ACW 6th December 21

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WORLD AIRPORTS .COM ACW Digital is sponsored by FREIGHTERS.COM

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The weekly newspaper for air cargo professionals No. 1,159

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6 DECEMBER 2021

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW CLOSING SOON: ACW WACA NOMINATIONS

THE Air Cargo Week World Air Cargo Awards deadline is fast approaching.

The ceremony will showcase ten industry categories as follows:

Airfreight Forwarder of the Year Air Cargo Handling Agent of the Year Air Cargo Charter Broker of the Year Airport of the Year Air Cargo General Sales Agent of the Year Air Cargo Industry Customer Care Air Cargo Industry Achievement Information Technology for the Air Cargo Industry Air Cargo Industry Marketing & Promotional Campaign Cargo Airline of the Year

The Awards will be in two stages – a nomination stage and a voting stage.

Nominations close on Friday December 10 2021.

Nominations can be made for any air cargo sector organisation around the world by any person or organisation, using the official nomination form on www.aircargoweek.com Companies are permitted to nominate themselves, however, they will not be able to vote for themselves.

“FUTURE AIRFREIGHT GROWTH” AT CPH

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openhagen Airport has acknowledged Worldwide Flight Services’ (WFS) latest investment to expand its cargo handling facilities as enabling ‘future airfreight growth’ for the airport and its airline clients.

WFS is the largest cargo handler in Copenhagen, supporting 31 airlines with flights to and from the Danish capital. It also provides cargo handling services for a further 127 offline carriers.

It opened its first 4,600 sq m cargo terminal in Copenhagen in 2008 and expanded with an additional 3,000 sq m Terminal 2 facility at the beginning of 2010.

In 2019, WFS also invested in a new GDP-certified Pharma facility, increasing its footprint by a further 1,500 sq m.

WFS is investing once again by signing a contract for a new Terminal 3 cargo centre. The 3,700 sq m warehouse facility will open in Q4 2022. In the meantime, to support its airline customers’ growing volumes, WFS has taken a 12-month lease on an additional facility to provide the extra capacity it needs in the shortterm, until construction of the new cargo centre is completed next year.

Thomas Woldbye, group CEO of Copenhagen Airports has praised

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INSIDE

GEBRÜDER WEISS BOOSTS OPERATIONS

TRANSPORT and logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss has finished incorporating the operations of Rhenus Bulgaria into its network. As ...

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EMIRATES, AIRBALTIC CODESHARE

EMIRATES has signed a codeshare agreement with airBaltic, offering more belly capacity options for the carrier’s customers. The codeshare ...

PAGE 3 BRUSSELS AIRPORT LAUNCHES STARGATE

WFS’ commitment to the airport and its cargo community. “With this significant expansion of an additional handling terminal, WFS has ensured further improvement and capacity for growth in the airfreight segment in Copenhagen Airport. This fits well with Copenhagen Airport’s cargo strategy and will enable opportunities for future airfreight growth.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, WFS has proven to be a solid partner and maintained good contingency, which has contributed to the airfreight market receiving a stable and good service in CPH under

these difficult conditions and large fluctuations in the volumes of airfreight in our region,” he stated.

In addition to facilitating rising general cargo volumes, WFS’ investment at the airport is also important in supporting Medicon Valley, the strongest life science cluster in the Nordic countries, which spans the Greater Copenhagen area.

It is home to a vibrant ecosystem underpinned by world-class life science universities and research infrastructure, including 350+ biotech, medtech and pharma companies.

BRUSSELS Airport’s Stargate project, which has received a grant within the European Green deal, has been officially launched to make ...

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AIR PEACE SIGNED BY SMARTLYNX

SMARTLYNX Airlines, a specialist in full-service ACMI aircraft lease services, procured a new client, Nigerian airline Air Peace, which is the ...

