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WORLD ACW Digital is sponsored by AIRPORTS.COM FREIGHTERS.COM
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My dearest Airline, Recent months have been difficult. Yet at no time did I doubt our ability to weather the storm together. My loyalty to you has no limits. And by your side I am better.
Because when you have found the one, you never give up. Happy Valentine’s Day, my beloved Airline
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NEWS Pharma.Aero gains new associate partners
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Swissport wins Lufthansa contract at Heathrow
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wissport in the UK has won a major cargo handling contract from the Lufthansa Group for London Heathrow Airport. With this win, Swissport now handles the German airline group’s cargo at all of its curret United Kingdom destinations. “We are pleased to be able to offer our premium air cargo handling services to the Lufthansa Group at London Heathrow, where we handle around 11,000 tonnes per year for their airlines,” said Jason Gaskell, Swissport’s chief operating officer of cargo in the UK & Ireland.
COLD Chain Technologies, Sonoco ThermoSafe and Tower Cold Chain Solutions have joined Pharma.Aero as new associate partners. “The market knowledge and expertise of our three new associate partners in terms of their cold chain packaging solutions, service and product offerings will strengthen the entire Pharma.Aero family and further enhance our thought leadership in the pharmaceutical supply chain management,” commented Nathan De Valck, chairman of Pharma.Aero.
Trucking “With the addition of London Heathrow, Lufthansa Group now relies on our services throughout its UK network, including trucking between all airports.” In the future, Swissport will handle air cargo for approximately 30 flights per week, connecting the hubs of Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna with the United Kingdom.
AEI to supply conversions for Aeronaves TSM
AERONAUTICAL Engineers, Inc. (AEI) has signed a contract to provide Mexico-based Aeronaves TSM (TSM) with two additional CRJ200 SF Freighter Conversions. The first CRJ200 (MSN 7708) of this order will commence in May 2021, followed by the second aircraft (7679) commencing modification in September 2021. The authorised AEI Conversion Centre, Commercial Jet, located in Dothan, Alabama will perform all modification touch labour and maintenance requirements for the conversions. Upon completion and delivery, TSM will operate a total of 10 AEI CRJ200 SF freighters.
Warwick Brady appointed Swissport CEO THE board of directors of Swissport International has appointed Warwick Brady as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. He will replace Christoph Mueller, who assumed the CEO role ad-interim after he was appointed to the board of directors of Swissport in December of last year. Brady will also join the board of the company.
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Brady is currently the CEO of Esken Limited, formerly Stobart Group, a British infrastructure, aviation and energy company with operations in the UK and Ireland. He is credited with transforming Esken from a conglomerate into a business focused on aviation, such as airports, aviation services, regional airline and renewable energy.
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Wilson appointed Amerijet CCO AMERIJET International Airlines has officially announced Eric Wilson’s appointment as chief commercial officer effective February 8. Wilson will become a member of the executive team leading Amerijet’s commercial division. His core focus areas will include sales, pricing, marketing, network development, commercial and strategic alliances and new product development. He will be based at the company’s headquarters in Miami. As a senior aviation executive, Eric Wilson joins Amerijet with more than a quarter of a century of results-driven experience in the aviation industry.
Delta’s first COVID-19 vaccine shipment - December 2020
Delta’s Vaccine Watch Tower ensures smooth COVID-19 vaccine shipments Delta continues to support the global effort to beat the pandemic with numerous successful COVID-19 vaccine shipments within the US. These critical vaccines are shipped with the highest priority on Delta aircraft, with the entire journey monitored by the airline’s Vaccine Watch Tower. The Vaccine Watch Tower, open 24/7, enables end-to-end visibility for all shipments with centralised monitoring and customer reporting. The team follows each consignment from booking to delivery; proactively updating customers every step of the way. If there is a disruption during any part of the journey, the Vaccine Watch Tower works across numerous divisions on a recovery plan to ensure the vaccines reach the final destination.
Delta recently had two COVID-19 vaccine shipments connecting through Atlanta to the West Coast. Due to mechanical delays on the inbound flights to Atlanta, both shipments would miss their connections without intervention. The Vaccine Watch Tower, however, brought together Delta teams to ensure the vaccines made it safely to Seattle.
