Quote Of The Week

  

    "Alliances mean you have to compromise systems and services to the alliance.
  You need to establish a clear business case to join an alliance.
  We have no business case to join one, and we don't need to."		  


         
     Emirates Executive Vice Chairman Maurice Flanagan at the SITA Future of Air Transport Conference in London (November 29) told the gathering:
     The 'Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques', or SITA, is the IT specialist founded in 1949 that among other things brought CHAMP to the world as the only IT company dedicated solely to air cargo.
     SITA has one guy with a title we have never seen before.
     Steiger Norbert is SITA “Senior Vice President of New Ventures and Large Deals.”
     With more than $1.5 billion in revenues last year, and a growing portfolio of e-solutions, SITA makes some big deals, all right.
     Elsewhere in a development unrelated to SITA, a “large deal” reported in New York Times today, has Sabre Systems, the IT company that owns Travelocity being sold for $4 billion to a consortium.


     Although a glut of new low-cost airlines have pushed profits down across the domestic passenger sector of India, Airports Authority of India (AAI) said total cargo handled by the four metro airports (Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata) will close 2006 with double digit increases continuing a trend that has witnessed growth of more than 56% during the past half decade.
     Recent word by Aviation Minister Praful Patel that foreign investors may be permitted to own up to 74% of Indian cargo carriers, has opened up that sector to new possibilities.
     India currently has only one domestic cargo airline, Blue Dart Express Ltd, a DHL subsidiary.
     But those air cargo numbers have airlines here eager for profits in a queue of sorts to start up cargo operations.
     Air Deccan and Go Air and Kingfisher are said to be in various stages of plans to set up cargo operations.
Air India and Indian are moving passenger planes into freighters to add all-cargo services.
     “The big news will be the move toward international partnerships when carriers such as Lufthansa and others take advantage of new possibilities here,” a source said.
Irum

     Pictured here is one of those “instant” computer-generated pictures that airplane manufacturers like to send out every time they get an order.
     As reported here (first) last Friday (December 8) DLH brings back the nearly 40-year-old updated passenger-carrying B747 from extinction with an order for 20 and options for 20 more.
     Whether anybody else is looking at stop-gap insurance against that balky delivery schedule for the super jumbo A380 remains to be seen.
     One thing for certain, all signs point up for Lufthansa.
     Elsewhere Lufthansa Cargo’s Munich base becomes a security hub along with Frankfurt as showcase stations for “measures far exceeding legal requirements,” the carrier said.
     Lufthansa Cargo is also tightening security screws in Johannesburg with additional alarm systems and a new security service “that will significantly improve the overall security situation.”
     Cargo crime is high around Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport, according to some industry watchdogs.

New Cargo Landmark At FRA

     If romance is your thing, here is probably the last romantic place left in busy Cargo City South at Frankfurt
Airport.
     The first of all investors "Cargo Immobilien" an outfit that began to construct cargo facilities here almost as fast as Rhein-Main Airbase was returned to Germany in 1994, has created a real beauty here in 2006.
     Building 641 is all offices, no warehouse.
     Ingo Zimmer of GSSA ATC must be doing something right landing in the catbird seat as ATC occupies the entire top floor.
     For those keeping track, handler par excellence ATC Germany serves some 30 carriers from all continents with a team of 20 sales and customer professionals.
     “We love the new place, enjoy the view and are inspired to even greater heights,” Ingo smiled.
     “Party? Why compete with December?
     “We are planning a January 2007 event.”
     Stay tuned.
GFM