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   Vol. 14  No. 31
Monday April 13, 2015

   The year 2015 marks our 40th year in the world of air cargo news reporting—first as Air Cargo News and now as FlyingTypers.
   The stewardship of Air Cargo News FlyingTypers hasn't changed since 1975, and while that is an impressive feat, what is even more remarkable is that in 2015 we have been fortunate to present the writings of the nearly 102-year-old Richard Malkin, who remains the first air cargo reporter in history (circa 1942) and now serves as FlyingTypers' Senior Editor.
   Here Richard begins a remembrance of events in an exclusive year-long series, "Echoes 1975-2015."

Gasoline Shortage
Echoes 1975-2015

ACN March 1975 Alive In '75
   It was not the kind of a year to inspire cheerful souls. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had a stranglehold on the world oil market, and the airlines were put to a serious test.
   There was that economic phenomenon, stagflation, and America were in its grid. Some airlines were studying plans to reduce services: others were reviewing expansion plans.
Guenter Rohrmann   But all was not dark. At Air Express International, a new division was introduced—Fashionair—to serve the wearing apparel industry. Among a series of significant appointments was young Günter Rohrmann, vice president–Germany, who eventually went on to Lead AEI.
   And, yes, FlyingTypers’ daddy, Air Cargo News, burst onto the air cargo scene.
Richard Malkin

 

Flying Down To Sao Paulo
Eye Catching . . . A new look for American Airlines Cargo revealed last week at Intermodal South America in São Paulo created an environment for relaxed conversation, catching up, and even a bit of looking ahead as 2015 unfolds.

AA Intermodal Group
Ready for takeoff are (LtoR) GRU GM Cesar Marchesi; President Cargo Jim Butler; Regional Manager Operations Brazil Wagner Borelli; Account Executive Cargo Sales GRU Vanessa Silva; VP LATAM Art Torno; Director POA GSA Cargo José Alfredo T. Lago; SR Account Executive Cargo Sales GRU José Almeida; POA GSA Sales Manager Andrei Peteffi; and Account Executive Cargo Sales GRU Alex Brandão.

     Later Jim Butler told FlyingTypers, “Intermodal does a great job of bringing together key decision makers across various aspects of the supply chain in an energetic and engaging venue.
     “Given our vast LATAM network, Intermodal is a critical venue for us to reinforce our regional expertise to our customers and also allows us to discuss all of the positive things that we have going on (new flights, bigger network, increased capacity, cold chain investment, etc.) following our successful integration with US Airways.
     “Many opportunities here to leverage our network strengths, especially our ability to link LATAM to/from Asia.
     “Also customers are generally more optimistic about the Northbound market environment from Brazil than last year.
     “Shippers reacting very positively to our new service in VCP.
     “Noteworthing at this event was the growing focus on eAWB, in what has been a challenging market until recently for eFreight
Diether Bohn, Joe Reedy and Roger Samways      “Events like Intermodal provide huge opportunities for knowledge sharing and valuable exchanges of industry insight both from both a regional and global perspective.”
     The contact was constant inside AA Cargo São Paulo. Here “Gentleman” Joe Reedy, vice president Cargo Sales and Marketing (center), does some face time with Diether Bohn, Kuehne & Nagel SRVP South and Central America, and Roger Samways, director AA Cargo Global Accounts & Sales Strategies.
      “Networking was great, driving better understanding of our customers’ needs and expectations while offering our team opportunity to showcase all that is new and exciting from the ‘new’ AA Cargo,” Joe said.
     In the meantime, officials said Intermodal South America, held April 7-9, drew more than 48,000 transportation professionals from logistics, cargo transportation, and foreign trade industries.
Geoffrey/Sabiha

 

FedEx Ignites TNT     The proposed takeover of TNT Express by Fed Ex would not take place until 2018, but it comes as the big integrator rides a strong dollar and tries to do what UPS couldn’t.
     UPS had tried a similar deal in January 2013 but stumbled against anti-trust challenges.
     Recently FedEx has been on the acquisition trail again, having just completed integration of Pittsburgh-based GENCO, a third-party logistics (3PL) services provider specializing in product lifecycle and reverse logistics.
     The €4.4 billion ($4.8 billion) deal was announced last Tuesday.
     Troubled TNT has recently turned into an annual loser, booking its fourth consecutive year of losses in 2014. Its numbers were dragged down by Europe, where it earns the majority of revenues.
     But what FedEx wants is TNT’s 12 percent market share and huge ground network of 40 countries to help Big Purple make up some market share against its bigger U.S. rival.
     Currently, UPS has about 25 percent of the European market versus FedEx’s 10 percent.
Sabiha Arend