Updated The delay of the aircraft into Atlanta was minimised, with the two onward flights held for a short time after evaluating that customer and operational disruption would be minimal. The Airport Co-ordination Center and
Delta’s Atlanta Cargo team updated the pilots on the reason for the delay and ensured the two aircraft were at adjacent gates at the airport to allow the teams to quickly transfer the vaccines. “To say this was our most challenging shipment to date would be an understatement, but the entire Delta team pulled together to make it a success,” said Delta’s James Ryu, manager - Cargo Control Center. “We are judged every day by the service we deliver to our customers, and this is critical as we build trust with healthcare manufacturers and shippers that we can handle their business. None of this would have been possible without our employees who enable our business to operate and serve our customers.”
World-class Wilson joins Amerijet from Delta Air Lines, where he was most recently the managing director of global cargo sales, responsible for leading the Cargo Division’s sales group efforts. “We are extremely pleased to have Eric joining our leadership team,” said CEO of Amerijet, Tim Strauss. “Our primary objective is to provide worldclass operations in a dynamic environment, all built on a foundation of strong customer relations. Eric’s Cargo industry experience and long-term relationships with customers around the globe will help us to be successful in each of these areas and across the entire organisation.” Wilson commented: “I am thrilled to join the Amerijet team and contribute to this fantastic organisation. “Amerijet is uniquely positioned for continued growth.”
Catching up with Sebastiaan Scholte, CEO Kales Reflecting on the year gone by, how was business for Kales? It was definitely a challenging year. Obviously the airlines with freighters did better due to the higher yields and load factors, whereas some of the passenger airlines reduced their capacity drastically even though the rates were considerably higher. Luckily Kales Group with our agile and entrepreneurial company spirit was able to detect opportunities in the market for our clients with passenger freighters and charters. I am really grateful for the flexibility and dedication of our personnel during the pandemic. The advantage of our company is that each of our country managers thinks like an entrepreneur and therefore are able to take quick decisions to optimise the revenues of the airlines we represent. You were recently appointed CEO of Kales Group, how have the first few months been in the new role? The first months have been very busy talking to our customers and people. Obviously it is also a learning experience for me. I believe in continuous learning: ‘the more we know the
more we know what we don’t know’. Overall the last couple of months have been a great experience. I have met great people in our organisation and our customers and I was able to reconnect again with my network. You have a wealth of experience in the industry, but this last year has certainly been strange for everyone. What differences have you observed? It has been an impressive year indeed. What I mostly noticed is how resilient people and our industry is. We are able to quickly adapt to changes. At Kales we were very well able to adapt to working remotely thanks to our stateof-the-art IT systems.
In my first week I already met 10 of our customers online, which before the COVID-19 crisis would have been impossible due to the distances of the locations of several customers. I do miss the real contact with people though. It’s a people’s business after all. What is one thing you’ve learned over the past year? That despite the COVID-19 crisis many companies were able to adapt and continue even stronger. Fortunately, in general people are optimistic and are able to adapt. Due to the crisis digitisation and remote working have accelerated at a pace that otherwise would have taking many years Any new projects in the pipeline for Kales in 2021? We are definitely looking at expansion. We have a great value proposition, especially now that airlines are increasingly looking at outsourcing to a more agile customer driven organisation, like ours. Digitisation and automation is also high on our agenda, so we can optimise our processes more efficiently and have a better customer interaction.
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THANK YOU! Air cargo heroes going not just the extra mile, but way beyond From Page 1 Peter Gerber, chief executive, Lufthansa Cargo “The Coronavirus has pretty much turned the world and our industry upside down over the past year. Even in the most difficult and uncertain days, our team has found workarounds. With a great deal of heart and soul, we managed to compensate for a large part of the shortfalls. Even more: in close collaboration with our partners, such as customers, shippers, airports, ground handlers and authorities, we prepared intensively to bring large quantities of sensitive vaccines into the world quickly and reliably.”
Jessica Tyler, president, American Airlines Cargo “It’s a privilege to be part of a team and an industry that has risen in the face of unprecedented challenges. Our cargo team continues to go above and beyond to keep the needs of our customers and the safety of our people a priority. Each player along the supply chain plays a critical role in keeping the world moving, and I’m confident that 2021 will be a success if we continue to work together.”
