f Lufthansa Cargo has a five-year plan, part of it includes Dr. Andreas Otto continuing in his current capacity as Board Member, Product and Sales, until June 2018—the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa Cargo AG extended his contact last year.
     Andreas joined the Lufthansa Cargo Executive Board in April 2000 and is now its longest serving member.
     Through good times and other more challenging passages, he has been a high profile executive who makes it look easy.
     But isn’t that the mark of a true professional?
     We asked Dr. Otto to give us his take on what lies ahead in 2013, and what just passed in 2012.
     “The year 2012 fell below the expectations of the airfreight industry, no doubt about that.
     “Yet, during the year, Lufthansa Cargo still managed to fly profitably.
     “And, we moved forward on a number of issues, which will spur our Lufthansa Cargo 2020 future strategy and create added-value for our customers.
     “We firmly intend to continue on that course in 2013: topping our agenda is the issue of quality.
     “The all-time high we achieved in customer satisfaction and the best-ever punctuality of our freighters in the past year are incentives motivating us to improve even further.
     “Our new express products, Courier.Solutions and Emergency.Solutions, have additionally made our services even more attractive to customers, and will be to their profit this year.
     “Another issue, which we, along with the airfreight industry, must push, is the further digitalization of the air cargo business.
     “Last year, we raised the share of eFreight on open eFreight-capable routes to 25 percent—that percentage is to be lifted even higher in 2013.
     “A real highlight awaits us in the coming autumn, when we take delivery of the first of the five B-777 freighters we have on order.
     “The Triple Sevens are the most evident sign of our innovation offensive. Whether they fuel growth or mark the start of a rollover will depend largely on market developments.
     “We are expecting demand to recover in the second half-year, but the question marks are still there.
     “So we will also adhere to our successful policy of steering capacity flexibly in accordance with the dictates of demand, with which we are keeping load factors at a high level.
     “Our policy is especially important in the current phase of excess capacities.
     “That does not, of course, mean that we are not investing in our route network. Last year, for example, we brought Tel Aviv and Detroit into our freighter schedules as new destinations.
     “We are doing the same this year: starting in March Guadalajara will become our second destination in the Mexican growth market, after Mexico City.
     “We also need to say something about Lufthansa Charter.
     “Make no mistake the charter business is an important part of our current and future plan.
     “In view of developments in this market, we have decided to reorganize our charter activities and integrate them within Lufthansa Cargo AG.
     “We are still in the process of re-shaping those activities, but I am sure that, with the new setup starting in April, we will be offering our customers highly-attractive and future-orientated charter services.
Geoffrey

Statue of Hindu Gods Radha, left, and Krishna stand in the foreground greeting landing aircraft at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India. Now the airport wants to build a cargo village.

he operator of India’s busiest airport, Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has issued a public notice inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from interested parties for the development of a Cargo Village.
      The move, according to a number of stakeholders, is delayed but welcome. They mentioned that all major, world-class airports like Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Paris, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Beijing had been operating on the cargo village concept and it was high time that the country’s number one airport also had one. At the moment, there is a facility (basically, a warehouse) run by ACAAI (Air Cargo Agents Association of India), but with cargo volumes rising, it can hardly help.
      In fact, the May 2012 report on the Working Group on Logistics of the Ministry of Civil Aviation—“Air Cargo Logisitics in India”—highlighted the importance of augmenting the off-airport facilities for decongesting the airport premises and for reducing the delay in the movement of air cargo. The report pointed out:
      “Wherever land is available within the Airport, land should be demarcated for the creation and the development of an Air Cargo Village. Where land is not available within the airport premises, off-airport Air Cargo Village facilities can be developed… The Air Cargo Village is similar in nature to ICD (Inland Container Depots) or CFS (Container Freight Station) in respect of roles played by these facilities. The Department of Commerce/Customs must therefore, issue standard guidelines as they have done for ICD or CFS to enable interested parties to make the application for Air Cargo Village or Air Freight Station…”
      Delhi Airport’s plan to set up the cargo village is in continuation with its philosophy to develop Terminal 3 as an ‘Aviation Hub’ for the country. “Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) wants to establish the Delhi airport as the cargo gateway of India. This is in accordance with its larger plan to develop Terminal 3 as an aviation hub. We have identified areas for cargo infrastructure for both first- and second-tier layer of overall air cargo supply chain,” a DIAL spokesperson told ACNFT.
      In keeping with that, operator GMR has identified areas for world-class cargo infrastructure for both the first tier and the second tier layers of the overall air cargo supply chain. While the Cargo Terminal Operator and the airlines form the first tier of stakeholders, the freight forwarders and 3PL players form the second tier in the overall air cargo supply chain.
      The airport’s Cargo Village will form the second tier layer in line with international practices. It will facilitate the air cargo trade and offer freight forwarders with on-airport warehousing and office facility. In fact, the cargo village would secure an efficient transfer to and from the Cargo Terminals with faster processing efficiency.
      According to Delhi Airport officials conversant with the EoI, the cargo village will have a total area of land measuring around 159,000 square meters. The location of the village will be in close proximity to the cargo terminals, enabling freight forwarders to secure efficient transfers and make better product offers to the end-customer.

