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WORLD ACW Digital is sponsored by AIRPORTS.COM FREIGHTERS.COM
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The weekly newspaper for air cargo professionals No. 1,038
1 July 2019
Airfreight shifts into Top Gear
ADP to help develop airships
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INSIDE HACTL SIGNS UP TO ULD CARE
HONG Kong Air Cargo Terminals is the latest air cargo organisation to support ULD Care’s Unit Load Device Code of Conduct. The 10-point code is a ... PAGE 2
THE RIGHT PLACE FOR PHARMA
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roupe ADP subsidiary ADP Ingénierie has signed a memorandum of understanding with Flying Whales, which is developing airships to carry loads up to 60 tonnes. Designed to meet the needs of the Office National des Forêts, the French Public Forest Office to extract wood
in hard-to-reach areas, the airship is designed to overcome logistics issues in landlocked areas. The airship is designed to overcome ground constraints for the point-topoint transport of heavy or bulky loads with a small environmental footprint. From 2017, ADP Ingénierie has advised Flying Whales on establishing
PICTURES have appeared online showing an Antonov AN-124-100 belonging to Libyan Air Cargo that has been destroyed in Tripoli, reportedly after being hit by artillery. According to aviation-safety.net, the
AN-124-100, registration 5A-DKN was destroyed during fighting near Tripoli-Mitiga International Airport on Saturday 22 June. It claims that the Bashir al-Baqarah militia was engaged in a battle with the Deterrence Organization for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism. According to Babak Taghvaee, who posted the pictures on Twitter, it was Libya’s sole AN-124-100, and another Libyan Air Cargo AN-124 had been confiscated in Ukraine in 2017.
AN-124 destroyed in Libya
operating bases in the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region. ADP Ingénierie has supported and managed projects for the establishment and operation of airport platforms and can contribute to the Flying Whales bases deployment project. Flying Whales wants to benefit from ADP Ingénierie’s expertise in order to
identify and consider the technical, regulatory, environmental and societal constraints for its bases, but also on the conversion and operation of existing airport platforms. The deal was signed at the Paris Air Show, and in addition, Groupe ADP plans to acquire an equity stake in Flying Whales.
WITH its headquarters in the middle of one of Europe’s biggest life science clusters, SAS Cargo is well placed to act as host sponsor for FlyPharma ... PAGE 4 UNITED FACTORS IN HEADWINDS
FOR 2019, United Cargo is factoring in the headwinds to future growth, and focusing on reasons to be optimistic, Jim Bellinder tells ACW ... PAGE 5
BEING BOUTIQUE IS A LUXURY
WAY TO GO: Sebastiaan Scholte, outgoing CEO of Jan de Rijk Logistics, was presented with a special farewell logo on one of the company’s delivery vehicles. Alas, he was not able to keep the van.
HAVING previously worked on the shipper side, Andres Perez has been able to bring in other perspectives to the air cargo industry ... PAGE 6
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Old News Metamorphosis
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14 December 1998
tudents of the bizarre have marvelled at the tale of supernatural happenings on a recent flight from London to Melbourne. According to the official version, a bull mastiff, being carried in a cage in the bellyhold of the B747, broke loose and somehow managed to escape unnoticed during a stop-over in Bangkok. Despite extensive searches of the hold and the airport premises, the animal could not be found. The dragnet for the bull mastiff was abandoned and the aircraft took off for Sydney. Shortly after that, a hamster was observed strolling down the aisle of the aircraft. The rodent steadfastly refused to give any explanation for its presence on board. The airline would have us believe that the two incidents are unconnected yet those for whom Elvis still lives and the world is flat will think the bull mastiff had merely assumed the appearance of a hamster.
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Tales of Transit
ast week ACW had the opportunity of a faceto-face interview with the newly appointed president of Boeing Aircraft Corporation. He was going to be in transit at London Heathrow, with a tight time window of 110 minutes between the touchdown of his British Airways’ flight from Frankfurt and his onward travel to Seattle and was willing to talk to us in the BA First Class lounge. The press relations guys at BA were not too helpful: “We’ve never had this type of request before. It will be a security problem.” In the end, their helpful request was: “Why don’t you buy a First Class ticket to somewhere. Then you can meet him in there.”