Cissy Chan, executive director commercial, Airport Authority Hong Kong “In the past year, our airport staff endeavoured to maintain smooth operations throughout the airport, while airlines and the airport community sought new ways to cater to the demand in cargo promptly. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to every one of them for their hard work and dedication towards the airport.”
Alberto Nobis, CEO DHL Express Europe “Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our brave colleagues as well as all the courageous healthcare and nursing personnel, our world
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can keep going in the current global crisis and we are able to maintain the stability of supply chains and critical infrastructure. We want to emphasise our deepest gratitude and respect for their selfless actions and willingness to fight for the good and health of humans.”
Keku Bomi Gazder, chief executive officer, AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company “If COVID-19 had one positive, it was that it reiterated “Unity is Strength”. It showed us that we were together even by maintaining distance. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire cargo fraternity, for being the hidden warriors in the war against COVID-19. The thanks must be shared with my colleagues, and India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, and for the regulatory approvals for the innovative “Cargo-on-Seat” concept.”
Stefan Schulte, CEO, Fraport AG “When the pandemic began, the focus was on shipping face masks and ventilators, now we are ready for the distribution of the longawaited Coronavirus vaccines. That is possible because of the top performance of our entire cargo team! Nevertheless, these are very challenging times for our entire industry. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all our employees for their participation and commitment to ensure the future development of our company.”
Dominic Kennedy, managing director, Virgin Atlantic Cargo (below) “It is a small team but everybody knows everybody and we are all very clear in what we are working towards. We cannot thank our partners enough. In the UK, a huge call out for dnata who have been instrumental in our success, but it equally applies to WFS in Los Angeles, the Delta team at other points in the US, and Hactl and Pactl in Asia. Everybody has rallied around the cause.”
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Airfreight takes centre stage at Fraport A lthough the pandemic has led to the complete grounding of many fleets and at Fraport, a dip in the level of passenger volumes last seen in 1984, there were many positives in terms of cargo. “The pandemic reveals the immense impact air traffic has for Germany in a globally networked economy,” explained Pierre Prümm, executive director aviation and infrastructure of Fraport. “We were very pleased with the cargo performance in 2020. Despite the massive decline in passenger volumes and - going along with that – the loss of belly capacities, we noticed stable cargo figures ranging close to 2019’s volumes or sometimes even exceeding them!
“With almost two million tonnes of cargo, representing a relatively minor dip of only 8.3% yearon-year, Frankfurt Airport played a vital role in ensuring the supply of labour and the economy with important goods during the crisis.” As Europe’s leading pharma hub, Fraport handles some 120,000 tonnes of
pharmaceutical and medical goods each year and currently has approximately 14,000 sq m of temperature-controlled handling facilities in use. “Because of the pandemic we reviewed the existing infrastructure, equipment and processes. “For example, we expanded our fleet of temperature-controlled transporters to a total of 20.” “Collaboration played an even more important role. Cargo business is always based on teamwork. “And we are very happy that we have a long lasting and very close co-operation with all major cargo players at FRA. “I am very proud of this teamwork,” Prümm commented.
Flexibility is imperative Due to the pandemic and as cargo demands shifted, the number of charter carriers at Fraport grew significantly. “We welcomed airlines in Frankfurt that have never been here before! “As this was mainly a very short-term business, high flexibility was imperative to guarantee a smooth handling,” Prümm noted.
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Paving the way for South American cargo at Montevideo
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ruguay’s cargo hub, Montevideo Free Airport (MFA) has been leading the way for vaccine logistics in South America, explains Hans Guiscardo, spokesperson and senior manager, global accounts at the airport. “A few months ago we built an internal task force and based on this we approached the Government with a proposal. “This led to a National Distribution Strategy in which we jointly designed with government authorities an innovative solution for Pfizer vaccines distribution and contributed to build a Control Tower (which we are part of ). “Therefore MFA has been chosen as the only 3PL pharmaceutical logistics operator for Pfizer vaccines distribution in Uruguay.” This important move means MFA will be responsible for receiving the vaccines from Belgium, storing them in ultrafreezers and, after receiving information from the Control Tower, distributing the vaccines each day to every vaccination centre in the country. Cementing their status as the regions cargo hub, MFA’s new pharma warehouse is due to be completed by Q3 2021 while developments will continue to drive the airport forward.
