E-Freight Revisited
      According to the IATA e-freight ‘Penetration Campaign 2011’ Final Report “…All airlines are using Cargoimp/EDI messages. Some also use XML. However, more than half are experiencing technical issues, mainly on the message quality, that should be resolved. Airlines should dedicate resources and concentrate on facilitating the process through their Cargo Community System (CCS).”
      “Their CCS”? – ever since airlines gave up control of this aspect of the relationship with their customers, CCS became commercial enterprises and it was left to these entities to convince the market of the necessity to embrace communication product they were selling. Twenty years on, the threesome of airlines, forwarders and sundry CCS have all benefited from the evolution of the Internet and yet “issues” remain. The days when the “internet was down” have faded into the distant past. You would have a hard time convincing a 20 something old that the internet is not a human right.
      Conclusions documented in the cited report, such as “Most of the [technical] issues originate from freight forwarders and poor quality of data” don’t automatically lend themselves to advance the e-freight cause. The establishment of GACAG, which in addition to forwarders and airlines represents shippers, is led by TIACA, so there is no shortage of collective industry muscle. The efforts to have e-freight adopted and, more importantly, legally approved having been ratified by governments, stemmed originally from the desire to bring cargo processing into modern days to enjoy the benefits of prevalent technologies available worldwide.
      As always, there is more than one wrinkle and a major one is cargo security. In the push for early shipment information to customs authorities, again, the initial driver was to keep air freight moving fast by having shipments pre-cleared by customs prior to an aircraft landing at a destination airport. We have all read the rehashed report about cargo dwelling on the ground so much longer than flying in the air. The goal to keep freight moving while also satisfying the increasingly intrusive government need for information about anything and everything across the supply chain is a tall order.
      It is undeniable that having air waybill data in the hands of the customs authorities – in theory – positions them to be proactive in their screening procedures. There is always the rule and the exception to the rule; case in point, the majority of cargo comes from commercial shippers, through freight forwarders and logistics companies. Forwarders consolidate freight to serve more shippers and also in order to secure more advantageous rates; this also provides airlines with a degree of confidence that the highly perishable cargo space on aircraft will be filled.
      The electronic preclearance process requires forwarders to provide house waybill level data to the airlines which are held responsible for transmitting this data to customs. This is a curious aspect of the regulatory regime – house waybill data is generated by the forwarders - yet the government agencies hold the airlines responsible for providing it! Be it as it may, the automates customs systems, using the air waybill number as the key, match the air waybill data the airlines send on the manifest with the corresponding house waybill data from the forwarders.
      In the case of the individual, non-commercial shipper, using an express carrier, there is no house waybill and all relevant data has to be derived from the air waybill or the express carrier air waybill.
      The terminology can be confusing; for example, FedEx has three categories: package/envelopes; freight and expedited. Then there are: “international packages of 150 pounds or less”, “air expedite international” for freight, “FedEx international next flight” for packages up to 2,200 pounds and maximum dimensions as subsets.
UPS talks about “Critical Freight” and “Air Freight” with the respective “Express Critical” for door-to-door services, regardless of mode of transportation and a bevy of ‘guaranteed’ from 1-3 to 3-5 business days deliveries and “express freight”, “air freight direct” and “air freight consolidated” but there is also “heavy freight”.
      Evidently despite the multitude of product names, those who wish the world harm have mastered the terminology. Authorities continue to evolve security regimes to keep up with the threats. In a world where cyber-attacks have enabled governments as well as individuals to wage war without shooting a single bullet, when everything nowadays tends to be predominantly electronically-based, we better figure out a sure fire way to avoid something as simple as a prolonged power blackout. Debating reliable, economical and sustainable energy is for another day. In the meantime, let’s hope the manifest and the house waybill are relatively safe from hackers who have more stimulating targets in mind.
      As for getting the entire laundry list of documents from the shipper on to each subsequent link in the chain exchanged electronically is something we will continue to hear at annual conferences. Economic volatility is like a stiff head wind; it makes the journey longer.
Ted Braun

     The skies above Moscow were alive this week with the 2011 MAKS Air Show as air freight in Germany was looking back and ahead at how it all began, where it stands at present, and what are the future perspectives.
This and much more is on the table at the cargo community’s gathering in Frankfurt right now.
     The event is being attended by leading aviation grandes like Lufthansa’s CEO, Christoph Franz; Fraport’s helm, Stefan Schulte; former U.S. pilot and witness of the Berlin Airlift, Gail Halvorsen; Lufthansa Cargo’s CEO, Karl Ulrich Garnadt; Boeing’s VP Sales Europe, Aldo Basile; and Rolls-Royce’s Director Research and Technology, Richard Parker, all who promise to deliver a wealth of information covering a multitude of angles on this thrilling industry.
     The meeting is held on the occasion of Germany’s cargo industry celebrating 100 years since the first shipment’s transport by air. The original date was Saturday, August 19, 1911, when the editors of newspaper Berliner Morgenpost decided to send some packages of their issue by plane to Frankfurt/Oder roughly 100 km away.
     They knew that their paper would arrive one hour prior to issues sent alternatively by train, giving them a selling advantage over their competitor’s products.
     So time played the decisive role in this, the first commercially spurred air transport – and it still does.
     Meanwhile, millions of tons have been exported and flown out of the country since then as many markets request a great number of German-built products, be it cars, machines, healthcare and wellness items, tools, or consumer goods.
     Imports are thriving, too. However, the amount of goods transported by freighters in the lower decks of passenger aircraft constitutes only a meager one percent of the total exports and imports. But their value accounts for almost 40 percent of all products sent abroad, be it by rail, water, road or air.
     Thus air freight is indispensable for the well being of the nation’s economy, enabling new business horizons, securing jobs plus income, and strengthening the enterprise’s global market presence. Unless something unprecedented happens in the coming months, the German logistics sector is expected to turn over 193 billion euros this year.
      According to official statistics, logistics is ranked third in the country’s national economy, right after automotive and trade. So it’s a mighty industry that is, despite its might, increasingly challenged by stricter environmental decrees, growing fuel costs, tightening security regulations, and foul play by some nations that distort competition by granting their carriers and logistics players one-sided subsidies.
      What this industry lacked one hundred years ago and still lacks is a binding universal framework for competing on a level playing field. It is doubtful whether that will have changed in a hundred years when the next centenary of this industry will be celebrated.