Quote of the week “Air cargo is the quickest form of transportation, in the digital field it is quite a slow mover” Andres Perez, Swiss WorldCargo Read the full interview on page 6
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ong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) is the latest air cargo organisation to support ULD Care’s Unit Load Device Code of Conduct. The 10-point code is a voluntary agreement promoting best practice in the handling of ULDs and represents a gold standard benchmark for safe and efficient operations on the ground and in flight. The code’s primary aim is to reduce avoidable damage and loss of ULDs throughout the supply chain. Hactl signed the agreement at IATA’s International Ground Handling Conference in Madrid, making it the first Hong Kong organisation to do so. Wilson Kwong, chief executive of Hactl says: “The ULD is fundamental to the modern air cargo industry; but it’s an everyday item that we all take for granted, and which many do not treat with the necessary care and respect.” Kwong says: “Damaged ULDs represent a colossal bill for the industry every year. In extreme cases, they can also reduce protection for cargo, and cause localised equipment shortages that disrupt schedules and impair flown-as-booked performance.” There are 900,000 ULDs in circulation, with repairs costing the
industry around $300 million a year while some 5% of the inventory worth $50 million go missing. Bob Rogers, vice president of ULD Care says: “We are delighted to have a handler of Hactl’s stature signing up to the Code. While they clearly don’t need any additional guidance on ULD operations, their support for the Code is an invaluable endorsement from an industry leader, and assists in spreading the important message that we must take greater care of this vital industry asset.”
ACI World: 2019 could be a difficult year
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ollowing a slightly better month in March, airfreight fell again in April with a decline of 3.6%, according to Airports Council International (ACI) World. Around the world, only North America and Africa saw total freight volumes growing year-on-year in April. North America increased by 1.4% in April, with domestic freight increasing by 7.5%, making up for international volumes falling by 7%.
Freight volumes in Africa were up 6.8%, with ACI commenting that its year-to-date figure of 3.6% remains moderate, it was still more than six percentage points above the global industry’s growth rate. Angela Gittens, director of ACI World says: “With trade conflicts between the United States and its major partners remaining unresolved, and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East flaring up again, the indications are that 2019 could be a difficult year for the air freight market.
“The global backdrop remains weak for both emerging and advanced economies and it remains uncertain whether trade tensions can be resolved and whether key macroeconomic indicators such as consumption and direct investment will regain momentum before the end of the year.” Asia-Pacific saw the most dramatic fall, down 7% followed by Europe, which declined by 5.5%. The Middle East saw a 4.3% dip in volumes and Latin America-Caribbean was down by 2.1%.
FedEx sues US government
Heathrow gains Zhengzhou link
FEDEX has filed a suit in the US District Court to stop the Department of Commerce from enforcing prohibitions in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). FedEx says the regulations violate common carriers’ rights to due process under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, saying it unreasonably hold common carriers strictly liable for shipments that may violate EAR without requiring evidence that the carriers had knowledge of any violations. It says this puts an “impossible burden” on the carrier to know the origin and technological make-up of contents of all shipments it handles and whether they comply with the EAR. Saying it strongly supports the objectives of US export control laws and has invested heavily in its internal export control compliance programmes, FedEx says: “We believe that the EAR, as currently constructed and implemented, places an unreasonable burden on FedEx to police the millions of shipments that transit our network every day. FedEx is a transportation company, not a law enforcement agency.”
HEATHROW Airport has launched its first direct flight to Zhengzhou, operated by China Southern Airlines twice a week using a Boeing 787-8. The route to one of China’s eight ancient capital cities will offer 2,080 tonnes of cargo capacity a year to the key manufacturing hub and business destination. About 70% of Apple iPhones sold worldwide are manufactured in Zhengzhou, and it is also one of the most important textile centres in China. Heathrow now offers 13 direct connections to China, allowing exports to grow by 135% from 2018 compared to 2017, totalling over £7 billion. Ross Baker, chief commercial officer of Heathrow Airport says: “The launch of our new route to Zhengzhou is an exciting opportunity for passengers and will provide Europe’s only direct connection to this unique Chinese destination. At Heathrow, we are committed to opening-up more routes to China as part of our strategy to drive forward the UK’s global connectivity for years to come.”
