of Rolls-Royce project

IAG Cargo has nerves of steel IAG Cargo will add Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to its network with four flights a week from London’s Heathrow Airport from 2 April 2019.

The Pittsburgh route, which will be the only direct flight from the UK to the city, will be operated by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with a cargo payload of up to 14 tonnes per flight.

Flights from Heathrow will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, bringing the total number of IAG Cargo operated US gateways to 26.

Pittsburgh’s export oriented industries include health services, manufacturing and technology are seeing growth rates of nearly double the rate of the city’s overall private sector growth in recent years.

IAG Cargo says it expects to carry pharmaceutical and machinery parts on the new route.

IAG Cargo director of sales, marketing and products, Camilo Garcia says: “Pittsburgh is home to thriving technology, robotics and healthcare industries and the new route will provide easy access to customers from the UK and beyond.

“This addition builds on our strong entry points into the US and will use the newest aircraft in our fleet, the Boeing 787-8.

We’re proud to add Pittsburgh to our network of over 350 destinations globally.”

ACS erupts into action

When Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii erupted, Air Charter Service (ACS) was contacted as a matter of urgency to deliver 68 tonnes of fire retardant to save a geothermal power plant.

A specialist freight forwarder contacted ACS asking them to source an aircraft capable of flying a large amount of barite, which acts as a fire retardant. ACS found an MD-11 Freighter that was capable of carrying the clay like substance, which hardens when heated and was used to cap the geothermal wells.

ACS Americas president, Richard Thompson says: “Towns and countryside were being turned into a volcanic wasteland as lava from the erupting Kilauea Volcano made its way across the island.

This in itself was devastating, but the flow was fast approaching the Puna Geothermal Venture plant which would have meant further disaster, so an urgent plan was formulated to prevent the lava pouring into the wells at the site.”

He adds: “The flight went without a hitch and the wells were capped with the barite and deactivated shortly afterwards. As an extra precaution the plant was later shut down and 60,000 gallons (230,000 litres) of flammable liquid were removed from the site.”

CEVA Logistics has completed Phase One of a major global inbound aero logistics project for Rolls-Royce to manage shipments of aerospace parts for its civil and defence divisions.

Over 1,200 shipments per week weighing on average 300-500 kilogrammes and ranging from small parcels to out-of-gauge are moved into multiple Rolls-Royce facilities across the UK, Germany, USA and Singapore.

By establishing three global control towers at Ashby-de-laZouch, UK; Singapore and Jacksonville, Florida and by utilising its Matrix Supply Chain Management global platform, CEVA has been able to transform the way Rolls-Royce manages its inbound inventory.

In order to achieve this, over 800 individual Rolls-Royce suppliers have transitioned onto CEVA’s Matrix system to provide Rolls-Royce with a single source for the data and visibility of its shipments.

CEVA Logistics executive director, Leigh Pomlett says: “Using our business intelligence tools has enabled Rolls-Royce to have a new level of part visibility and at the same time interrogate their cost base to precisely match their business requirements. This rich supply of data then enables us to support the future evolution and continuous improvement of their supply chain.”

Rolls-Royce and CEVA are now working in tandem to develop new opportunities for optimising transportation modes to further eliminate supply chain costs.

Volga-Dnepr denies safety issues Volga-Dnepr Group has dismissed reports that Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Service (AMTES) is facing criminal charges for falsifying Airworthiness Certificates for Russian registered AN-124-100s.

Describing media reports as “not true”, Volga-Dnepr says AMTES and its management have not received any official notifications of a criminal case nor any enquiries or investigations from law enforcement agencies in Ukraine or any other country.

It says: “There is no official information regarding the subject matter, scope or participants of the supposed investigation.”

The group says all documents confirming the airworthiness of the AN-124-100 “were issued by the competent authorities of the Russian Federation and are fully compliant with international law”.

aircargoweek.com

WorldNews Korean Air has provided emergency relief supplies for victims of the Laos dam collapse, flying water and blankets on a service to Vietnam.

