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    Vol. 12 No. 97                         THE AIR CARGO NEWS THOUGHT LEADER                     Tuesday November 12, 2013


air cargo news for November 12, 2013


Click Here To Hear A Teletype Machine

     This issue of FlyingTypers salutes The Associated Press.
     Here is how the news was handled during the early days of the newspaper business, when we first began reporting on air cargo.
     That era is gone, but not forgotten.
     "Hot Off The Wire " is now "Delivered In Cyberspace.”
     But for anyone who ever heard the rhythmic cadence of a teletypewriter delivering news of Lindbergh “Conquering The Atlantic,” or how the “Airlift Saved Berlin,” or read of Neil Armstrong’s “First steps On The Moon,” here once again is the Newsroom “Hot Off The Wire.

     (EXCLUSIVE) RELIABLE SOURCES TELL FLYINGTYPERS THAT THE DUBAI-BASED POWERHOUSE GROUND HANDLING COMPANY DNATA IS PURCHASING 49 PERCENT OF FRAPORT CARGO SERVICES GMBH (FCS) FOR AN UNDISCLOSED SUM.
     EXPECT A PRESS RELEASE TO APPEAR ON TUESDAY OR EARLY WEDNESDAY OF THIS WEEK.
     DNATA IS ONE OF THE LARGEST SUPPLIERS OF COMBINED AIR SERVICES IN THE WORLD, OFFERING AIRCRAFT GROUND HANDLING, CARGO, TRAVEL, AND FLIGHT CATERING SERVICES ACROSS FIVE CONTINENTS.
     WITH A GLOBAL FOOTPRINT OF 37 COUNTRIES, DNATA EMPLOYS OVER 20,000 EMPLOYEES FOR ITS OPERATIONS WORLDWIDE.
     FRAPORT CARGO SERVICES GMBH IS THE BIGGEST INDEPENDENT CARGO HANDLER AT FRANKFURT AIRPORT, HANDLING OVER 500,000 METRIC TONS OF AIR CARGO PER YEAR FOR MORE THAN 40 AIRLINES.
     FCS OPERATES A 47,000 M_ STATE-OF-THE-ART CARGO TERMINAL WITH AN ADDITIONAL WAREHOUSE OF 5,000 M_ AT THE CARGOCITY SOUTH COMPLEX AT FRA.

     CALL IT A WAR CASUALTY (OR LACK OF ONE), BUT ACCORDING TO REPORTS, EVERGREEN INTERNATIONAL WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS AT THE END OF THIS MONTH, GROUNDING THE FLEET AND LAYING OFF 131 WORKERS.
     MONIQUE GREGORY, EVERGREEN’S HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGER, WAS QUOTED IN THE OREGONIAN STATING IN A MEMO TO ALL THE AIRLINE’S EMPLOYEES THAT THE PRIVATELY HELD COMPANY WOULD END OPERATIONS ON NOV. 30.
     “THE LOSS OF OUR COMPANY IS VERY UNFORTUNATE,” GREGORY WROTE.
     “HOWEVER, WE APPRECIATE YOUR CONTINUED EXCELLENT SERVICE DURING THIS ENDING PHASE.”
     THE BIG QUESTION IN MCMINNVILLE, OREGON, A TOWN OF 33,000 ABOUT 30 MILES SOUTHWEST OF PORTLAND, IS WHETHER EVERGREEN’S NONPROFIT OPERATIONS—MAJOR TOURIST DRAWS CONCEIVED BY FOUNDER DELFORD SMITH—WILL SURVIVE. THE EVERGREEN WINGS & WAVES WATERPARK AND THE EVERGREEN AVIATION & SPACE MUSEUM OPENED A HALF DOZEN YEARS AGO, WITH HOWARD HUGHES SPRUCE GOOSE AS THE MAIN ATTRACTION.
     THE 70,000-SQUARE-FOOT WATER PARK HAS BECOME A LOCAL LANDMARK, WITH A GIANT EVERGREEN B747-100 AIRCRAFT PERCHED ON THE ROOF.
     IN A RELATED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, LAST MONTH ASIANA CARGO DITCHED ITS FOUR-TIMES-WEEKLY CARGO SERVICE IT HAD OPERATED FOR TWO YEARS BETWEEN PORTLAND AND INCHON, SOUTH KOREA. THE AIRLINE IS NOW TRUCKING TO SEATTLE.