CARGOLUX Airlines International has relocated Little Grey and Little White the Beluga whales, flying them 6,000 miles from China to Iceland. The flight, originally scheduled for April but re-scheduled to June due to weather conditions, covered 6,000 miles from Shanghai Pudong to Keflavik International Airport, touching down in the afternoon of 19 June. The whales continued to their new home, a large sanctuary in a natural bay on Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands located off the southern coast of Iceland. The two belugas were transported in custom-made slings designed to their
ACW 1 JULY 2019
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Hactl signs up to ULD Care Code of Conduct
Little Grey and Little White fly to new home
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exact physical requirements, and were then placed in tailored containers. After a lorry trip from Changfeng Ocean World to Shanghai Pudong airport, the whales were loaded onto a specially branded Cargolux Boeing 747-400ERF. Andy Bool, head of Sea Life Trust says: “We’re absolutely delighted Little Grey and Little White have safely touched down in Iceland. This is a complex but inspiring project and we’ve been working with the whales for months helping to prepare them for travelling to their new home.” The sheltered bay will be the world’s first open water sanctuary for beluga
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whales, measuring 32,000 sq m with a depth of up to 10 metres, providing a more natural sub-Arctic environment and wilder habitat.
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Volga-Dnepr commits to hub in Liege
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olga-Dnepr Group and Liege Airport have signed a memorandum of understanding to reinforce their strategic cooperation to set up a regional hub. The agreement serves as an extension of the memorandum signed last summer between the airport, Volga-Dnepr and CargoLogicAir with the aim of strengthening positions of the three companies in the European market. The 30 weekly flights operated by Volga-Dnepr and partners until the end of 2020 are to be shouldered by effective ground and cargo handling operations in Liege, with a focus on e-commerce and express shipments. The next step involves Liege Airport drafting proposals on the airport location of a maintenance hangar to be used as a technical support station to guarantee line maintenance. Andrey Andreev, vice president for Europe at AirBridgeCargo Airlines says the airline is in the second year of cooperation with significant results and ambitious development plans. He says: “Not only will the first 12,500 sq m of warehousing premises, which will be operational by the end of this year, facilitate creation of up to 200 working places, but we are moving one
FOLLOWING the public exchange offer of DSV for all publicly held registered shares of Panalpina on 13 May, the board of directors will propose senior DSV executives join the Swiss company’s board. At the extraordinary general meeting on 16 July, it will be proposed that Kurt Larsen is named member and chairman of the board of directors, with Thomas Plenborg, Jens Bjørn Andersen and Jens Lund as members of the board of directors. All current members of Panalpina’s board of directors will resign with effect of the settlement. step further in creating an effective system of regional hubs network to meet the emerging demands of our customers worldwide.” Steven Verhasselt, vice president commercial at Liege Airport says the partnership was more than an airline flying into an airport. He says: “The vision, to create real cargo gateways, connecting global markets, supported by airlines, airport, ground handlers and logistics chain, offers the market the solutions it is looking for. The Liege Airport Cargo Community is welcoming the further expansion and the opportunities to connect to the project.”
First Air/Canadian North merger approved
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he merger of First Air and Canadian North has been approved by the government of Canada, subject to a series of terms and conditions. In late 2018, Makivik Corporation and Inuvialuit Corporate Group announced an agreement to merge the airlines, and field a merger notification with the Commissioner of Competition and the minister of transport. The approval of the merger comes following a public interest assessment,
ACWBITES
which was led by the minister of transport and incorporated the findings of the Commissioner of Competition. The terms and conditions include no price increases for passenger or cargo beyond those related to operating costs; no reductions to the weekly schedule; access to northern infrastructure for new airlines entering the market; commitment to increase Inuit representation across operations; and transparency and accountability measures such as financial updates and
statements. Another condition ensures that items such as food and essential medical supplies are prioritised for cargo transportation. The Honourable Marc Garneau, Canadian minister of transport says: “A strong, financially stable northern air carrier, taking advantage of operating and network efficiencies of a merger, will best serve the North by leading to greater reliability of service as well as environmental sustainability.”
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CHRISTOPHER Luxon is resigning as CEO of Air New Zealand after seven years at the top. He will continue in the role until 25 September and then move to advising and supporting the incoming chairman and CEO for a transition period. DACHSER has established a Far East North cluster across northern China and Korea, with Yves Larquemin leading the region. He will report to Edoardo Podesta, managing director of Dachser Air and Sea Logistics Asia Pacific business unit. HESSEL Verhage will take up the role of CEO for the Region Americas from 1 August, taking responsibility for 24 countries in North, Central and South America. He will report to DB Schenker CEO Jochen Thewes. The 47-year-old Dutchman has more than 26 years of freight forwarding and logistics experience, having most recently worked as CEO of STG Holdings, a private equity backed company that has made eight logistics focused acquisitions in the Americas in the last three years.