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NEWS

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Gebrüder Weiss boosts EMIRATES AND AIRBALTIC operations in Bulgaria SIGN CODESHARE TRANSPORT and logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss has finished incorporating the operations of Rhenus Bulgaria into its network. As a result, four new locations have been added to its national subsidiary in Bulgaria – in Burgas, Svilengrad, Varna and Plovdiv. The 80 former employees of Rhenus Bulgaria can now look forward to fresh career perspectives as members of the Gebrüder Weiss family. The staff members from its Sofia site are relocating to the Gebrüder Weiss national headquarters just outside the capital in Musachevo, which is being further expanded. This move marks Rhenus Bulgaria’s withdrawal from the domestic transport market.

“Our more finely meshed network and new personnel will help us meet our Bulgarian customers’ logistics requirements even more

effectively. At the same time, we are expanding our service portfolio in the area of end-consumer deliveries,” says Marieta Grigorova, the country manager at Gebrüder Weiss Bulgaria.

Integration Following the integration of Rhenus, the group is now providing home delivery options in Bulgaria. This includes the transport of furniture, household appliances and home entertainment products purchased online – to and beyond the customers’ front doors.

The two-man teams will also assemble furniture and connect electronic equipment. In several central and southeastern European countries, Gebrüder Weiss ranks among the market leaders in home deliveries.

EMIRATES has signed a codeshare agreement with airBaltic, offering more belly capacity options for the carrier’s customers. The codeshare agreement will offer customers from key markets across the Middle East, West Asia, Far East and Australia, greater access and connectivity to the Baltic States.

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ chief commercial officer, said: “We’re very pleased to announce a new partnership with airBaltic, the leading airline in the Baltics, which enables us to offer Emirates customers even more travel choices and connectivity in the Baltic region. It will also open up Emirates’ exciting network of global destinations to more travellers from the Baltics. We look forward to the start of a suc-

cessful partnership.”

Martin Gauss, president and CEO of airBaltic added: “Emirates is a truly global connectivity provider, and we are excited to start a new partnership alongside direct flights between Riga and Dubai which we commenced in September. The new partnership will enable our passengers to reach new exciting destinations in Asia, Australia and beyond.”

Emirates will place its “EK” marketed code on airBaltic flights operated between: Dubai – Riga (Latvia); Riga – Tallin (Estonia); Riga – Vilnius (Lithuania); and Riga – Helsinki (Finland). airBalitc will also place its “BT” marketed code on Emirates’ routes between: Dubai – Bangkok; and Dubai – Jakarta.

STILL reading a printed copy of Air Cargo Week? Consider switching to the digital version.

Contact subs@azurainternational.com and let them know that in future you would rather read the weekly publication on-line.

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HK Government Flying Service chooses AmSafe Bridport AMSAFE Bridport is continuing to expand and adapt its range of cargo restraint, protection and safety systems, with a strong focus on personnel safety and adaptability.

The lightweight strop capable of lifting 3117.5kg, was developed in partnership with Hong Kong’s Government Flying Service for its fleet of Airbus H175 helicopters.

It boasts a 40% reduction in weight compared to AmSafe Bridport’s standard textile strops.

The reduced-weight alternative means that air rescue service operators can transport larger loads of critical life-saving equipment whilst saving fuel and increasing mission efficiency.

Hong Kong’s Government Flying Service is also taking advantage of both 6m and 12m lightweight strops, allowing even further adaptability for its support helicopter operations.

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BlueBoxAir calculates CO2 emissions in real time BLUEBOX Systems now offers BlueBoxAir with its air freight tracking software. BlueBoxAir enables the user to calculate the CO2 emissions of each shipment in real time and in detail.

It is already actively in use in the jointly developed partner software SmartAir! with the globally active full-service provider Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

In logistics, customers are paying more and more attention to their own CO2 emissions. The goal is to measure the CO2 footprint as precisely as possible at the shipment level, so that it can then be offset. However, current tools only provide CO2 unit values based on weight and distance.