The carrier delivered a 40-tonne package including 36,000 litres of water and 2,000 blankets on flight KE461 from Seoul’s Incheon International Airport to Da Nang, Vietnam. The aid will be delivered through the Disaster Management Office in the affected region.

The relief supplies will be delivered through Da Nang as the affected Attapeu province in southern Laos is closer to the Vietnamese city than Laos’ capital, Vientiane.

Several hundred people were affected when a hydropower dam collapsed on 23 July, with floods destroying houses in six villages in Attapeu province, and forcing local residents to be evacuated.

Cargo volumes at Dubai World Central (DWC) grew by 7.1 per cent in the first half of 2018.

It handled 475,190 tonnes compared to 443,835 tonnes in the same period of 2017. DWC is served by eight passenger airlines operating an average of 95 flights a week to 14 international destinations and 26 cargo operators flying to 70 locations around the world.

Panalpina has appointed Christian Wurst as its new regional CEO for Europe, bringing extensive experience of the freight forwarding and logistics industry with him.

German-born Wurst, who will join Panalpina in February 2019 has more than 20 years of international experience in the freight forwarding and logistics industry and a broad knowledge of European markets and cultures. The 45-year-old has previously worked for RWTUV, Wincanton and DB Schenker, and in his new role will be based in Frankfurt, taking responsibility for the European region.

Envirotainer has added Toronto, Canada to its RAP e2 network, making it the ninth station in the Americas in the e2 network.

Toronto is the fifth RAP e2 station Envirotainer has opened in less than 15 months in the Americas, with head of operations Americas, Ernest Murphy says: “We now have 9 RAP e2 stations in the Americas. The other RAP e2 stations are located in New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, San Juan, Atlanta and Los Angeles.”

Dettmer Group, the owners of LUG aircargo handling have picked Peter Ganz as chief financial officer.

The 50-year-old former chief financial officer of Hapag Lloyd and chief shipping officer of MPC Capital has extensive knowledge of finance and accounting.

Commenting on his appointment, Ganz says: “Together with my colleagues in the management, the management and the employees, I would like to contribute to the further successful development of the Dettmer Group.”

In addition to Ganz, management at the Dettmer Group consists of Andreas Niemeyer as chief operating officer and Heiner Dettmer as chief executive officer and managing partner of the Bremen-based group.

The first Ultra Long Range Airbus A350 XWB has rolled out of the paintshop in preparation for delivery to the launch customer, Singapore Airlines.

The airline has ordered seven A350-900 Ultra Long Range aircraft to fly on non-stop services from Singapore to the USA, including flights to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Airbus says the aircraft is at an advanced stage of production and will undergo further testing before being delivered to Singapore Airlines in the coming months.

The Ultra Long Range will have a range of 9,700 nautical miles, achieved through a modified fuel system, which increases the aircraft’s fuel capacity by 24,000 litres without the need for additional fuel tanks.

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YTO to turn Jiaxing Airport into major logistics hub

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uantong Group will invest 12.2 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) to build a logistics hub at Jiaxing Airport in Zhejiang province to build an intermodal and trade distribution centre.

In the first phase, Yuantong will construct a logistics hub covering 600,000 square metres with an investment of 7.3 billion yuan covering air cargo hubs, maintenance areas, express delivery global operations centres, smart logistics park and supporting office areas.

The project is scheduled to start in 2018 and will be put into use in 2021 when it will become the global operation base, innovation R&D centre and settlement centre of YTO Express and YTO Airlines.

According to project planning and traffic volume calculations, YTO will operate 50 cargo aircraft in Jiaxing by 2030 handling 1.1

million tonnes of cargo, and handle 2.4 million tonnes a year by 2050.

Yuantong Group chairman, Yu Tong says: “Yuantong will be the global aviation logistics hub and super-intermodal centre in Jiaxing. The development of ‘One Belt and One Road’, the integration

Peli BioThermal strengthens team

Staddon Peli BioThermal has strengthened its global team with Will Staddon, Stewart Morland and Joseph Castellanos joining the company.