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COOL CHAIN
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SAS Cargo is in the right place for pharma
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ith its headquarters in the middle of one of Europe’s biggest life science clusters, SAS Cargo is well placed to act as host sponsor of the FlyPharma Conference Europe when it comes to Copenhagen. The Medicon Valley cluster and the Oresund region is host to more than 200 pharma companies and 170 medtech firms. The region has a long-standing tradition of welcoming prominent pharma brands. Since the 1960s, SAS Cargo has provided airfreight services to pharmaceutical companies requiring international connections. Acting as host sponsor of FlyPharma gives the airline an opportunity to gain further insight into how to address customers’ needs and discuss the future of pharma transportation with relevant stakeholders. The airline tells Air Cargo Week: “We see a strong need to simplify the value chain and collaborate across the entire chain in order to provide the pharma companies with the transparency and reliability they require.” The FlyPharma Conference Europe 2019 will be held on 22-23 October at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel and will build on the success of last year’s event, which was held in Brussels, Belgium on 5-6 June. SAS Cargo will have a key note speaker slot to address the future potential of pharma transportation and highlight the importance of transparency and reliability. To ensure it maintains high standards across Scandinavia, SAS
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Cargo works closely with handling partner Spirit Air Cargo in Copenhagen to improve the handling of pharmaceutical and life science products. The airline says: “Together with our partners we have invested in facilities, training of staff, enhancing equipment and implementing software that can facilitate improved pharma handling.” SAS Cargo has invested in cooling and controlled room temperature facilities across all three major Scandinavian hubs to meet IATA standards for CEIV certification. All long-haul destinations and most European stations are pharma compliant with staff trained to handle pharma shipments according to CEIV standards.
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SAS Cargo still believes it is important to come together at conferences such as FlyPharma. The airline says: “We believe collaborating across the entire value chain is the key to success in meeting the needs within future pharma transport. “Meeting all relevant stakeholders and discussing future opportunities, challenges and needs is a great opportunity for us all to set off in the right direction.” President and CEO, Leif Rasmussen adds: “We are very pleased to co-host this important conference. Operating out of our region where pharma and life science is a major contributor to economic growth makes reliable handling of sensitive pharma shipments a natural top priority for us.” “The pharmaceutical industry rightly expects high standards and performance from each stakeholder of the entire transportation chain. We aim to add real value to the needs and expectations of the pharmaceutical industry through high quality, transparency and secure transport of their temperature sensitive products.”
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BELLY HOLD CARGO
United Cargo factors in headwinds
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or 2019, United Cargo is factoring in the headwinds to future growth and focusing on reasons to be optimistic, Jim Bellinder tells Air Cargo Week. The vice president cargo sales Americas says 2018 was a tremendous year with overall tonnage, the speciality product business and improving customer relationships all resulted in record cargo revenue of $1.24 billion. 2019 has proved ambiguous, with issues such as trade wars, tariffs and protectionism not going away. Geopolitical unrest continues and Brexit remains as clear as mud with Theresa May bowing to the inevitable and resigning, with the UK now bracing itself for either Prime Minister Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt. At the time of writing, Brexit is scheduled for 31 October. While politicians continue to make a lot of noise and do nothing of use, business must continue. Bellinder says: “My philosophy has always been to focus on reasons to be optimistic, and those signals are present as well.” Global issues such as US-China trade tensions and Brexit have had some impact, but Bellinder says it has not been as catastrophic as predicted by the doomsayers. He says: “Ironically, some of the most notable effects have been felt in the weeks and days leading up to deadlines when increased tariffs would be imposed – in those timeframes, we experienced volumes increases as customers raced to ‘beat the deadline.’” Success for United Cargo was consistent throughout the network, with Bellinder saying: “One of the most gratifying aspects of 2018’s success was that, unlike many productive years where a few lanes or regions deliver extraordinary results and compensate for those that don’t, every United Cargo team in the Americas Region (and around the globe) enjoyed success.” The TempControl service for pharmaceuticals, healthcare materials and other temperature-sensitive commodities was expanded in 2018 and 2019. It has been upgraded through the use of CSafe RAP and Sonoco PharmaPort 360 containers and the Savsu evo Cold Chain 2.0 system, giving customers greater choice. The pharma and healthcare shipping marketplace is constantly evolving. Bellinder says: “Our shipment of live cells used in biotechnology and precision medicine applications is increasing, and customers shipping to and from every region of the globe need access to the extremely precise, long-duration temperature control required for the safe transport of these highly valuable biopharmaceutical shipments. That’s why we never stop our research into additional and enhanced TC packaging options.” Digital transformation is one of United Cargo’s top priorities for 2019 to enhance digital channels and customer experience. Bellinder says: “The fundamental question we want to answer is: how can we combine what we currently do best with new creative uses of technology and process enhancements to generate effective, and cost-competitive, transport solutions for e-commerce and the rest of our product suite?” He says it is crucial to adapt to customer expectations. “B2B customers – including air cargo customers – are looking to enjoy the same benefits from digitisation as B2C customers now enjoy,” Bellinder says. He adds: “Since collaboration is key to our logistics model, making the most of the opportunity presented by e-commerce will require higher levels of innovation, flexibility and cooperation among shippers, forwarders and carriers, and we’re eager to work with our current partners to ensure air cargo embraces the challenge.”