BlueBoxAir provides the accuracy that logistics companies and their customers are looking for. By specifically assigning the shipment to a flight, the type of aircraft used, and its realtime flight data, the exact CO2 emissions per product shipped can be calculated.

In addition to this, BlueBoxAir provides a unique level of detail and reporting with real-time data on delivery, targeted to optimise supply chains. It achieves this by using GPS co-ordinates of individual aircraft as well as airport data to collect accurate stopover and loading data.

Easy to use The easy-to-use user interface, coupled with many reporting and analysis tools implemented as standard, result in an overview that is unique in the market – centralised via one platform.

“The integration of CO2 data into our BlueBoxAir solution was the logical next step for us in its further development. With the data we acquire through our platform, we provide exactly the overview that companies will need in the future with a strengthened focus on sustainability and emissions measurements. This brings the important factor of CO2 footprint into supply chain optimisation, allowing BlueBoxAir users to save up to 25% CO2,” says BlueBox Systems CEO Martin Schulze.

“The calculation and compensation of CO2 emissions is playing an increasingly important role for our customers. The fact that we are one of the first to be able to satisfy this high demand with our joint solution SmartAir! through our collaboration with BlueBox Systems makes us very proud. Because it is not only important for our customers, but also for the environment,” adds Rasmus Hage, key account manager smart visibility at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

MNG AIRLINES EXPANDS PRESENCE IN COLOGNE BONN

COLOGNE Bonn Airport celebrated the arrival of MNG Airlines’ brand new converted A330-300 P2F and the inaugural flight of the new regular CGN-JFK route. By adding the A330-300 P2F, which can carry up to 63 tonnes per flight, MNG Airlines’ fleet grows to nine freighter units. In late August 2022 a second A330-300 P2F will join the fleet.

On top of the regular six times weekly Istanbul-CGN-Istanbul flights MNG Airlines has introduced a thrice-weekly CGN-New York JFK-CGN freighter service.

Sedat Ozkazanc, managing director of MNG Airlines noted: “We are thrilled to reinforce our flight programme in Europe and extend it to New York JFK. We have high expectations about the future of MNG Airlines with this new A330-300 P2F.” Johan Vanneste, president and CEO Cologne Bonn Airports adds: “We are delighted that our long-time cargo airline partner MNG Airlines is significantly growing its presence at CGN. Especially the German and Benelux exporters will benefit from the new JFK-flights.”

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MENA Cargo partners with BRUSSELS AIRPORT LAUNCHES Awery Aviation Software STARGATE PROJECT MENA Cargo has partnered with Awery Aviation Software to streamline operations across its scheduled and charter services.

The Bahrain-headquartered air cargo airline will utilise Awery’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product, as well as its CargoBooking tool.

Awery ERP is a web-based, customisable platform, which MENA Cargo will initially use for flight and crew operations, and charter sales management.

The CargoBooking tool delivers instant quotes, manages bookings, and has full Application Programming Interface (API) integration.

“We are confident that this is just the beginning of a really strong and successful partnership with MENA Cargo, and we are

grateful for the opportunity,” said Vitaly Smilianets, founder and chief executive officer, Awery Aviation Software.

Scheduled and charter services MENA Cargo provides scheduled as well as charter air cargo services across underserved markets in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Its assets and operations are structured to afford maximum flexibility and agility at minimal costs.

“In creating a lean and efficient cargo airline with SMART technology at its core, it makes sense for us to collaborate with leading global suppliers of customisable aviation software,” said Peter Hewett, general manager, MENA Cargo.

BRUSSELS Airport’s Stargate project, which has received a grant within the European Green deal, has been officially launched.

In the next five years, Brussels Airport will be working with a consortium of 21 partners on some 30 concrete projects to make aviation and airports greener and more sustainable.

Stargate includes building a biofuel blending installation at the airport, electric ground handling material and testing a new innovation that will make engine test runs much quieter.