Staddon is taking up the role of manager – partner alliances, Morland has the role of business development manager EMEA, and Castellanos is senior account executive – West Coast USA. In their new roles, the three will support strategic plans including its rapidly expanding Credo on Demand programme, which offers flexible rental options for tem-

Castellanos perature controlled pallet shippers.

Commenting on the appointments, Peli BioThermal president David Williams says: “These latest appointments, hired for roles in sales and support, are another significant step for the company. It demonstrates how, as market place leaders and innovators within our industry, Peli BioThermal continues to attract key professionals who are experts in this sector and add value to the products and services we offer.”

UPS to rock down to electric avenue UPS will collaborate with Thor Trucks to develop and a test fully electric class 6 delivery van in Los Angeles, ready for deployment later this year.

The Thor electric delivery van will have a range of approximately 100 miles powered by a Thor-designed and built battery that will be lightweight, durable and allow long-range driving distances.

For six months, UPS will test the vehicle including off-road evaluation to address durability, battery capacity, technical integration, engineering and any items found during onroad testing.

UPS president of global fleet maintenance and engineering, Carlton Rose says: “UPS believes in the future of commercial electric vehicles. We want to support the research needed to make advances and the companies developing those innovative products. Performance is critical in our fleet. We are excited to get this vehicle on the road to test how it handles routes in and around Los Angeles.”

Thor Trucks co-founder and chief executive officer, Dakota Semler says: “We’re excited about

Freight volumes pick up in April

Freight volumes have continued to grow in April, rising 4.5 per cent following a slower month in March, Airports Council International (ACI) reports.

All regions of the world experienced growth, with the smallest markets leading the way, Latin America-Caribbean leading the

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of the Yangtze River Delta and the construction of the Dawan District of Zhejiang Province, and the realisation of China’s express logistics industry ‘transport global’ to the global “play a positive role.”

The group says it chose Jiaxing because more than 40 per cent of domestic and international express delivery is concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Within a three-hour flight time, Jiaxing Airport can cover the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei corridor and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Belt.

Yuantong also says Jiaxing has the advantage of taking the spillover of Shanghai and Hangzhou airports, the ports of Jiaxing Port, Yangshan Port, Ningbo Port and inland waterways.

It also has rail links on the Huminhang Railway and road links on the Jiasu Expressway and Shanghai-Kunming Expressway.

way at 12.5 per cent, followed by Africa with 9.9 per cent. ACI says the gains mostly came from rising international freight volumes, which may leave them vulnerable to global trade shocks.

Europe was next with 4.6 per cent growth but the region was unequal. Belgium grew by 15.7 per cent due to the strength of

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working with a forward-thinking company like UPS, particularly as our first collaboration. UPS is committed to sustainability and operates one of the most well-respected and complex fleets in the country.

“This is also an incredibly valuable opportunity to gain insight into what it will take to fulfil our mission of getting entire electric fleets on the road.”

Liege Airport while the Netherlands was down 6.3 per cent due to declining traffic at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. France, Luxembourg and Italy all struggled, with falls of 2.9 per cent, 1.2 per cent and growth of 0.5 per cent respectively.

Asia-Pacific was also mixed, with highs of nine per cent for Thailand and lows of 0.4 per cent for South Korea. Other major markets were between two and six per cent, with Japan and Taiwan posting modest growth of 3.3 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively. India was the strongest in the region at 5.7 per cent, followed by Hong Kong at five per cent, China at 4.9 per cent and 4.5 per cent for Singapore.

Growth in North America has been more subdued, with a year-on-year increase of 3.7 per cent due to geopolitical tensions caused by import tariffs between major economies and the USA. Following a decline of 2.1 per cent in March, the Middle East has come back with an increase of 2.6 per cent in April, but ACI says that given “general trends observed in the industry, a gradual slowdown may be in the region’s future in the coming months”.

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Encouraging signs under 2035 vision

“Not surprisingly it plans to introduce more on its international routes.”

The Vision 2035 document is expected to address issues such as congestion at airports, runways and airspace, development of unserved and under-served airports and ways and means to boost the air connectivity to small cities and towns, according to government sources.