Looking to the future, Bellinder says the two main challenges of doing business in the Americas are the rising cost and limited capacity of trucking, along with the tight labour market. He says there is a shortage of available truck capacity for road feeder services with trucks operating at near maximum capacity. Bellinder adds: “The tight labour market is a challenge that affects our sales and service partners and United Cargo, as we rely on these partners to train and develop the careers of the people who connect directly with our customers at our facilities around the globe.” There are still things that excite Bellinder, like whether the next innovative opportunity is at the other end of the next phone call. He admits to loving it when entrepreneurial people present him with a challenge. Bellinder says: “Brainstorming options and developing a solution together recalls the pioneering spirit that gave birth to the airline industry itself and United Airlines in particular – so these are the kind of ideas we are eager to learn about and explore.”
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The luxury of being a boutique airline
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Having previously worked on the shipper side, Andres Perez has been able to bring in other perspectives to the air cargo industry.
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PEAKING to Air Cargo Week at air cargo Europe,
Swiss WorldCargo’s senior director – head of business development and customer experience previously worked at Estee Lauder and Swarovski, working along the supply chain, which was why Ashwin Bhat head of cargo at Swiss WorldCargo wanted Perez to join the business. Perez says: “I had a lot of transportation responsibility from procurement to the last mile, working in all the fields along the supply chain.” In his shipper role, Perez did deal with Swiss WorldCargo via the forwarder. His dealings were not intended to cut out the forwarder but understand the airline’s capabilities for his role in global transportation for travel retail. Perez admits he was attracted to the idea of working for an airline because he likes flying and is interested in the technical side of aviation. Being chained to an office desk meant Perez wanted to escape and have a connection to where the action was happening. “This is why I wanted to work in the supply chain and not banks or anything else because I want to see where the action happens and where things move. This is what I believe is the most fantastic thing of the cargo industry,” Perez says. The airline sector was also somewhere he had not been involved in. He says: “I was quite sure I could bring an added value into a closed industry. For me the air cargo industry is still quite a closed industry with the connection between the forwarder and the airlines and on both sides, there are a lot of people who worked their lives in the industry.” Perez wanted to bring a different perspective, saying: “I wanted to adapt our services to the needs of the one who requires transportation, and that’s not the forwarder, that’s the shipper or the one who ordered stuff. In the airline industry you always talk about the shipper but often it is the receiver who pays for transportation and therefore takes the decision.”
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Question everything
He says his instinct was to question what the airline was doing, so before doing things differently, Perez had to learn why they were being done in certain ways. Perez comments: “Even though air cargo is the quickest form of transportation, in the digital field the industry is quite a slow mover so I had to learn that it takes time.” Swiss WorldCargo is actively pushing electronic air waybills and is working on capabilities such as APIs, web services and cargoXML to move away from the standard cargo messages. He says: “Without having the foundations, you cannot just quickly transform into the digital world. So we look at what we call the digital compass where we have three parts. What we want to achieve is the digital customer experience but for that you need the technical capabilities, that’s the second part and without adapting your processes the other two don’t work.” Swiss WorldCargo tries to ensure it embraces new technologies to the benefit of the customer, but Perez says it must provide an added value. He says: “As a small organisation, we’re small and lean. Everybody and every investment must be productive. We don’t have many capabilities of teams that can try to build up something that we don’t know what the added value will be. We have to focus on technologies where we see an added value.”
