Infrastructure Topic A For India

     India is waking up to the immense possibilities that a developed infrastructure will bring.
     The country’s logistics sector has witnessed huge investments from private equities and with each investment by private equities in the sector, more have been forecast that could amount to around $20-$25 million.
     Most of these will certainly help improve transportation within the country from the condition it is presently in. According to pundits, transportation costs in India are possibly the highest in the world.
     It is no wonder then that the Indian Planning Commission has outlined that investment in the infrastructure sector in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12 – India’s development plans are five-yearly ones) will be close to the $500 billion target.
     Topping the priority chart will be roads. In the current financial year (April ’10-March ’11) while 4,000 km would be parceled out to contractors for development and upgradation, 7,000 km would be constructed.
     In addition, the government would pay special attention to ports, according to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
     Perhaps, what is of interest to air cargo stakeholders is the admission of Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel (left) that the Indian aviation sector faced a critical test: the creation of infrastructure.
     He was speaking at an infrastructure conference organized by the Planning Commission and it is there that he announced the construction of 12 Greenfield airports in the country.
     Among the airports are two aerotropolis projects: one at West Bengal in the east and the other in the Punjab in the north. With the government permitting 100 percent foreign direct investment in the construction of these Greenfield airports, Patel said that a number of investors had shown interest in the aviation infrastructure projects.
     An airport was “faster and cheaper” to build than road or rail heads, Patel said and pointed out that this was “a challenge as well as an opportunity” for domestic and foreign investors to come forward.
     The country has needed more airports since the penetration of civil aviation in India was among the lowest, with the country having a ratio of 2.89 million passenger per aircraft compared with 0.05 million in the U.S.
     Taking a cue from the minister, Israel has shown interest in Surat in the western state of Gujarat.
     The city is well known all over the world for its diamond polishing business.
     It also has a thriving textile industry.
     In fact, Israel’s Consul General in Mumbai, Orna Sagiv visited Surat recently.
     She is believed to have expressed her interest in developing air cargo from the city.
     He said that Israel’s air cargo operators would find a large market in Surat as the region has a huge potential.
     According to the Airports Authority of India, Surat airport can handle more than 200 domestic flights per day and air cargo services.
     Many entrepreneurs have shown their interest to set up a cargo complex at the airport which would be able to handle diamonds, vegetables and textile goods in addition to heavy machinery and chemical products for transportation within the country and abroad.
Tirthankar Ghosh

Save The Animals

     Talk about history at near the speed of sound . . . According to USA Today its "Save the spokesanimals!" has U.S.-based Frontier Airlines employees and fans marching through downtown Denver last week to save those iconic images of animals on the tails of Frontier aircraft.
The Denver Post said:
     "Republic Airways, Frontier's parent company, is assessing customer and employee surveys as it decides whether Frontier or its sister carrier, Midwest, will be the new network's name. Republic has been integrating the two airlines since purchasing them last year. A decision on the name is expected in mid-April."
     Frontier aircraft were given images of native North American wildlife as part of a 2003 “Frontier is a whole different animal” image campaign that caught on and became a great favorite of many in the western USA.
     Stay tuned . . .

     Last week as Air Cargo News FlyingTypers attended the Ninth EMO Trans Annual Global Meeting in Washington, D.C., USA—right at the top, EMO CEO Jo Frigger laid it on the line in his welcome address:
     “It’s been a difficult year and 2010 will not be easy either.
     “Now carriers are raising their rates and customers who got used to cheaper rates are resisting.
     “So we have to be creative.
     “In 2010 we need to demonstrate the strength of the “Group” that today is a growing worldwide logistics resource while finding creative solutions that will include cost reduction,
     “Our business last year was about 27% less air freight export than in 2008 or about 87 million in CASS revenue- so it is no secret that there is work to be done.”
     Looking ahead in a brief Q&A Mr. Frigger sees good indication that positive progress was achieved in Washington toward better focus and understanding of what a changing world economic environment offers to this hard working bunch.
ACNFT:  You have just completed the Ninth EMO Annual General Meeting.
What are your thoughts?
JF:  Our group is growing from strength to strength. EMO Trans must however continue to improve the job it does, showing our value to the customer and the industry alike.
ACNFT:  What do you know today that you did not know a week ago?
JF:  We were quite surprised to learn that in Germany there appears to be little differentiation between passenger and cargo screening mandates.
     Our immediate take is that air cargo could be impacted severely down the road.”
ACNFT:  Has the information, networking and general overall experience at EMO AGM changed your approach in any way?
JF:  Actually this most recent experience has deepened our belief that communication and networking with each other is even more important as 2010 unfolds.
ACNFT:  Can you describe the outlook for 2010?
JF:  We have moved from being “cautiously optimistic” to now being “very optimistic” about 2010.
     EMO Trans just had a terrific first quarter.”
ACNFT:  What areas of the globe are most important in terms of development? How will that development be implemented?
JF:   We will continue our growth pattern during 2010 in China, Europe, Latin America, Australia and South Africa building services via route development managers.
ACNFT:  Are you satisfied that EMO is ready for 100% screening?
JF:  We have been ready—and beyond that are totally dedicated to protecting the interests of our customers while fully complying with screening requirements.
Geoffrey