The right direction

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rompted by an across-the-board boom sometimes in double figures the Government of India is girding itself to revamp its air cargo policies, writes Michael Mackey.

One of the key ways this will be done is via Vision 2035, a policy document that is still being worked on, to cover Indian civil aviation.

The signs though are huge and for cargo very encouraging especially given the support the sector has already had from the reformist Modi government.

“Cargo policy is being prepared understanding the growing need to transport cargo from one place to another. Cargo flights can move at night with the policy coming in,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said via its Facebook page.

It goes further, much further that than.

“Drones will now play an important role which is itself a trillion dollar market. For which we preparing a plan,” the Ministry’s posting added.

Tellingly the Drone Task Force had its first meeting on June 21. India is looking well and hard into the future.

More immediately the tasks in hand are big with the Ministry considering a four to five-fold increase in airport capacity over the next ten to fifteen years in part because of the cargo it anticipates.

“The amount of cargo will be huge” said India’s Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu in a recent speech. “India’s cargo is growing massively and will grow as much again.” Prabhu is also Minister of Commerce and Industry a connection that is not likely to be lost.

The first big barrier to achieve the potential everyone, both in the government and the industry believes is there is likely to be the sheer lack of airports and planes. “Airport infrastructure,” was one of the challenges an official from Air India mentioned to Air Cargo Week.

Lack of infrastructure

The problem though is not just hardware but how things are done both at and around them.

“Physical infrastructure is inadequate, the organisation of that infrastructure is inadequate and the handling of paperwork around that is woefully lacking,” Maersk senior director group relations for Maersk in South Asia Julian Bevis, told Air Cargo Week.

It is a problem the government is moving to tackle. “Improvement is an ongoing process and will win situation for us and government,” said the Air India official.

Bevis and others acknowledge work is being done to augment cargo facilities but are also concerned over the lack of information being exchanged electronically. That said India does more than OK on the introduction of the e-AWB. “India has performed better than most e-AWB ready countries. It is currently ranked 6th globally based on volume. Nonetheless, there is still room for improvement, in particular for parts of the shipping process that do not have online access to the e-AWB, hence still requiring paper documentation,” an IATA spokesperson says.

Where the problem arises is information tends remained compartmentalised and there

are no Airport Community Systems as yet.

One company already working to rectify this is an Indian one, Kale Logistics Solutions, who launched a specialised e-Booking platform, ‘RIGEL’ earlier this year.

Getting IT right

This One Stop e-Booking Platform is India’s first comprehensive online platform to assist “cargo rates” discovery and booking procedures for the air cargo industry. The air cargo industry, according to Kale, “is heavily dependent on manual and cumbersome processes.”

Kale’s online e-Booking platform makes routes, rates and schedules for cargo booking readily accessible through the system, thereby benefitting all stakeholders. “It also ensures that compliances for further processing of the shipment are met at the point of booking,” Kale said.

It could be booking quite a lot as the market is there, growing and looking set to keep growing for years to come.

Indian airports in May saw international cargo rise to 191,500 tonnes (up 3.8 per cent) and domestic rise to 114,000 tonnes (up 12.2 per cent) compared to the same month last year.

Some airports did even better with Banaglaore International seeing a 9.1 per cent growth in cargo movements to 348.403 tonnes in total.

“Growth increased by 50 per cent on International routes and in case of Tonnage by 20 per cent,” the national carrier Air India told Air Cargo Week adding it was hoping “good growth in capacity and carriage in later half of the year.

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“It will further provide a direction to the economic development in these areas in terms of job creation and cargo infrastructure development,” the Government’s Press Information Bureau said.

India civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu, has urged AAI (Airports Authority of India) and other airport operators to bolster efforts to build new infrastructure and to expand existing airports to enhance the facilities available, keeping in mind the growth of the industry.

Where there are in-hand projects is a lengthy list and is as a roll call of places as different as Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Goa, Pune, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Guwahati, Jaipur, Calicut, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Coimbatore, Srinagar, Varanasi Chandigarh, Indore, Mangaluru, Amritsar and Bagdora.