Quality and customer centricity
Perez is confident about the future of Swiss WorldCargo, saying the two points that make the airline different are quality and customer centricity. He believes that the airline needs to digitalise the customer experience. Swiss WorldCargo is working on projects alongside Lufthansa Cargo because it is easier to make investments within a larger group rather than doing it as a
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smaller player. Swiss WorldCargo is working on a new customer relationship management system, giving the same capabilities but different instances between the two airlines. Perez says: “This will enable our sales people to better understand the customers and to better interlink different stations that have the same customers to enable much better digital information in customer talks. We still keep the customer closeness but we can work with real-time data not only on revenue and development but also on what went well and what went wrong, the whole history of the customer.” As a smaller airline, Perez believes this makes it easier to be closer to the customer and more agile adapting to their needs. He says: “You need to have some USPs because without full-freighters we can’t compete with the big consolidation quantities that are being shipped around. We also have it easier with small teams on our out stations where everybody knows what jobs the other people do.” Not only do the staff know how to do each other’s jobs, Swiss WorldCargo wants to offer a personalised service. Perez says: “We believe that if something happens, we should contact our customers personally and offer a solution instead of just having an automated email that ends with we’re sorry for any inconvenience.” Perez says Swiss WorldCargo wants the customer to believe the airline is there for them. Part of digitalisation means having automated messages but when dealing with difficulties, Swiss WorldCargo wants to ensure there is a personal contact. He says this is what makes Swiss different. Perez says Swiss WorldCargo not only works with small and mid-sized forwarders but also the big global players who use the airline for specific needs. Perez says: “One of the big ones always calls us his little boutique airline and that’s what I like to be.”
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TRADE&EVENTSFINDER Airlines
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Turkey
United Arab Emirates
AZura Services
Int’l Logistics Denmark
Freight Forwarders
Industry Event
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Freight Forwarders USA
Industry Event
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HE PRETENDS TO KNOW WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT
Airfreight revs up Top Gear
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op Gear executive producers and new presenters Paddy McGuinness and Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff revealed that filming in Ethiopia was the “highlight” of making the latest series. Ethiopian Airlines flew a classic Mini, Porsche Boxster and Ford Escort plus spare parts and wheels for the three vehicles out to Gondar in April to film their first adventure together. The cars were exported by Cars UK, a UK specialist automotive forwarder with Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa. The Porsche and Mini plus the spares were presented directly to Liege Airport by the client to fly Liege-Addis Ababa on Ethiopian’s B777 freighter network. Once secured and ready for flight, they flew on 24 March 2019. The Escort moved directly to Addis Ababa from South Africa. Upon completion of the shoot, all three cars were then moved back to the UK by HAE Solutions. The Top Gear team set out to travel a staggering 500 km across some of Ethiopia’s most spectacular scenery. Starting in Gondar, their journey took them across desert plains to the finishing point
at the Danakil depression, the hottest and most inhospitable place on earth. The team were driving cars like the ones they first owned. The producers asked Ethiopian Airlines to arrange the temporary clo-
THE NEW TEAM: MCGUINNESS, FLINTOFF AND CHRIS HARRIS
sure of Shire Airport in the Tigray region to shoot a stunt which saw the presenters drive their cars blindfolded down the runway. Ethiopian Airlines UK country manager, Michael Yohannes said: “It was a pleasure to work with the BBC Top Gear team and I am delighted that they chose Ethiopia as a place to shoot their first film of the new series. “We knew the team would love Ethiopia, it has historic natural wonders and very hospitable people. The mountains and huge vistas provide the perfect scenery for the show.” For the return, all three cars flew directly on one of Ethiopian’s scheduled B777F freighters operating between Addis Ababa and Liege. Upon arrival in Belgium, the cars were transferred same day to London’s Heathrow Airport by road feeder service. The cargo was accompanied by all the usual Airway Bills and Dangerous Goods paperwork as for any automotive movement. The cars arrived in Heathrow on 5 May. Upon customs release, the cars were delivered directly to the BBC studios by car transporter on 6 May.
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