Advanced security information as well as e-freight, including the 100 percent e-AWB initiative, are top priorities at TRAXON,” said Felix Keck, President of the Frankfurt-based global cargo communications company.
     Felix notes that despite changes in the world situation, his view of what might happen in 2011 and beyond has already been taken into account.
     “TRAXON strategic planning is set up on medium or long term. This also means of course that sometimes we have to adapt our plans to upcoming trends. However, not for 2011 so far. To date, the premises have not changed. In terms of products, we constantly develop our portfolio according to market needs.
     “Two years ago we neither offered a solution for the EU Import Control System (TRAXON ACC Europe ICS) nor for South African or Nigerian customs.
     “Also, eCargo Pouch and our TRAXON Air Waybill Data Capture were added to the portfolio last year.
     “In addition, we notice that solutions required by customers became more and more complex; compared to two years ago, more consulting is needed.
     “On the other hand some products also disappear from the market if there is no longer a need for them due to more sophisticated technologies.”

     When it comes to new and existing products, Felix points out quickly that his company always seeks a balance.
     “Of course the most important point is that our customers and employees are satisfied with what TRAXON has to offer.
     “Productwise, all developments revolve around security, quality and efficiency.
     “In terms of the TRAXON portfolio, Air Cargo Customs, Quality Optimization and all products related to e-freight (EDI, eCargo Pouch, AWB Data Capture etc.) are prioritized and updated regularly.”
     “We are well aware that managing changes in the air cargo industry requires a lot of patience, which IATA seems to have, slowly but surely driving the e-freight topic ahead.
     “What we want to achieve this year is of course meeting our customers and potential customers and learning about their needs.
     “Through our sponsoring/activities, we hope to help to drive the e-freight, e-customs and e-AWB initiatives forward.”
     Felix Keck can be described as a “techie,” but his face is almost always smiling, which to many is a major side step from the computer characters’ self-absorbed seriousness of the film “Social Network.”
     You ask Felix:
     What do you say to somebody who says that they hate TRAXON?
     The answer is:
     “Obviously there must be some reason for it. My approach would be to find out why.
     “This is what we do anyway once we have finalized the implementation of a new customer. We ask for their feedback in order to improve our service in the future.”
     Actually, Felix Keck might play U.S. baseball as that sport insists that a player be able to hit a curve ball, which Herr Keck does here with ease.
     Felix Keck says that he thinks of TRAXON not as just IT, but more a means to facilitate processes in air cargo.
     “Air cargo is the industry I like because of the true international background in people, trade, cultures etc.
     “In my early days I considered Industrial Design, but then it took me to the Seven Seas and I fell in love with international trade.
     “Now I travel, I guess between one and two weeks a month.
     “Maybe I have to check with my recent tax declaration to make sure it matches my statements there,” he laughs.
     But it is not just all work and no play either for this top executive.
     “I really like the outdoors, where ever I am in the world. In summer, hiking or biking and in winter, skiing.
Of course, sometimes my family has a different opinion, so I am surprised that vacations in other than my own favorite interests are fascinating too. After all, vacation is to broaden your mind beyond the known, beaten track,” Felix Keck says.
     Continuing the ‘What Makes Felix Run?’ questions, we wonder which cities he favors?
     “Any city with at least two ‘O’s’ in the name, like Boston, Toronto, Hong Kong (the places I used to live). On top of them all, Hamburg is really great (I was not born in Hamburg so this is not biased).”
     When it comes to the menu, Felix notes his favorite meal is simple and local.
     “There is a special local German dish which is composed of pasta, sauerkraut, peanuts and a few other ingredients and it really tastes great, sometimes even better after the second cooking the next day!”
     In terms of favorite restaurants, “of course, one favorite is in Hamburg (Eisenstein in Altona). Any of the local seafood restaurants in Lei Yue Mun in Hong Kong are wonderful and Einhauser in Wiesbaden (a tiny and very individual place) is always favored.”
     But then Felix throws the question back, adding:
     “This list is not fair to all the other great places we love. Actually, your question would have been much better if you had asked me about my hundred most favorite places.”
     Felix Keck is married. He and his wife Claudia have two children, daughter Malin and son Tim. But when we wonder if he would encourage his children to go into IT, the answer is familiar:
     “Would it do any good? I believe children always will do well whatever they do.
     “Claudia and I have encouraged our children to build upon their strengths, and then they will automatically become happy and productive members of society.”
Geoffrey Arend/Flossie