Exotic though that list is, some of the problems will be the same as India is not known for its wide open spaces nor its restrained civil society groups and lawyers - making litigation a nightmare.

“The minister asked the officials to suggest innovative land acquisition methods - a serious problem faced at many cities,” the Bureau says.

One potential flashpoint is the greenfield site of Goa’s Mopa which could be used for large cargo traffic and will bring prosperity to the region, Prabhu says.

Also instructive are the export-supporting projects getting approval.

These range from setting up of a cold chain in Madhya Pradesh, to an integrated cargo terminal at Imphal international airport; establishment of trade promotion centre in Bhopal and construction of office cum laboratory complex of export inspection agency at Vishakhapatnam.

This is also just the beginning as one of the noticeable features of the Facebook pages of both Prabhu and the Civil Aviation Ministry is a request for new airports – an inversion of what happens elsewhere.

These sometimes include specifically cargo facilities: “Met Mr. Gurjeet Singh Aujla, MP/LS, Amritsar regarding request for installation of ALS at Guru Govind Singh Ji airport, commissioning of cold storage cargo at Amritsar airport and starting international flight service from SGRD International Airport. Will look into these issues,” Prabhu said of the most recent such request.

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Qatar looks beyond the blockade

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aving started the year seven months into a regional blockade, Qatar is holding up in the global airfreight market. While the diplomatic dispute between the State of Qatar and its blockading Gulf neighbours of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt remains in situ, managers at Qatar Airways are signalling a successful 2017 and a confidence in the future that suggests they are planning for post-blockade business.

In June 2017, as part of the wider blockade, NOTAMS (notice to flight crew) announcing the immediate closure of Saudi, UAE, Bahraini and Egyptian of their airspace to Qatari-registered aircraft were issued. This had the effect of eliminating Qatar Airways’ access to its two largest markets - Saudi Arabia and UAE - from both its passenger and cargo network.

The airline is not shy in commenting on its role in maintaining air cargo links with the country.

“Perhaps the most outstanding achievement of 2017,” it says, “was the role Qatar Airways Cargo played to break the impact of the illegal blockade imposed on the people of Qatar. Overnight, the cargo carrier deployed a vast fleet of owned and leased aircraft to restore national food and commercial supplies, while managing the logistics, warehousing and distribution to ensure supermarkets and businesses were fully stocked … while maintaining service levels to regular customers.”

However, just over a year later, at the biennial Farnborough International Airshow last month, a significant investment in freighter hardware by Qatar Airways was signalled when the airline inked a deal with Boeing to acquire five Boeing 777 Freighters.

A purchase agreement signing ceremony between Boeing and Qatar Airways, finalising the airline’s order for the five aircraft, valued at $1.7 billion at current list prices, was held in the Boeing pavilion. The signing conAl Baker summated a commitment made in

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April 2018 between Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker and Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Kevin McAllister.

The deal was closed in front of a crowd of media and VIP guests gathered to watch this milestone in Qatar Airways’ history, which has seen its cargo division grow to become what it claims to be the second largest international air freight carrier in the world.

On display

One of the highlights of Qatar’s involvement in the event was the display of six of its most advanced aircraft, including the Airbus A350-1000 and the Boeing 777-300ER. The airline also displayed its Boeing 747-8 Freighter for the first time.

Al Baker, says: “We are tremendously excited to be back at Farnborough this year, showcasing six of the most technologically advanced aircraft in the sky.

“We are delighted to use the platform of the airshow to meet

already robust performance in the cargo category.”

Qatar Airways Cargo serves more than 60 exclusive freighter destinations worldwide, with many recent additions to its freighter network, including Pittsburgh, London Heathrow, Phnom Penh and Yangon.

In February, the airline was the global launch customer for the world’s most advanced passenger aircraft, the Airbus A350-1000.

Although the Qatar A350-1000 is a passenger-configuration jet, it is also a cargo-friendly aircraft, with room to accommodate 14 pallets in its belly and a hold volume of 11.3 cubic metres. The previous generation of the A350 family – the A350-900 – has a capacity of 11 pallets with the same bulk hold volume.