     A LUFTHANSA AIRBUS A340-600 WIDE-BODY JET FLEW FROM FRANKFURT TO MANILA, PHILIPPINES, ON SUNDAY WITH 25 TONS OF EMERGENCY AID ON BOARD, INCLUDING 5,400 FLEECE BLANKETS, 3,000 PLASTIC TARPAULINS AND TENTS, AS WELL AS URGENTLY NEEDED MEDICAL SUPPLIES, DELIVERING FIRST AID TO THE AREA OF THE PHILIPPINES DEVASTATED BY SUPER TYPHOON HAIYAN.
     “EVERY HOUR COUNTS IN THE PROVISION OF AID, AND THE LOGISTICS ARE PARAMOUNT,” SAID LUFTHANSA CARGO CHAIRMAN KARL ULRICH GARNADT.


     Going For Brokers . . . An excellent luncheon by UPS and first-rate presentation by GeoffreyPowell, Vice President of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association. Mr.Powell addressed issues of unique common interest, pointing to the continued vital role of Customs Brokers today—97 percent of shipments are cleared by licensed Customs Brokers.

     Meet Mikko Turtiainen, VP Global sales & Marketing for Finnair, with Tony LaRusso (L), Sales Director The Americas, in Miami at Air Cargo Americas. They are extolling the virtues of the “little airline that could—and does,” which delivers many interesting combinations from HEL to Hanoi and back, as well as via the mid-European gateway truck route at BRU connecting to Helsinki Vantaa.
     “We want shippers to know that from the east coast of the USA our services and connections via Helsinki to all of Scandinavia and Russia remain unbeatable,” Mikko said.

     Step Change . . . “Microsoft Cloud will change air cargo forever,” says Milind Tavshikar, CEO for Smart Kargo, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company out to set on its ear what the industry knows and thinks about the ability and impact of IT. Milind (left) is pictured with Jay Shelat (center), the old cargo pro for marketing and sales, and Vladimir Camacho, VP Cargo Solutions, making the rounds to drum up business at Air Cargo Americas this week.
     “Today, when everyone is looking to save money and for an edge, what we have done is change the playing field by improving every aspect of IT’s ability to deliver critical information by utilizing Microsoft Cloud technology.
     “Here we have an enterprise neutral network for the air cargo industry, that includes airlines, ground handlers, freight forwarders and ULD.
     “SmartKargo, which was built on IATA standards, is the IT in use right now at Jet Airways Cargo and elsewhere. It is the future, with integrated mobility applications that instantly deliver real time information, instantly indicating, among other things, how it is doing in terms of all metrics, including load factors and profitability.”
     Live short video demonstration at http://smartkargo.com

     Lad & Lasses Lifting Atlas . . . Once upon a time, it was Polar, but now the biggest volume all-cargo carrier ex Miami to Latin America is Atlas Air Cargo. From Miami, Atlas Cargo has scheduled service to several destinations, including Brazil, Argentina, Lima, and Quito.
     Here at ACA, the team takes a moment for the camerawoman to celebrate a great air cargo trade show, and also to thank its growing list of customers to leading destinations in South America.
     Pictured (Lto R) are: Patricio Sanchez Rojas, Country Manager, Chile; Janet Flores, Account Executive; Maria Chavez, Director of Sales, SE US & Latin America and Rogier Fetter, Sr. Director Sales and Marketing, South American region.

      Ralf Auslaender of leisure Cargo being interviewed at Air Cargo Americas by Geoffrey Arend.  
 