     During the EMO AGM Air Cargo News Flying Typers was given access and spoke to EMO people and business partners from several locations.
     Here are some exclusive videos offering a unique freight forwarder perspective on the world transportation business from Chile to India to South Africa and also USA.

At The Ninth EMO Trans Global Network Meeting

Washington, D.C.
March 21, 2010

Measuring The Corruption Index

     As the world economy begins to register a tentative recovery and some nations continue to wrestle with ongoing conflict and insecurity, it is clear that no region of the world is immune to the perils of corruption.
     The vast majority of the 180 countries included in Transparency International's "2009 Corruption Perceptions Index" (CPI) score below, five on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived
to have low levels of corruption).
     Fragile, unstable states that are scarred by war and ongoing conflict linger at the bottom of the index. These are: Somalia, with a score of 1.1, Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4 and Sudan tied with Iraq at 1.5.
     These results demonstrate that countries which are perceived to have the highest levels of public-sector corruption are also those plagued by long-standing conflicts, which have torn apart their governance infrastructure.
     “Stemming corruption requires strong oversight by parliaments, a well performing judiciary, independent and properly resourced audit and anti-corruption agencies, vigorous law enforcement, transparency in public budgets, revenue and aid flows, as well as space for independent media and a vibrant civil society,” said Huguette Labelle, (below) Chair of Transparency International. “The international community must find efficient ways to help war-torn countries to develop and sustain their own institutions.”
     Highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4, Denmark at 9.3, Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0. These scores reflect political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions.
     Industrialized countries cannot be complacent though: the supply of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in their countries. Financial secrecy jurisdictions, linked to many countries that top the CPI, severely undermine efforts to tackle corruption and recover stolen assets.
     Globally and nationally, institutions of oversight and legal frameworks that are actually enforced, coupled with smarter, more effective regulation, will ensure lower levels of corruption. This will lead to a much needed increase of trust in public institutions, sustained economic growth and more effective development assistance.      Most importantly, it will alleviate the enormous scale of human suffering in the countries that perform most poorly in the CPI.
     Click here for an interactive tool to help you see the CPI in various ways.
     The CPI data shows a country's ranking and score, the number of surveys used to determine the score, and the confidence range of the scoring.
     The rank shows how one country compares to others included in the index.
     The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country/territory.
     The CPI is based on 13 independent surveys. However, not all surveys include all countries. The surveys used column indicates how many surveys were relied upon to determine the score for that country.
     The confidence range indicates the reliability of the CPI scores and tells us that allowing for a margin of error, we can be 90% confident that the true score for this country lies within this range.
G. Feller

Air Cargo News FlyingTypers leads the way again as the world’s first air cargo publication to connect the industry to the broadly expanding and interactive base for social commentary—Twitter.
     Here are updates from Twitter. To be added to this 24/7/365 service at no-charge contact: acntwitter@aircargonews.com

March 31:   Lufthansa back to Iraq April 25 from Frankfurt to the city of Erbil in Northern Iraq with four A 319 flights weekly.

March 31:   Wizz Air goes Bristol in Sept. This month Wizz 4th Airbus A320 in Warsaw added 5 new routes Eindhoven, Barcelona, Madrid,Turku & Treviso.

March 31:   Now that 3 of 75 747-8 Fs sold are built & testing soon the biggest Boeing ever built will be in evidence joining 33 pax versions.

     As Christian Holy Week 2010 continues with Good Friday and the Eastertide Sunday April 4, Air Cargo News FlyingTypers takes Spring Break joining visitors (in spirit at least) next to a tree decorated with thousands of Easter eggs in the garden of Christa and Volker Kraft in Saalfeld, Germany.
     The Kraft family has decorated their tree for Easter for more than forty years.
     We wish all our readers worldwide peace and goodwill.
     Air CargoNews FlyingTypers returns April 6.