Some of the carrier’s major milestones in 2017-18 include: • Launch of the 2,470 sq m Climate Control Centre, a specialised transit facility for temperature-controlled shipments • Expansion of its QR Pharma network, covering more than 70 destinations globally • Opening of a dedicated transit facility for courier and mail products • Launch of services to ten belly-hold and four freighter destinations.

First international cargo carrier to launch dedicated • freighters to Yangon and Pittsburgh • Addition of the 13th Boeing 777F and two Boeing 7478Fs to its freighter fleet

On the ground

with our friends from Boeing to finalise the commitment we made to purchasing five 777 Freighters earlier this year. Qatar Airways Cargo is growing exponentially year on year and the addition of these aircraft will only serve to further strengthen its

aircargoweek.com

Doha’s Hamad International Airport (HIA) enjoyed successful year-on-year growth in June 2018 with 12.56 per cent passenger increment and 8.9 per cent increase in aircraft movements HIA has also handled 540,357 tonnes of cargo in Q2 of 2018, five per cent more than the amount of cargo handled in Q1 of the year, with the following totals: 177,591 tonnes in April, 184,372 tonnes in May and 178,393 tonnes in June, which made up the significant climb of five per cent. The airport saw 1.76 million tonnes in 2016.

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Can seafreight steal airfreight’s pharma volumes?

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n recent years, the pharma airfreight business has been grappling with intensifying quality and regulatory pressures as it seeks to grow this potentially lucrative niche of the logistics business. But it is proving an uphill struggle.

That is the opinion of London-based maritime pharma logistics supply chain consultant Alan Kennedy.

The other primary modes of long-haul transport are similarly attracted to this segment as they seek meaningful returns in what remains a highly competitive market space. There has been a noticeable swing away from air to ocean freight as pharmaceutical companies, faced with unprecedented cost pressures and a growing frustration with “mediocre supply chain performance”, make rational commercial decisions on

what constitutes the optimum transport mode for bulk pharma.

He says: “After witnessing years of the sector haemorrhaging pharma business in this way, IATA, famously accused by one prominent industry practitioner of ‘sleeping on the job’, finally woke up to this reality in 2013 with the instigation of its CEIV Pharma certification scheme. Essentially, CEIV is IATA’s attempt to raise standards and gain pharma’s trust by providing ostensibly hard-pressed logistics operators with an air-freight-friendly overlay to the different global GDP regulations.

“But is more certification really the best way forward for improving the quality of pharma-logistics? Certainly the IATA scheme is not without its critics. It is widely maligned for being too expensive, too complex, too disjointed and, at a time when pharmacos are increasingly multimodal in outlook, too limited in scope. And although IATA can point to a degree of success with the program, at least in terms of participant numbers, does this point to a real impact on quality? Some of its more cynical censors are inclined to portray CEIV Pharma, on the one hand, as a shameless income generator for IATA and, on the other hand, as just another marketing logo for logisticos to brandish in front of increasingly bewildered clients.”

That said, indicators from the market do not yet point in the direction of a wholesale shift in performance. In January 2018, at a major supply chain conference in London, the logistics director of one pharma company raised a few eyebrows when he revealed that ”we

have thousands of excursions every year and it takes up to 25 man-hours to assess each event.” In other words, even where there is no direct product loss, regulatory investigations and excursion assessments are very expensive and resource-consuming distractions. And the same goes for insurance and claims for damages which can be even more time and labour consuming.

Clearly there is still a long way to go. Kennedy asks whether we are coming up against the inherent limitations of certification schemes? As Scott Poynton said in his seminal paper Beyond Certification: “Maybe it is time to break away from our addiction to certification (and) from all the complex, controlling systems we have built?”

va-Q-tec says hola to Montevideo Va-Q-tec has opened a new Latin American head office and operations facility in Montevideo, Uruguay as it looks to expand in the region.