     Here are some highlights of the Frankfurt-held conference and panels:
          •  Mega hubs and airport cities – drivers or bottlenecks in global supply chains
          •  Safe sky – air freight in intermodal supply chains
          •  Blue sky – contribution of the air freight industry to sustainable transportation
          •  Customer focused mobility – which future demands must be fulfilled
     Former Secretary of State and protagonist of the German Green party, Joschka Fischer, will round up the program with his thoughts on the necessities for sustainable air transportation.
Heiner Siegmund

Frankfurt Garden Party

     One good time outdoors deserves another . . .
     First it was the Lufthansa Charter Party at Alsbach Castle and then yesterday as we turned into our favorite Frankfurt hostelry—InterCity Hotel at Cargo City Sud, we jumped into a grand Texas style feed (bails of hay and all) for an outside garden party gala.
     The scene was reminiscent of the early years at FRA, when diners gathered all summer long outside at the main airport restaurant next to a small reflection pool with tables arranged under the column and the stylized globe of flight, as they watched the world go by on lazy summer afternoons.
     InterCity deputy manager Jon Oertel noted: “We can handle parties of any size here, up to several hundred.”
     As the sausage, steaks and of course, baby back ribs rolled off the grill, InterCity “Sheriff” Lisa Schmelz added: “Barbecue and beer is what summer’s all about.”
     You get no argument from us, partner.
Geoffrey Arend

     We continue our coverage of the upcoming 100 Years of Air Cargo celebration this summer in Germany as a week-long celebration commenced yesterday August 18 with the unveiling of a new book commissioned by Lufthansa titled “100 Years of Air Cargo” authored by Prof. Dr. Rainer Gries of University of Vienna.
     But back when it all began, air cargo took off in Germany on the fragile paper and wire wings of a tiny airplane as our Senior Contributing Editor Guenter F. Mosler tells the story:

     100 years of Air Cargo will be celebrated in Germany this upcoming summer. The first freighter flight ever was a chartered aircraft that urgently brought two packs of the newspaper “Berliner Morgenpost” from the airfield in Berlin-Johannisthal to Frankfurt on the river Oder (now the border of Germany-Poland). The Prussian Postmaster authorized a scheduled air mail trial in the Rhein-Main region by the Emperor.
     The journey on behalf of the German General Post Master was conducted by a “Gelber Hund” (yellow dog) built in a factory owned by aviation pioneer August Euler.
     The circle-flight was piloted by Ferdinand von Hiddessen.
     Although the Frankfurt Exhibition in 1909 was named after the Zeppelins ILA – for “Luftschiff,” many enthusiasts gathered around Frankfurt Rebstock to see what August Euler was constructing on the airport he owned.
     After that first air mail flight, aeroplanes built by Euler later began popping up around the world including in far away Brazil and of course North America.
     The first pilot license ever issued by the Deutscher Luftschiffer Verband (assocation of German airship operators) carried the name August Euler.
     It is interesting that as early as 1874, Germany’s postmaster general had designed a contract for mail transported by air.
     An advertising campaign to send mail by air at astronomical rates—ten times the normal postage—was launched in June of 1912.
     Zeppelin “Schwaben” and the four “Yellow Dogs” flying for DELAG/Deutsche Post carried 460,700 letters and postcards around Germany that month.
     August Euler also owned Darmstadt-Griesheim airport where the factory was located after Frankfurt-Rebstock got “congested” in 1911.
     Darmstadt is the first officially operated and registered airport in Germany – and most probably in the world.
The site was then used for U.S. Army choppers after WWII and was idle until recently, when Fraport and the Darmstadt Technical University started an initiative to save whatever is still left of the place – including a collection of some aviation artifacts gathered by Hector Cabezas and his wife Paula.
     Credit for this intitative must go to Prof. Dr. Manfred Schoelch and the late Dr. Michael Wustrack.
     Mrs. Ursula Eckstein – granddaughter of the founder of Darmstadt-Griessheim Airport – created a book from her huge private collection of documents and photographs, which were handed down over the years.
     A rich archive of early aviation pictures are available @ http://august-euler-museumsverein.de.
     But all of this leads to the grand celebration this August at Frankfurt Main.
Guenter Mosler

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