At the end of 2020, following a call of the European Commission, Brussels Airport took the initiative to submit an ambitious programme together with 21 partners, including three European airports, airlines, mobility and knowledge institutes and local authorities, to develop innovations and initiatives for an accelerated transition to greener aviation. Brussels Airport’s Stargate project was selected and has received a 24.8 million euros grant within the European Green Deal to

implement these projects in the coming years.

By exchanging knowledge and experience with our partners, we can learn from each other, and our fellow airports will be the first to roll out the specific actions that proved successful at Brussels Airport.

“And within Stargate we are also looking at opportunities to co-operate with the local residents, for example regarding renewable energy. In addition, the initiatives around the modal split will of course have a positive impact for them as well,” says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport.

DHL, a partner in the consortium, has purchased the first electric ground handling equipment in order to test it in practice.

Next to that, a blending installation for biofuel will be built at Brussels Airport.

Brussels Airport will thus become the first airport in the world where kerosene is blended with biofuel on site. This will allow a systematic increase in the proportion of biofuel.

AIR PEACE IS SMARTLYNX AIRLINES’ NEWEST CLIENT IN NIGERIA

SMARTLYNX Airlines, a specialist in full-service ACMI aircraft lease services, procured a new client, Nigerian airline Air Peace, which is the country’s and West Africa’s largest airline.

The agreement was signed between SmartLynx Malta and Air Peace on November 11, and will last until May 11, 2022. The lease sees a return to Nigeria for SmartLynx who had operated in the region from 2007.

Expansion focus SmartLynx Airlines VP of sales and development, Edvinas Demenius, stated: “While the pandemic has sadly taken its toll on many businesses, our strategy has been focused on the expansion of our valued client portfolio.

The introduction of the Nigerian airline, Air Peace, the biggest airline in Western Africa,

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comes as an integral part of that focus on client growth and the company’s expansion into dynamic new markets.”

The chief operating officer, Air Peace, Oluwatoyin Olajide, stated: “We are happy to have entered into the six-month damp-lease agreement with SmartLynx and we believe this will open up more layers of business relationship with them. We are damp-leasing two A320s to meet the growing travel demand in the Nigerian and larger West African markets while we expect to take delivery of more Embraer 195-E2 airplanes. Air Peace is committed to reducing the air travel burden of Nigerians and this deal with SmartLynx is a testament to this commitment. The two A320s will be deployed to boost both domestic and regional connectivity for our esteemed customers, as the Yuletide draws near”.

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NORTH AMERICA REPORT

Well on the road to recovery THE North American market is well on the road to recovery says Lisa Oxentine, managing director global sales, American Airlines Cargo.

“Cargo market volumes continue to grow, and although we are not yet at pre-pandemic volumes, demand is still very strong, and we think this will continue into the first part of 2022,” she says.

“It will be interesting to see how the market performs and where demand lands once all the air capacity returns to normal and supply chain disruptions are overcome.”

She notes that in November American was operating more than 5,700 widebody flights with around 150 of them being cargo-only.

“In November of 2020, we were operating just over 2,600 widebody flights and more than 760 of them were cargo-only. Much of this increase is due to an increase in passenger travel, and this month we have over 226 domestic widebody flights per week – but in many cases, our cargo-only flights have helped us reinstate passenger service based off that cargo business.”

Now that peak season is well and truly underway, air cargo is once again in the spotlight.

“From an operations perspective, we are approaching this peak differently and really taking into account all of the lessons of the year and the challenges we’ve faced. These new efforts include approaching our readiness activities in a new way – looking pro-actively at the operation and being willing to adapt, as we may need to. This idea of readiness also applies to our team members and vendor partners, ensuring they are staffed well, trained and onboarded in time to support this peak season and beyond.

“We’re also increasing our communication internally among teams, having cross-collaboration calls every morning and talking through any problem solving we may need to do. This helps us identify needs and then how we can meet them, whether it be equipment and tools at our cargo terminal.