     Ask Ralph Rainer Auslaender, top executive at Leisure Cargo, which destinations are working for the high-flying cargo arm of 15 airlines and he produces a list:
     “All of the above,” Ralph smiles.
     It is no secret that Air Berlin, with its new partner Etihad, is quickly evolving into a major international airline power from Germany to New York, and also on to several destinations in Latin America.
     Another growing presence in the Leisure Cargo stable is Air Europa, which is expanding in leaps and bounds all over central and South America.
     “Of course, rates are a challenge, along with security edicts and business in general, but we expect to deliver as forecast and that means an upward performance in 2013 versus 2012.
     “We are looking ahead to a better year in 2014,” Herr Auslaender assured.

     Feelin’ Frisky . . . Despite changes and not a small amount of controversy, it’s good to report that the TIACA presence at Air Cargo Americas in Miami was all hands on deck, with several staff members from the organization’s nearby offices talking up TIACA’s next Air Cargo Forum, which lands at Incheon, Korea just less than one year away, in October 2014.
     Pictured here are (L to R)—Melissa Kesden, Jennifer Paris, Tiffany Cordeschi and Rachael Negron.
     TIACA’s new Secretary General Doug Britton was out greeting new friends and will be featured here in FlyingTypers.

     Oliver Twist . . . Although this was his first time at Air Cargo Americas, Oliver Evans, Chief Cargo Officer at Swiss World Cargo, managed to chair a critical meeting of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA, where he serves as Chairman), participate in a walk around with some of the most important Swiss Cargo service partners, and also attend several top level meetings—all in just four short days last week!
    Here, Oliver greets Fernando Souza (left) and Eduardo Drot de Gourville (right),of CrossRacer, the 21-year-old GSSA based in Buenos Aires. Fernando flew in from Brazil and Eduardo from Argentina to attend Air Cargo Americas. Cross Racer has been a Swiss service partner in Latin America dating all the way back to the old Swissair days.
     “It’s great to meet and catch up and also greet new friends here in Miami,” Oliver declared.
     Swiss goes double daily from Miami and twice weekly from Tampa.

     Zimmer At The Gates . . . A first time whirlwind at Air Cargo Americas, ATC CEO Ingo Zimmer took in the sights and sound and said:
     “I’ll Be Back, maybe even with a stand in two years.”
Ingo is celebrating a quarter century (25 years) at ATC, where he began as entry clerk, chief cook, and bottle washer. Back then ATC was still a new business in Germany; it was Ingo who helped foster it into a global super power.
     “The Americas is where we want to be and where we continue to make our mark.
     “Our Platinum acquisition is performing well and next year (2014) will be branded ATC.”
     Expansion into Latin America also looks to be in the cards, although when speaking of the Americas, Ingo indicates that “Canada [is] next.”
     “In Europe, we are now in Berlin as one of the first tenants of the new BBI, in Africa we are building new connections with Ethiopian, and we are expanding in India with our partners.
     “I’d like to have stayed over in Miami Beach, in fact I hosted a spectacular and very fancy client dinner there.”
     “The Beach is happening, and would be a great place for fun and my morning run.
     “But the action in the ‘Trade Mart’ made the Air Cargo Americas venue and hotel the right place to be.
     “The morning run around the airport was as natural as the solid deals we were able to close at the show,” Ingo Zimmer said.