     After moving its flight activities from Belgium’s Brussels International to Leipzig/Halle airport in the eastern part of Germany in 2004 due to severe night operating restrictions, express giant DHL declared it would create 3,000 jobs at its new hub. The promise was finalized with the welcome of Kirsten Krueger, the gateway’s 3,000th staff member, in a symbolic ceremony that granted her a new labor contract. Krueger will join the team at the express company’s Quality Control Center.
     While handing over a flower bouquet to Mrs. Krueger, Eric Malitzke, director DHL hubs and gateways, stated that his enterprise is one of the most important employers in the region, offering long-time jobless people new chances to get back to work and earn money. The manager emphasized the wide range of available jobs at DHL’s site, spanning from loaders and sorters—jobs that give lesser-qualified individuals the opportunity for work—to maintenance engineers and aircraft mechanics, and even pilots and other specialists with academic degrees.
     Declared Walter Scheuerle, board member personnel at Deutsche Post DHL: “As the world’s leading logistics enterprise, we take our responsibility towards both our employees and the society in general no matter what country we are operating in.” He went on, saying, “We are happy to keep our promise of continuing to create new jobs in the Leipzig/Halle region. The 3,000th labor contract at DHL’s Leipzig hub demonstrates just how attractive this facility is as one of the most modern express hubs in the world. It is also a testament to the importance of the logistics industry as a whole.”
     DHL operates more than fifty flights each day and night to European and intercontinental destinations at Leipzig/Halle, lifting over 1,500 tons on average. The sorting facility can handle up to 100,000 parcels or documents per hour, making it one of the leading utilities worldwide. Leipzig/Halle is one of DHL’s three global hubs, the others are Cincinnati and Hong Kong. Shanghai is to join the trio soon.
Heiner Siegmund/Flossie

     Harold Hagans and Atlanta Customs Brokers, which he presides over, are somewhat of an institution at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, despite being adrift in a sea of about 145 customs brokers. Harold is a walking encyclopedia; he knows everyone, runs a successful business and is simply great company.
      Harold served his country for 28 years in the military, which was his earliest connection to airplanes… except that he used to jump out of them. On weekends he teaches import/export courses at Clayton and Perimeter College
     ACS specializes in live animals, fish, worms, and hamsters, to name a few of the commodities they process daily with a dedicated staff of just nine. In a global world, his office reflects the trade lanes of U.S business – his team has Spanish and Chinese speakers, which makes it easier and more efficient to communicate with customers and is a reflection of this people business.
      Vice President Hector Romero is an air cargo veteran with 25 years at Delta cargo, and together with Harold is very active in Atlanta global market events and initiatives. The business mix is roughly 70 percent air and 30 percent ocean, with a focus on China and Latin America.
     Tradition and camaraderie is another trademark, having started from a 15-person, in-house Thanksgiving table ten years ago, to hosting 450 people at present, turkey, trimmings and all, an event known well beyond the ATL gateway! Things are definitely happening in town!
     Talk moved on to the upcoming Porsche North American headquarter and test track to be built in Hapeville on the site of the of Ford plant, right next to the airport, and all the opportunities this would bring to the area, the airport and the companies serving it.
Around Hartsfield Jackson
     We take a tour of two landmark facilities at ATL – first in line is Preferred Freezer Services, where sales manager Ed Rodgers takes us on the coldest expedition of the day. He’s like a proud and expert father showing off his accomplished children, except in this case, the child is a mammoth 52-foot tall freezer warehouse with high-tech bells and whistles – from back up diesel generators to fan driven airflow management and special high capacity cranes that zip up and down the dizzying height of the storage racks. It is a sight to behold.
      The annual average was 750,000 pounds of product, which is presently up to one million pounds daily, serving a variety of clients and product mix, large and small, including Wal-Mart. Much of the stacked skids and cartons contain seafood from far-flung places like Indonesia and Vietnam. Other add-ons include storage of ice packs for pharmaceutical shipments.
     Special tugs beep and whiz around nonstop, with up to 200 puts and pulls per operator, per day and some even reaching 300 per day. A clever bonus program incentivizes operators and works well for everyone. The temperature is a balmy minus 14F (-250C) but the heavy, orange-colored safety parkas we donned kept us comfortable, although ears go numb eventually.
      USDA is on the premises inspecting shipments as needed. The construction took safety measures into account, such as the heavy, steel-rim clad concrete rack base, a state-of-the-art dedicated warehouse management system, lightening conduction and advanced airflow management. To put it in perspective, it would take 700 trucks to empty the entire warehouse of all of its 30 million pounds at once.
     Amazed and a little glad to be back in the 920F daylight heat, we head for the ATL Perishables Center and Panamerican Logistics. This is a 3PL operation that opened in 1998, providing a host of services airside and landside, including Lufthansa Cargo, AF/KL Cargo. Much of the shipments going through this 42,000-square foot warehouse consist of pharmaceuticals, plants and fish. There are four temperature-controlled areas for 550F, 420F, 330F and -50F respectively.
     One regular pharmaceutical weekly run is a sensitive insulin export shipment of about 20,000-30,000 pounds to Korea, a DHL business. Customers include Merck and Pfizer, both pharma giants.
     Panamerican’s president, Camilo Buendia, elaborated on the fact that the facility maintains a CBP and USDA inspection area and a climate-controlled fumigation chamber, as well as a USDA certified “cold treatment” service for products such as certain fruits – a unique facility in the southeast. The center cooperates with Preferred Freezer Services on mutually beneficial customer services. The entire facility has a staff of 9 persons, which seems rather efficient.
     Daniel Lopez mentioned the trucking services they offer for dry and refrigerated goods, including pick-up and delivery, as needed by customers.
     Overall, an interesting peek at what happens around the airport and into some areas of which only a relatively small number of people are aware, much less get to see close up and personal. Go ATLANTA!
Ted Braun