“As the sales leader, being a part of these operations calls is a critical piece in making sure we are meeting customer needs in the best possible way, and sometimes that requires being creative or trying something new. No matter what, we are well staffed and equipped to handle our November and December schedules and encouraged at how the market is returning,” Oxentine explains.

ernisation and digitisation, but we are finally at a point where we are making progress. At American, we’ve talked a lot about the end-to-end management system we implemented last year that replaced all our legacy systems.

“This platform helps customers and team members alike – we can build off it by way of automation, machine learning and other technologies that free up time for our team members to be able to focus on more complex issues and can offer customers with more self-service tools and transparency.

“It’s encouraging to see the industry move toward modernisation, but we have plenty of room to grow if we want to get up to speed with growing expectations based on the moderni-

sation of other industries. It’s important that all players in the industry come together on a unified modernisation journey so we can continue to push air cargo forward.

As for the future of the North American cargo market, will much change as a result of the pandemic? Oxentines says there have been many interesting developments including increased awareness of the value of the industry on global trade and economies.

“I believe that air cargo is going to be an important part of any transportation and distribution decision for growers and producers, and for us at American, will have a larger impact on airline-wide decisions.”

Digital revolution The industry’s digital revolution will be a key to keeping on top of demand and Oxentine notes that American’s modernisation has been well underway for many years.

“We are continuing to invest in digital distribution and expect it to be a growing part of the way we transform our business.

We are always looking at what our next steps should be and how we can best serve our customers and enable our teams through these investments.”

“The industry has been talking for a long time about mod-

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PHARMACEUTICALS

Pharma.Aero reflects on the Covid vaccine race FROM supply chain disruptions to PPE transportation, the events of the pandemic have brought the importance of the air cargo industry to the forefront of people’s everyday lives, but none so more than the global Covid vaccine operation. TIACA dubbed it the “biggest logistical challenge in modern history.”

Frank Van Gelder, secretary general Pharma.

Aero notes that the pandemic has exposed the need for deeper industry collaboration in order to transport vaccines and other pharmaceuticals in a fast, safe and reliable manner.

“The pandemic has also underscored the importance of air cargo as an agile transport solution to deliver life-saving and essential medical supplies, including Covid-19 vaccines globally,” he says.

“The fact that Pharma.Aero is an organisation that focuses on cross-industry collaboration between pharma shippers and the air cargo industry in achieving excellence in air transportation of pharmaceuticals has highlighted urgency for us to pursue certain initiatives and has raised our profile as a collaborative platform.

“Enhancing transparency and increasing the readiness of the air cargo industry in transporting life-saving medical supplies were our priorities during the pandemic.”

Jaisey Yip, vice-chair Pharma.Aero adds that strategic decisions and partnerships have been made to enable the association to support industry in the being prepared to take on other challenges arising from the pandemic.

She says: “In addition to an increase in membership base, Pharma.Aero has strengthened its existing ties with industry partners the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), and forged new partnership with the Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA).

“With these new partnerships, we have embarked on new projects, like Project Sunrays, which is in collaboration with TIACA, and also collaborating with HLA to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the pharma and humanitarian air cargo sectors.

Van Gelder explains that Project Sunrays aimed to shine a light on and establish useful guidelines to ensure the proper and safe handling, storage, and transport of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Timely information and insight were disseminated to our members and the industry through webinars, conferences and publications,” he says. “Following Project Sunrays, Pharma.Aero and TIACA updated on the

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on best practices in vaccine rollout.”

In the short time the industry had to prepare for the vaccine rollout, what was achieved was impressive, distributing the life saving vaccine to all corners of the globe. But, with time to reflect, what could the industry have done differently?

“The air cargo industry, like many other industries, was simply not prepared for this pandemic with such disruptive and dramatic impact on humanity and the economy,” says Yip. “However, we were able to demonstrate enormous agility when passenger flights, representing half of global airfreight capacity, were grounded through increased freighter operations and the introduction of passenger freighters.

“We have proven that with open communication and collaboration, we were able to deliver global transport solutions in a very short period of time.