     Just Joe . . . Joe Reedy, VP Sales & Marketing American Airlines Cargo, has weathered the changes 2013 brought and may yet bring, underscoring the “team approach” of the big carrier’s cargo offering as he moved from meeting to meeting at Air Cargo Americas.
     Is ACA a good show?
     Joe says:
     “How hard was it to find a parking spot?
     “And the cheek-to-jowl packed lot outside bears witness.
     “A whole lot of interest in Latin America is great for us,” he says.
     “Full halls here and our new flights and capacity to Latin America feel good,” Joe said.
     “We’ve seen countries like Brazil performing especially well, and that is expected to continue with events such as the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympics coming to town—they will deliver more visibility.
     “We’ve also seen political stability and significant GDP growth in other countries such as Peru, Colombia, and Chile, resulting in increased consumer confidence and spending and more imports and exports—which is also great for American.
     “Beginning November 4, we added southbound widebody cargo service from Miami (MIA) to Curitiba (CWB), and Porto Alegre (POA), as well as service between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Bogota (BOG).”
     How does Joe manage change, we wonder?
     “You need a really good team. I think the keys are to stay flexible, build a strong team, and consistently measure and evaluate processes and outcomes.
     “Whether on the phone or face to face getting people together, the best ideas come directly from our customers and employees,” Joe Reedy said.
     “At the end of the day, we’ve always been and continue to be a customer-focused company, and attending shows like Air Cargo Americas brings us face-to-face with our customers and gives us an inside view of what is going on in the industry. So often, we’ve found some of our best ideas come from these shows.”
     The latest numbers from American Airlines, Inc., show volumes were up nearly 19 percent versus October 2012.
     “The past few months have been very gratifying for us, and now [we’ve had] six consecutive months of year-over-year traffic growth—this month in the double digits,” said Kenji Hashimoto, president of American Airlines Cargo. “Our busiest October in recent years, American set records for its operational performance. We are very pleased with these strong results.”


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     Air cargo is losing pharmaceutical cargoes to ocean shipping lines because of the failure to invest sufficiently in end-to-end cool chain infrastructure and offer quality products, as heard by delegates attending Air Cargo & Logistics Asia in Singapore recently.
     However, if the air cargo industry can meet high standards demanded by the sector, then its fast growth, especially in Asia, could significantly boost demand and help replace the loss of volume from other sectors and geographies.
     A presentation from Singapore’s Changi Airport Group outlined the huge potential of the pharmaceutical industry. It cited figures from Seabury, which showed that over 2007-2012 pharma was the fastest growing air cargo sector by tonnage after perishables and intermediate materials. Of more importance, IATA forecasts that over the next five years pharmaceuticals moved as air freight will grow 12 percent, which CAG claimed would make it a viable means of diversified cargo sourcing for the air freight sector.
     Sebastiaan Scholte, CEO of Jan De Rijk Logistics and chairman of the Cool Chain Association, said pharma was a more attractive cargo for many forwarders and airlines than perishables because its volumes remained stable for much of the year, determined more by demographics rather than seasons or cycles.
     But he warned that even though there has been growth in the volume of pharma flown, air cargo had been on the wrong end of a huge modal shift in the sector, with only 11 percent of all pharma shipments now uplifted, compared to 17 percent in 2000. He said this transfer was not just down to cost but also the failure of the air cargo industry to provide quality supply chain solutions.
     “Airports are the weakest link in the supply chain,” he said. “There are so many players—agents, handling, airline, warehousing, forwarder, customs— all interacting but not contractually linked,” he said.      “Sea is growing faster than air [for pharmaceuticals] and this will continue until we improve the supply chain.”
     The CAG presentation reported that pharmaceutical companies budget 1.5 percent of sales revenue as scrap attributed to logistics failures, and the U.S. Vaccines for Children Program states an annual loss of US$20 million due to bad refrigeration, expiration, and shipping damages.
     Part of this failure is down to a lack of air cargo equipment geared to end-to-end temperature management of pharma goods. Kevin Chin, general manager of Coolport SATS Airport Services, which offers cold chain services at Singapore’s Changi Airport, said ocean freight currently enjoyed a higher rate of uptake of refrigerated equipment than air.
     “It’s all a matter of cost,” he said. “There has been more adoption of pharmaceutical goods compared to food and flower perishables, but it’s still slower than we see in ocean with the use of reefer containers.”
     Scholte said that for an industry with so many regulations, air freight lacked clear handling rules and penalties for pharmaceutical products, some of which were potentially dangerous if managed incorrectly. He called on IATA to develop rules to help manage the safe and speedy shipment of pharma cargoes.
     Conference organizer Nol van Fenema said pharmaceutical cargoes should not be treated the same as perishables on the simple basis that “people can die if they don’t get their cargo.”
     He also called for IATA to standardize the rules on how pharma goods are handled and said that once the rules were in place there should be consequences for those that failed to follow them.
SkyKing

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