Vol. 8 No. 103                                                                  WE COVER THE WORLD                                 Monday September 28, 2009

     On October 16, 1969, Frank Volavsek, General Manager of Seaboard World Airlines and his Sales Manager John F. Vuursteen, handed over the root of a Sequoia Gigantea to Mr. Douwes Dekker, Managing Director of the Schiphol Airport Authority to commemorate the first ever DC8-freighter flight between the American West Coast and Schiphol Airport.
     In 1994 both Frank and John got together for the 25th anniversary of the occasion.
(Editors Note: Jos van der Woensel has been around air cargo long enough to be able to landscape it, or certainly living in Hoofdorp, Netherlands, Jos is close enough to the action in Aalsmeer to think of pausing and looking at what is growing all around him. But this great guy has finally delivered a gem to read for anybody who loves air cargo and maybe even to hope that Jos has some more stories like this up his sleeve.)

     Talking about air cargo, its origin and fascinating history, you often stroll through memories to discover some unexpected sparkles in the ashes of the past.
     Real pearls of another era that still linger on in present times.
     For myself, I started in 1968 at Aeroground Services as a warehouse handler.
     My career continued in the early seventies at Pan Am Cargo as cargo representative, and later at Seaboard World Airlines and before the 70’s closed I returned to Pan Am Cargo in 1980.
     My time with Seaboard or SWA in Amsterdam I will never forget, nor my years with the Pan Am family.
     Because we were families in the air cargo industry, competitors or not, the memories and relationships have lingered over the years.
     We did what we felt right to do and kept communication amongst ourselves always open.
     You never knew when you needed each other; operationally, technically or in competitive marketing deals.
     Things changed amongst the major airlines in air cargo over the years, but that’s life’s evolution.
     It’s only a natural process.
     So coming from the times that the air cargo industry in Holland belonged to names like Henk Schiphorst, John Vuursteen, Cees Uittenbogaard, Wibo Aris, Frank Volavsek, Gerard van Eekhout, Adriaan and Walter Bierman, Ad Scheepbouwer, Peter Legro, Leo de Haas, Rene Smit and Ohta San, to name just a few offers me (and you dear reader) a brief encounter with another time and group of air cargo people.
     Once upon a time in the international air cargo field, as a youngster you met and looked up to people like Colin Witt, Ralph Wuergler, Jerry O’Driscoll, Bill Boesch, John Mahoney and in particular John V. Keenan and Al Levinson:
     “Give me a Genever, son, and 4 of these lovely salted raw-herrings,” was Al all the way.
     Those were fascinating, bigger than life air cargo times in Holland.
     So many names passed, so many names stayed.
     But at Schiphol Airport there was an enigma...
     In 1969, Frank Volavsek, General Manager of Seaboard World Airlines in the presence of John F. Vuursteen, his Sales Manager at that time, handed over the root of a Sequoia Gigantea to Mr. Douwes Dekker, Managing Director
of the Schiphol Airport Authority during an official ceremony at Schiphol.
     The event was held to commemorate the first ever DC8-freighter flight between the American West Coast and Schiphol Airport.
     The date was the October 16, 1969 to be precise.
     The initiative of Seaboard to plant what in two or three hundred years might become a giant California Redwood Tree was soon followed by other airlines.
     But only 3 trees survived over the years in the special ocean-climate that is the Low-Lands here.
     Over the four decades since it was planted despite storms, the salty atmosphere near the ocean and even drought, the SWA Sequoia has pushed ever skyward.
     Along the way, even though SWA and almost everybody else was long gone, ever watchful John F. Vuursteen who followed in the footsteps of Frank Volavsek in his position at Seaboard World Airlines, in the capacity of Director Benelux & Scandinavia, kept the SWA tradition high in seeking the well-being of what both considered “their tree”.
     In 1994, Frank and John arranged a personal celebration, commemorating the Sequoia’s 25th anniversary; a now 40ft or 12 meter beauty.
     John had became a very successful GSA at the airport he loved so much.
     Even after John retired 11 years ago he (now 76), remained entangled and ever watchful of the fate of “Their Sequoia”.
     Last year, when I met John again, we were discussing old ‘cargo times’ when he pointed out that the ‘The Ol’ Lady’ was still alive and kicking at the airport and now was a 20 meters or 66 foot tall beauty.
     I proposed to take some special pictures of the occasion.
     John was very glad to co-operate and tried hard to find Frank Volavsek’s contact address.
     Regretfully we found out that Frank died only 4 weeks before the planned photo-shoot at Schiphol.
     Frank is gone, but will be not forgotten.
     So here are some tokens of life within life. John F is still pushing the old lady as you can see.
     And for myself ?
     I am proud to have been part of a Sequoiavian World of Giants.
     And Food for Thought . . .
     The average lifespan of the Sequoia Gigantea is 3,500 years.
     Now, ask yourselves, who will survive ?
     “The Ol’ Lady” or . . . Schiphol Amsterdam Airport ?
     I hope both will.
(Jos van der Woensel, Hoofddorp – The Netherlands)