The view from where we stand: Changi Airport
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im Ching Kiat, managing director of Air Hub Development at Changi Airport Group has highlighted the importance of aviation indsutry’s role in vaccine logistics to get the world back to normality. “The pandemic has hit the aviation industry particularly hard. “The successful development and deployment of the Covid-19 vaccines would be a critical milestone in the global fight against the fatal virus, ensuring the safety of the public, as well as restoring confidence in the aviation industry,” Lim explains. Singapore has a strong track record when it comes to pharmaceutical handling. The Changi air cargo community has established the necessary infrastructure and capabilities to offer a temperature-controlled environment throughout the airport with airside temperature protection equipment and solutions.
Cool chain specialists “This includes cool dollies, certified and secured temperature-controlled facilities, as well as qualified and experienced cool chain
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specialists,” Lim adds. “In 2017, we established the Pharma@ Changi initiative – the first and largest IATA CEIV Pharma certified community in the region, with at least one member in each node of the air cargo supply chain, working together towards strengthening Changi’s capabilities to handle pharmaceutical shipments. “The vaccines are a critical means in supporting governments and businesses to restore global economies back to normalcy.” As part of raising the preparedness of its air cargo community for the effective transportation and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, CAG and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore established the Changi Ready Taskforce, a joint public/private taskforce comprising government agencies, forwarders, airline partners and cargo handlers in October 2020. The taskforce has since created higher transparency in Changi’s cool chain handling capabilities and capacity, as well as introduced enhanced Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to expedite the processing of vaccine shipments and mitigate exposure to temperature deviations.
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GSSAs
ECS: adapt and overcome
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he last year has been full of ups and downs for the cargo industry but as ECS Group CEO Adrien Thominet points out there have been many lessons learnt. When the global industry came to a nigh on halt in February 2020, there were some tough decisions to be made. Thominet recalls that as a global network, ECS were planning on how to adapt from the get-go. “We thought: How can we reuse the resources internally to become experts in specific fields?” he said. Early in the pandemic, ECS Group utilised the grounded fleet of leisure operators to charter flights transporting PPE and medical supplies, mostly from China. “It has been different for ECS because we have been focusing on our Total Cargo Management (TCM) scheme in which we manage the total cargo capacities of carriers, especially leisure carriers,” Thominet explains. “Then we used their fleet on a charter basis as a sort of in-house fleet.” As the disruption spread across the globe, ECS Group were vigilant in responding to the changing needs of airlines. “Our key partners are airlines and we are
always wondering how we can help them,” he adds. In addition to the GSSA offerings, ECS has started to take on the partial outsourcing of resources and enabled partners to create bespoke services, à la carte, to optimise revenue. “The idea first was to create some niche outsourcing solutions, on very specific functionalities or duties, not just total outsourcing. “For example completing the operation safety management of the airline, mail activity or data capture solutions to reduce admin work and so on.” In regard to mail activity, ECS Group launched GSA Mail Solutions back in December. The structure is entirely dedicated to outsourcing airlines’ mail and e-commerce activities. This was well received as e-commerce, spurred on by the pandemic, saw a surge during the last year. Thominet thinks full digitalisation of the industry is still a long way off, as it is still only at the early stages. He very much believes in the development of the platforms, noting: “They need to grow offering different kinds of services; they cannot be only a platform for
booking.” As for the year ahead, Thominet predicts that industry recovery might be slow. Cargo should remain a strong component of revenue for airlines, as revenue on the passenger side of operations is still low in comparison to before the crisis. Especially considering that many airlines will offer promotions to restart passenger activity. “In 2021 we will continue to develop the model of segregating services and adapting the services to the airlines,” concludes Thominet. “We want to continue to make hybrid solutions.”
NEWS Air Logistics Group celebrates 15 years in Czech Republic
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ir Logistics Group hit a milestone this year, celebrating 15 years in the Czech Republic. The office opened in 2006, the beginning of a rapid expansion across the CEER and Jindrich Hudecek, regional director CEER has been there from the start. “Over the past 15 years Air Logistics Group has worked hard to establish and maintain excellent working relationships with all of our customers,” commented Hudecek. “We have built a world-class team of air cargo professionals focused on providing value-added solutions to all our partner airlines and forwarding clients, whether it’s for a tailor-made package or an ad-hoc shipment.”