“Earlier in June this year, Pharma.Aero conducted a quick poll from our Pharma Shipper members on how air cargo has responded to the global COVID-19 vaccine logistics operation thus far, and their feedback indicated that the air cargo industry has performed generally well during the initial global rollout of COVID19 vaccines.”

Open sharing

latest statistics of the global production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines through a newsletter VACscene.”

“In a joint effort with University of Antwerp and Metrans Transportation Consortium, Pharma.Aero developed the first International Masterclass on Pharma Logistics, where

“Business meets Academics” for air cargo professionals.

The Masterclass provided insights in the production of vaccines, supply chain analytics and future demands in vaccine supply chain. There was also sharing of case studies by different stakeholders located in different continents

aircargoweek.com

Van Gelder added: “Amidst the above, there were certainly mistakes made and lessons to be learnt. But open sharing and working collectively across the supply chain will enable us to take on new challenges in the post-pandemic world.”

“So far, the global COVID-19 vaccine logistics operations would not have achieved current success if not for the open communication, as well as collaborative and co-ordinated solutions.

“The importance of sharing information and experiences has changed the industry.

And having end-to-end and real-time transparency through digitalisation could further enable tighter community collaboration and responsiveness.

“Looking ahead, digitisation is no longer an option, it’s a must. More cargo hubs have started or are considering a complete community data-sharing solution supporting all supply chain partners sharing data and working together to offer full transparency of pharma shipments.”

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REPORT

A YEAR OF VACCINE SHIPMENTS TO AND FROM BRU SINCE the first worldwide vaccine flight that took off from Brussels Airport on November 27 2020, more than 750 million vaccines have been shipped through the airport.

Thanks to the expertise built up over many years and the specialised infrastructure, Brussels Airport is the most important European hub for vaccine shipments, with daily flights to more than 60 destinations worldwide.

“I’m very proud that we can yet again live up to our role as the most important pharmaceutical hub in Europe and that we can make an important contribution in this pandemic. Thanks to our many years of experience and on-going investments in the handling and shipment of pharmaceuticals, we are able, together with our partners, to support the vaccination programmes worldwide.

Airlines, TUI fly, Singapore Airlines, TAP, Iberia, Lufthansa cargo, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and Qatar Airways. The vaccines transported are those of PfizerBioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Up until the current moment, more than 750 million vaccines have been handled at Brussels Airport, more than half a billion for export and more than 200 million for import. In addition to

import and export, Brussels Airport also plays its role as hub for transfer flights from Asia to destinations including South America and Africa (with Sinovac and Sinopharm).

Flights have also been operated within the COVAX programme of the World Health Organization with vaccine donations from member states of the European union to African destinations.

“And we continue our efforts, day after day, to guarantee a streamlined and safe chain for these essential transports.

From the very first flight with COVID-19 vaccines one year ago, to the shipments that we now handle daily, together with our cargo partners we guarantee smooth transport in the best possible conditions,” says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

Pharmaceutical products For more than ten years, Brussels Airport has been specialised in the transport of pharmaceutical products and offers the optimum infrastructure for temperature-sensitive shipments.

The airport has more than 35,000 sq m of temperature-controlled warehousing specifically for pharmaceutical products, the largest area in Europe, specialised Airside Pharma Transporters for transport on the tarmac, and the largest number of pharma-certified companies under the IATA CEIV programme.

The partners in the airport’s cargo department have thoroughly prepared themselves in the BRUcare Taskforce for all possible scenarios and requirements for the vaccine transport.

The very first flight with COVID-19 vaccines worldwide left from Brussels Airport to the United States on November 27 2020. One year later, more than 750 million COVID-19 vaccines have been handled at the airport.

Important destinations There are daily flights with COVID-19 vaccines from Brussels Airport to more than 60 countries worldwide. The most important destinations are Japan and the United States. The most important airlines responsible for the vaccine transport are DHL Express, United Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Japan

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