ANS Taps Ryan For JetBlue

     Once upon a time JetBlue founder David Neeleman shrugged off air cargo saying “twenty minute turn around of our LCC makes loading and unloading freight challenging”.
      Today Neeleman is long gone from JetBlue and apparently somebody has worked out the ramp challenge because Jen Tubbesing’s Airline Network Services (ANS) has been brought on as GSA for the carrier and John Ryan, the veteran airline cargo executive has been named director of sales for New York where JetBlue is based.
      Ryan is used to start up situations; in fact he has made building an airline’s cargo fortunes something of an art.
      He served as vice president-cargo marketing/Americas for Virgin Atlantic Airways from that carrier’s start up for 17 years and later served in a similar role for bmi before that carrier dumped its USA service.
      Jens Tubbesing, who most recently was President of Cargo Network Services (CNS) noted that for both British air carriers Ryan’s operations “brought him into a broad area of commercial air cargo discipline, encompassing customer promotions, budgets and tariffs, trucking rate negotiations and customer services.
      “Prior to his more than two decades on the cargo side of international airlines, Ryan established a firm foundation of shipper-service imperatives by virtue of employment at companies involved across the freight transportation industry—rail and truck operations, and air and surface freight forwarding.
      “John Ryan’s well-honed expertise serves as a valuable medium for both customer and airline,” Tubbesing stated.
      Headquartered in New York, ANS maintains branches in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
      John Ryan is based at 1979 Marcus Avenue, Lake Success, New York, near both JFK International and La Guardia Airports. Phone: (516) 622-2352.
www.ANSgsa,com.

 

Cool Chain Studies Continue

     More from Luxembourg-based Cool Chain Association as CCA offers a unique first person report of the step by step process of some trial runs between South Africa and UK aimed at getting a handle on what could eventually contribute to more efficient common industry practice.
     Together with the South African PPECB (Perishable Products Export Control Board), CCA initiated a series of trials, in order to get a clear view on what is the current situation in cool chain logistics.
     The PPECB is an independent service provider of quality certification and cold chain management services for producers and exporters of South African perishable food products.
     The PPECB controls all perishable exports from South Africa, valued by the PPECB at 9 billion Rands (US$1.2 billion) per annum.
     The objective is to implement the CCQI (Cool Chain Quality Indicator) in a later stage along all the steps of the cool chain and to measure the improvement, which can be achieved by this standardization.
     Here is a short overview of where we are now.
     The harmonization of the cool chain is the most important focus of interest of the CCA.
     To make any improvement possible, it is first of all crucial to get to know today’s practices in detail and to gain transparency about the handling of perishables and temperature sensitive products (PTSP).
     The PPECB has plenty of experience in handling of PTSP and works to implement standards in South Africa to prevent improper handling and resultant waste.
     Together, CCA and PPECB have concluded, that they can achieve more by expanding cooperation and therefore have vowed work together in the future.
     After a long period of planning and analysis of the market, further possible cooperation partners and putting into place the metering instruments being used, the first trial shipments moved on May 18, 2009 from South Africa to the United Kingdom.
     Pallets of soft citrus were shipped in a container equipped with tags to monitor the temperature and humidity during transport.
     The tags were placed at different positions in the pallets and the tagged pallets in different positions in the container.
     Once arrived at the handling facility in the UK, the tags were retrieved and shipped back to PPECB for evaluation. To inform all partners and to secure the correct process, a huge amount of communication and coordination was necessary which was organized mainly by the project manager Mduduzi Ngcobo from the PPECB.
     The second trial followed the 1st of June 2009 and a third trial is planned to start soon.
     For the moment, no final conclusions can be drawn and it was agreed upon to wait with any announcements until the data has been fully obtained and evaluated in detail.
     But what already becomes clear is that the monitoring of the whole cool supply chain itself can cause problems and requires a huge amount of communication, plus the support and attention of all parties involved.
     Once the trials become a habit, the efforts may be reduced and the process standardized.
     This alone shows that much remains to be done to harmonize the processes in the cool chain to avoid mistakes and unnecessary amounts of wasted energy.
     We are looking forward to seeing how much the CCQI can help us to achieve our common goals.
Geoffrey

 

 

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 so far this week. To be added to this 24/7/365 service at no-charge contact: acntwitter@aircargonews.com

September 27:   Coffee /Tea or Smoke? Ryanair allows smokers Smokeless Cigarettes that look and feel real & deliver nicotine without light up.

September 27:   China postal law starts Oct 1 says companies handling mail & express in cities or province must have $73K in registered capital, nationwide, $146K & international, $292K. Since most companies would flunk that criteria one year extension granted.

Our exclusive series “Women In Air Cargo” asks our readers to send some words and a picture about somebody that you know who is female and has made a difference in air cargo.
  This effort is not limited to just success or failure, it is meant to raise awareness about the legions of unique women who in most cases are unsung heroines in the air cargo industry.
  So write and we will share your story with our readers around the world.


Donna Mullins


Lisa Schoppa
 
September 27:   MNG Airlines of Gateway Turkey ordered two A330-200Fs- bringing total of the type on order from Airbus to four.

September 27:   Finnair opened Helsinki/Delhi with great circle flight time of 6 hours 30 minutes. The daily is the only offering from Northern Europe.

September 27:   Fraport IC Ictas Antalya Airport Terminal Investment and Management took ops of 2nd int'l pax term. at Antalya Airport (AYT) from Celebi.

September 23:   Purolator USA advanced tracking, seamless options for automotive aftermarket says its offering USA/Canada makes it a preferred shipper as new client portal offers significant enhancements to its tracking capability.
http://www.purolatorusa.com

September 23:   FedEx gets first B777F and will fly it (where else?) Asia/Pacific.

September 23:   Air China Cargo added route VIE/MXP-PVG/PEK thrice weekly. Airline says recovery underway but Christmas rush may be driving this train.

September 23:   China's aviation market grows 7.9 percent in the next 20 years while 25,000 new aircraft worth $3.1 trillion enter service says Airbus.