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Showing leadership in sustainability I
n 2019, Qatar Airways Cargo found itself in the enviable position of having overtaken regional rivals Emirates and Cathay Pacific to take the crown in global airfreight operations. While for other airlines this would lead to executive pay rises and trebles all around, Qatar Airways chief officer cargo, Guillaume Halleux was pleased that his staff acted differently. Halleux says: “When we passed Emirates and Cathay Pacific, there was tremendous pride in the team. We were asking how
do we celebrate this moment?” Determined that the airline would show leadership in sustainability, Halleux asked his staff: “What do leaders do? They lead by example.” The push to sustainability was conceived before COVID-19. “It was very close to my heart and I didn’t want to stop it,” he says. That urge drove the airline to create the sustainability project, WeQare, which consists of a series of positive and impactful actions in the form of chapters. Launched in the middle of the global pandemic, the first chapter of WeQare has exceeded Halleux’s expectations of the initiative and the industry itself. He says: “We offered free transport of one million kilos of humanitarian aid and medical equipment to freight forwarders that they could give to charitable organisations. All of these kilos have been utilised. The reaction from some forwarders has been awesome. They not only took the free capacity but
they stepped up to the plate and did not charge anything for their services.” Their generosity was awarded with extra free capacity by the airline. The first chapter, the free capacity for charitable shipments, was unrolled in July last year. Reception in the marketplace was powerful and pleased Halleux. The second chapter, Chapter 2 – Rewild the Planet, was recently launched and may have surprised many in the industry. Already the airline has been contacted by a wildlife agency in South Africa to handle animal transports. Halleux says: “We could have gone for medical shipments, PPE and the like. It would be very timely. Instead, we have gone for wildlife transport. We are concerned about the legacy we leave for the future generation. “As the world’s leading cargo carrier, we strongly believe in giving back to the community and protecting our environment. We all know that animals have an important role to play in preserving ecological balance which in turn ensures existence and stability of the environment. “Through Chapter 2 – Rewild the Planet, we want to encourage this preservation and that is why we are offering free transport to bring wild animals back to where they belong.” The airline has released a series of striking advertisements and a special video to commemorate the announcement and importance of Chapter 2. As an inaugural signatory to the Buckingham Palace Declaration in March 2016 and a founding member of the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce, Qatar Airways has a zero tolerance policy towards the illegal trade of endangered wildlife. The cargo carrier’s initiative to bringing wildlife back to their natural habitat is consistent with the airline’s commitment to fight wildlife trafficking and illegal trade of wild animals.
The future is digital Qatar Airways Cargo has embraced the digital future of airfreight enthusiastically. Halleux warms to the topic of the airline’s move to WebCargo bookings as part of his ambition to be a key player in the digital workplace. Like WeQare, the launch of digital booking through a thirdparty marketplace coincided with the global pandemic. For Halleux, the idea to move to the digital platform was made before COVID-19 but the virus only worked to slow the project’s introduction. “C’est la vie,” he says ruefully. “We were working on the move before the COVID-19 pandemic and had no intention to delay the launch.” One of the pulls for the airline to make this move has been what Halleux identifies as the inevitable march to digitisation in the wider airfreight industry. “It is happening,” he says. For him, the analogue dinosaurs will have to stand aside as a younger generation of digital natives join the global industry. “The on-line world is here. It removes borders, there are no Bank Holidays, no 9-5,” he says. Digital bookings rose from 25% before the pandemic to 33% now, highlighting his thoughts on the spread of digitalisation. Rollout began with France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa and Spain on February 7. As part of the launch, Qatar Airways Cargo offered the most competitive rates on WebCargo by introducing a discount scheme to forwarders, resulting in an average saving of $0.06/kg for the first 20,000 shipments booked via the platform in these countries. “Twenty thousand shipments is not nothing,” said Halleux. The Frenchman also hints there may yet be further promotional plans, including potentially tickets to the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar next year.
Pride As the cargo arm of Qatar Airways moves into 2021, there are two COVID-19-related achievements that Halleux has great pride in. Firstly, the attitude of staff and customers who have pushed the WeQare agenda and help set what he hopes will be the bar for the wider industry to match. The second is the award given to Qatar Airways Cargo by the prestigious business magazine Forbes for the “right attitude” during the COVID-19 crisis. “It is incredible that the cargo arm of an airline has been granted such an award by such a magazine,” he says.
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