The site will function as a key hub for va-Qtec’s rental services and as a fulfilment station from July 2018 onwards.

Group director sales Latin America and president of va-Q-tec Uruguay, Edgardo Ipar will run the business in Latin America and serve va-Qtec’s regional customer base together with the local team.

By the end of 2018, va-Q-tec will own a global stock of approximately 2,000 containers that transport products from the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.

Va-Q-tec founder and chief executive officer, Dr Joachim Kuhn says opening the Latin American facility is very important to grow the business expand the local client base.

He says: “Montevideo, being a central dis-

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tribution hub for the Southern Cone, with state-of-the art airport facilities and easy access to major roads across the country as well as in close proximity to other pharmaceutical centres in Latin America, is the perfect location for this mission. So, with our new hub we will offer our current and future customers the best solutions for their temperature controlled logistics needs.”

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Glyn Hughes joined IATA in 1991 after an airline career at British Caledonian and Air Europe, becoming global head of cargo four years ago succeeding Des Vertannes. His priority areas have included safety, security, quality, special cargo, operations, modernisation and industry sustainability. And lighting the barbeque.

ACW: You joined IATA in 1991. What were you doing before then?

Hughes: I previously worked for a couple of airlines who are sadly no longer with us, British Caledonian and Air Europe. After such successful airline experiences, I thought the only direction from there was IATA. ACW: What kind of people do you dislike?

Hughes: Hmmm, apart from the obvious murderers and similar such serious criminals I don’t really dislike people…I do get frustrated though with people who have great talents or skills and don’t strive to achieve their full potential.

sure she would email me from all the ports she would visit in her around the world cruise.

My kids also weighed in and by the time their spending spree would finish I would need a second job.

ACW: If both a taxi and a limo were priced the exact same, which one would you choose?

Hughes: Neither, UBER is the way ahead. I am proud of my 4.9 UBER rating (it’s a long story why it’s not a 5.0).

selling them at $40.00.) The worst purchase was 15 years ago, I bought a hairbrush and still haven’t used it.

ACW: Are you afraid of clowns?

Hughes: I have to be politically correct here … no, in fact one summer I was employed to dress up as Ronald McDonald. I hasten to add that wasn’t recently.

ACW: If you could have dinner with anyone

from history, who would it be and why?

Hughes: Mr and Mrs Fred and Mary Anne Trump. We could have a great conversation about parenthood and I would hope to convince them not to have any children.

ACW: What would your autobiography be called?

Hughes: “My life in Puns” … or a “Pun a day keeps the doctor away” … or “The Punny side of Life”… or a “Pun too Far”.

ACW: What’s your murder weapon of choice?

Hughes: Razor sharp wit and an over-used joke book. Can kill at 75 paces.

ACW: You’re on death row, what would your last meal be?

Hughes: An all-you-can-eat buffet which I would proceed to continue with forever.

ACW: Coke or Pepsi?

Hughes: On a plane neither, the gas expands and leads to hours of discomfort. In summer, Pepsi with a slice of lemon and when I have a sore throat, Coke, warm and flat as it soothes.

ACW: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Hughes: Some say I haven’t yet grown up.

But when I was a lad I had dreams of being a window cleaner. But a job like that requires a great vision and a clear business objective. It’s still on my bucket list.

ACW: We finish the interview and you step outside the office and find a lottery ticket that ends up winning £10 million. What would you do?

Hughes: This was an easy question. I asked my wife and she said I would turn up for work the next day just like normal and she would make

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ACW: Beer or wine?

Hughes: Beer… then if I have too much, I whine.

ACW: BBQ or fine dining?

Hughes: BBQ IS fine dining … burgers and steaks on paper plates is the best it can get.

ACW: What would I find in your fridge right now?

Hughes: Chocolate, a mixture of English and Swiss. Lots of ketchup, see above re burgers and steaks, and salad stuff (doctors’ orders).

ACW: What are the best and worst purchases you’ve ever made?

Hughes: The best was buying Amazon shares at $20.00 each. (Sadly, the worst sale was then

Airfreight’s next No. 1 best seller?

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