Michael Webber Is Cargo Airport Smart

(Miami Exclusive)—Michael Webber is one dedicated, smart guy.
     Dedicated because he recognized a major boondoggle underway in the pretty much defunct Aerotropolis scheme in St. Louis, and smart because almost every airport you ever heard of listens to him and seeks his services.
     But the Aerotropolis brouhaha in St. Louis really showed the man.
     Braving bias charges along with some other nasty accusations, Michael, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, held his head up, armed himself with the facts and became a one-man wrecking crew against the proposed $360 million, taxpayer funded idea to turn St. Louis Lambert Field into a logistics hub.
     For the better part of this past summer, Michael was on the radio, television and in print in the transportation news, pointing out in chapter and verse why the scheme would not fly.
     We caught up with Michael Webber at Air Cargo Americas last week now that the deal is dead.
     “Looking at major USA gateways,” Mr. Webber says, “and especially amongst JFK, O’Hare, Los Angeles and Miami, there is a certain retrenchment going on.
     “Looking at these major airports’ results for the past decade… the results have not been good for them in terms of total tonnage.
     “Generally speaking, there has been an erosion of air cargo business for many gateways across the industry in North America.
     “You have got winners and losers, although superficially they all look the same—everybody is down during the past ten years.
     “But in 2010, there was kind of an illusion of prosperity in air cargo where some airports saw double-digit growth year on year.”
     If you look at these same gateway figures going back a couple years the numbers reveal the illusion.
     “Today what you have going on is a greater concentration of business around fewer gateways; in North America, where there are hundreds of airports, there are less than a half dozen facilities that can justify any kind of cargo development.
     “At almost every USA airport 30 to 40 percent occupancy in the cargo area is not uncommon.
     “Think about it, go back ten years when companies like Airborne, BAX Global, DHL, Emery and FedEx and UPS dotted the airport landscapes everywhere.
     “Today airports are lucky, now that most have been acquired or gone out of business or the market (as DHL did) if their airport sees even one or two dedicated all-cargo carriers.
     “As far as that St. Louis Aerotropolis is concerned, earmarking more than $300 million in the scheme to off airport activities was probably the major mistake there.
     “As a Missourian from Kansas City, I wish nothing but good luck for St. Louis.
     “At this point, who knows—maybe the lesson of Aerotropolis gives the smart people of St. Louis time to rethink their transportation future and approach.
     “St. Louis can and should focus on developing even further what that city does really well as a rail and trucking hub of the Americas.”
     Michael Webber notes that Air Cargo Americas, held just two weeks ago, holds up as a smart money, must attend event every two years.
     “Miami is a client for Webber Consulting, but there is no where else in Latin America or USA where you can meet so many air cargo builders and other players in the same place at the same time.
     “For 20 years this show has been and continues to be an absolute essential.”
     As for the future of Miami now that longer-range, heavier cargo lift-capable aircraft continue to be delivered to the carriers, Michael says this:
     “I have been watching Miami for the past twenty odd years and am always reminded of the old saying:
     “‘Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded,’ as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and others have made their pitch and various attempts to take away the Latin American dominance that Miami enjoys.
     “I think at this point, years and millions of dollars later, every attempt to get what Miami has in air cargo may have whittled down this gateway’s preeminence to maybe 92 percent of all the business in and out of USA from Latin America.
     “I believe Miami is hanging in there just fine.”
Geoffrey/Flossie

(Frankfurt)— Call it "The Big Chill" two ways, just as it readies the unveiling of a new perishables center at Frankfurt International Airport on December 8, a plan that has been in the works for quite some time, an ill wind is blowing across the field at Frankfurt International, where the big long haul freighters once delivered goods and profits to Lufthansa when air cargo flights were a night animal.
     Now as the days are shorter and the nights longer, the Fraport ban has left cargo out in the cold.
     Today Lufthansa Cargo ramps up the drama with the rather startling declaration that it has decided to stop all expenditures and will no longer pursue improving the airlines’ ground infrastructure at its home base.
     According to LH Cargo, the immediate hold on funds is a reaction to the night flight curfew recently imposed by a local court.
     Before taking any further decisions concerning its roadmap, the airline has put future plans in limbo until Germany’s Federal Administrative Court comes up with their final ruling on the night flight issue. This is expected in March or April of next year with a hearing to commence March 13, announced the court.
     According to a master plan called “Program 2020,” LH Cargo intends to replace its existing Cargo Center (LCC) in Rhein-Main’s northern area with a new state-of-the-art facility.
     The existing warehouse dates back to the 80s and needs to be either fully face-lifted and equipped with modern technology or taken down and reconstructed completely anew. So far, LH Cargo has opted for the latter. The master plancalled for investing up to 500 million euros to erect a huge new facility enabling an annual throughput of well over two million tons of air freight.
      “This includes the newest available technology, IT equipment and the highest possible security standards,” confirmed LH Cargo’s head of communication, Nils Haupt, when asked by FlyingTypers.
     So far, the groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 2013.
     However, Haupt confirmed that all of this has now been halted.
     A second project directly affected by the provisional night flight ban is the construction of new headquarters in the neighborhood of the Cargo Center.
     First estimates say this building could cost up to 100 million euros.
     Also, the carrier’s fleet renovation program is hit by the curfew imposed by Hessian State’s court as well.
Haupt confirmed that the order for five Boeing B777 freighters placed earlier this year is not at stake.
     “But our additional commitment for five options on the B777F has now become questionable due to the night flight uncertainties.”
     Originally, the aircraft were intended to replace Lufthansa Cargo’s existing MD-11 freighter fleet. This was to be concluded by the end of this decade.
     All in all, the funds LH Cargo originally planned to invest in a new warehouse and headquarters at Rhein-Main, plus the fleet renovation program. well exceeded one billion euros.
Heiner Siegmund

What's Ahead For CHAMP TRAXON?
     The blockbuster announcement last week of CHAMP buying TRAXON looks like the inevitable outcome of consolidation in the air cargo messaging business.
     Worth mentioning is that it also marks the end of what erstwhile co-founders Air France and Lufthansa at one time perceived as a distinct marketing advantage.
     TRAXON, headquartered in Frankfurt, became an advanced version of GLS, the über-ambitious Global Logistics System AF and LH launched in 1991, which, at the time, caused tremors and weak knees in the international airline cargo community.
     With regional offices in Japan and Hong Kong, it evolved over 20 years, during a time when the cargo interests of its parent airlines and TRAXON diverged, but they doggedly hung on.
     For SITA, this acquisition will extend the life support for Type B messaging—in itself an anachronism in the 21st century—as a means to continue making most of its revenue, in addition to the CHAMP cargo systems, which according to rumors in the market are heavily discounted; perhaps another iteration of the old razor blade principle.
     Geographically, the SITA center in Atlanta is a good complement to a global presence and larger footprint in the age of eAWB, CDMP and messaging.
     Both companies offer Customs applications. Will this transaction do anything to generate even one more FWB from a forwarder?
     Will this benefit the respective customers? Those are the questions!
     Watch this space.
Ted Braun

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