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RE: REG (Ron) Davies—Pathfinder To Aviation History

EMO Trans CEO Jo Frigger and Karin Frigger pictured with the late R.E.G Davies, the Curator of Air Transport on March 21, 2010 at The National Air & Space Museum.

     Godspeed, Ron, from your many friends and admirers from Pan Am!

Jeff Kriendler

Good morning Sir Geoffrey...

     What a sense of mixed emotions to awake this morning and learn of the passing of Ron Davies.
     These emotions range from the sadness of his departure to the overwhelming care with which you chronicle both Ron's career history and your fortunate circumstance to be counted amongst his friends.
     An extraordinarily well-written obituary-eulogy.
     Well done... Bravo... Kudos... as usual.
     I reached my career Top of Climb many years ago and as I make my (hopefully) graceful and steady descent to one more smooth landing, I come across many of the generation behind us who possess little or no sense of history or appreciation for those who helped build this great industry.
     Ron Davies was amongst the last that helped us all maintain a sense of place and an appreciation for those who provided us with the opportunity to be employed in this dynamic field of employment.
     I have had the opportunity to meet and dine with Werner Von Braun and Sir Frank Whittle.
     Unlike today, in those days I knew it was more prudent to listen and learn from their history and deeds.
     When in the presence of Ron Davies... listening was de rigueur.

Best to you and Sabiha.
Frederick C. Ford

     Get thee behind me Fred,
     Sent a letter to Ron’s daughters Jackie & Annette in UK on Tuesday.
     “Last evening my daughter Florence was here for dinner and we watched a few minutes of the George Clooney Movie "In The Air".
     Several scenes in the film are of clouds photographed from the nose of an aircraft flying about.
     This morning the clouds above our home were "buttermilk" -small tightly woven and layered with peeks of light showing through-that people who know about these things call cirrus ( I think).
     As I looked up I thought about your Dad and all the catching up he must be doing up there.”

The ladies sent this announcement out the next day:
     Dad’s funeral will be held at West Herts Crematorium, at 4 p.m., on Tuesday 9 August 2011.
     His wife, Marjorie, his two daughters, Jackie and Annette, and his two grandsons, David and Christopher, will be accompanied not only by their partners, family members, and friends, but with tributes from Ron’s worldwide extended ‘family’.
     If anyone would like to show respect for Ron’s memory, a donation in his name to a civil aviation organization or museum of your choice would be most appropriate.
     Thanks to everyone who has already sent kind and thoughtful emails, cards, and letters, and we know that everyone who is unable to attend the celebration of Ron’s amazing life will be thinking of him.

Our warmest wishes to you all
Marjorie, Jackie, and Annette

The West Herts Crematorium address is: High Elms Lane, Garston, Watford WD25 0JS, UK
Emails may be sent to Jackie at sheenajackie@btinternet.com

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