     Incidentally, Delhi Airport has two cargo terminals with state-of-the-art-facilities and services—the existing brownfield cargo terminal, which is now completely renovated, and a new Greenfield cargo terminal, which is under development. Phase-1A of the Greenfield cargo terminal was completed and is fully operational. The terminal has a fully integrated facility for domestic and international cargo with provision to handle all types of cargo: general, perishable, temperature-sensitive, valuable, dangerous goods, and live animals. Cargo handling at the completed terminal is handled by Cargo Service Center India and Çelebi Delhi Cargo Management India.
      The Indira Gandhi International Airport, better known as Delhi Airport, handled around 568,400 MT cargo in 2011-12. It has a strong network of fifty-four International and five domestic airlines, and freighters from a dozen-odd airlines. Both terminals will be able to handle more than 2.3 million tons cargo per annum.
      The privately operated Bengaluru International Airport has a cargo village. However, stakeholders have criticized its operations and have often gone on record to say that the cargo village is one in name only. A freight forwarder went to the extent of mentioning to this correspondent that the establishment of a cargo village anywhere in the country remains a dream. Indeed, for the cargo village concept to work, experts said, “the airport cargo handling terminal should be declared a Customs-free zone.” All cargo processing both on import and export side should be done only at cargo village at the forwarder’s facility. This, in fact, will become the Customs station. Further, a cargo village should not be more than two km from the cargo-handling terminal of the gateway airport. All export-related activities can then be technically done, including palletization and security examination.
      Stakeholders are hoping that once the Delhi Cargo Village is established, it will set the ball rolling not only for other airports, but will move the respective ministries to facilitate services round the clock. As of now, the Customs department, for example, does not work round the clock as far as cargo clearance is concerned.
Tirthankar Ghosh

ecent expansion will see Agility Logistics consolidate its air cargo forwarding business during 2013 to maximize latent potential.
Acquisitions by Agility in Latin America have seen the company’s air cargo segment grow to over 500 locations in more than 100 countries.
     Michael Blaufuss, Senior Vice President for Air Freight at Agility Logistics, believes the company now offers a genuine global presence and can lay claim to being a market leader in emerging markets as well as offering an “exceptionally strong footprint” in its home market of the Middle East.
     “One of our major challenges for 2013 is to maximize the synergies and benefits from being a global provider now, down to a branch level for all products,” he said.      “Should that need further investments, the company is not averse to looking into these options, although the market is currently dictating more of a streamlining/optimizing operation rather than expansion into more ventures.
     “We are quite happy with our size and, in particular, our exposure to emerging markets, but we are closely monitoring what is going on across all continents.”
     Although global economic growth forecasts for 2013 are only marginally better than for last year, Blaufuss believes the latest purchasing managers and consumer confidence figures in key markets such as the Europe and the U.S. suggest an upside trend in air cargo demand in quarter one on major East-West lanes.
     “On the other hand, emerging regions continue to grow much faster than traditional markets, which should help to see stronger growth in 2013,” he added.
     Last year the company flew around 400,000 tonnes of cargo as air freight, mainly within its traditional strongholds such as the Middle East and emerging markets. Tonnage is expected to increase this year as the market improves and recent investments aid growth.
     “Our business has been developing and growing as per our expectations. We have done quite well on various verticals including fashion, hi-tech, and healthcare,” he said.
     “We see strong opportunities in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Next to this are the traditionally strong markets for Agility—China and India.”
     However, to meet rising demand he called for more investment in some facilities in Asia, particularly in South and South East Asia, where service provision was sometimes far behind the quality available in Europe, the U.S., and the Far East.
     “Imports to Asia will continue to grow, probably stronger from Europe than the U.S.,” he added. “The increasing consumer base in Asia will drive this, particular in the automotive, pharma, and consumer goods sectors.”
     He expects airlines and integrators to push up rates ex-Asia this year after a poor 2012, but points out that there remains “a lot of capacity available on the major trade lanes,” which will keep markets highly competitive.
SkyKing

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