Chuckles For April 13, 2014

A Brief Encounter In Toluca
     A big aviation delegation from St. Louis, Missouri, met in Toluca, Mexico, last week and vowed to create a cargo pact between two airports.
     St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Lambert Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge met with Governor of the State of Mexico Eruviel Ávila to announce an official partnership towards developing air cargo “with St. Louis as a key hub for Mexico’s International Exports and Imports,” the official press release stated.
     The presser continues:
     “The partnership would involve Toluca International Airport (TIA), which serves the largest industrial region in the country of Mexico.
     “Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) is the 31st busiest airport in the U.S. as ranked by Airports Council International-North America.”
     Fairly impressive stuff . . . until we looked deeper.
     Substantial parts of the Mexican airport system have been privatized, resulting in an occasionally maddening diversity of statistics reporting quality. Unfortunately, Toluca doesn't report annual cargo tonnage to Airports Council International, nor are those numbers available on the airport's website.
     While we cannot determine how many tons the gateway moved in, say, 2013, one might reasonably assume that Toluca tonnage is less than any of Mexico's golden triangle of airports serving Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey (MTY).
     For example, Mexico's number three cargo airport, MTY, moved 46,000 tons of air cargo in 2013.
     Also, the claim that STL was “the #31 busiest airport” in the U.S. during 2014 should be considered carefully.
     One can only imagine that ranking applies to passengers, although there is an unusual emphasis (here) for an air cargo effort.
     In fact, by 2013, STL air cargo tonnage had nearly fallen out of the top 50 U.S. airports, positioning STL just below the airport in Omaha, Nebraska, and just ahead of Des Moines, Iowa.
     While ACI hadn’t released at press time its top 50 for 2014, STL’s own website reported the airport’s year-on-year tonnage for 2014 had fallen almost 9 percent from the previous year.
     It’s hard to imagine that STL moving up around 20 slots to number 31 in one year on the basis of a roughly 9 percent decrease, but it’s even more difficult to understand why a presser might wish to ignore that kind of cargo performance—even when the subject ostensibly is air cargo.
     If all this sounds a bit familiar, we just need look back a couple years ago at a thwarted attempt to divert millions of state taxpayer dollars from social programs to the pockets of a well-connected real estate developer and political cronies in pursuit of an Aerotropolis scheme for Lambert St. Louis International Airport.
     Among the lowlights of that effort was a memorandum of agreement signed with a rebranded company that somehow named itself Pan American Clipper Cargo, based in Brownsville, TX, just before that company's CEO, Robert Hedrick, was charged with child pornography.
     Fast-forward to today and this current attempt to build business for aviation in St. Louis seems to avoid some missteps of the previous effort.
     Hundreds of millions of public money have not been suggested, nor construction of tens of millions of square feet of warehouse “on spec.”
     In the chronically misguided Aerotropolis scheme, perhaps the only beam of wisdom was the team’s recognition that the integrators would be of no help to non-hub STL’s efforts.
     Yet this time the airport operator and politicos have chosen a second-tier Mexican airport anchored by FedEx.
     It is reasonable to assume FedEx is not about to fly north, bypassing its own hubs.
     As Toluca accounts (we can only guess) for less than 50,000 annual tons and FedEx is certainly a significant share of that tonnage, one reasonably wonders what potential upside sparks enthusiasm for this partnership?
Geoffrey

CAL Cargo Goes To School On Pharma

   "Completion of the program will strengthen CAL’s position as a leader amongst a frontline of carriers providing services for the Pharma sector," said Eyal Zagagi, CEO of CAL Group, as it began IATA's Center of Excellence for Independent Validators Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) certification program at Liege Airport.
   “By completing IATA's Center of Excellence for Independent Validators Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma), CAL leads the way as the first with both a certified cargo airline and certified ground handling operation,” Mr. Zagagi declared.
   The program, carried out in cooperation with Liege Airport, began this month, with full certification expected in July 2015.
   “We have almost 40 years' experience handling temperature controlled freight and 35 percent of our cargo business is temperature controlled.
   “The CEIV certification will improve the quality and integrity of our customer’s product and the industry as a whole,” Mr. Zagagi assures.
   CAL Cargo Airlines utilizes the services of ATC Aviation as GSA in the USA.
   “Strengthening CAL's North American presence is a significant part of our strategy,” Mr. Zagagi told FT.


 


Swisserific Summer     “Network enhancements allow Swiss WorldCargo to expand its consistent offer of high-value and care-intensive solutions and meet our customers’ increasing demand for premium air cargo services in these diversified markets,” Ashwin Bhat, head of Global Area Management said as SWISS debuted its Summer 2015 services.
     Right now Swiss WorldCargo is operating with additional capacity to North America and Asia, its two most important global markets, with additional opportunities to Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, and Beijing.
     Direct services to and from Zurich have been enhanced, adding airfreight capacity to and from Dresden, Gothenburg, Helsinki, Krakow, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Naples, Porto, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Riga, and Zagreb.

 

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Vol. 14 No. 28
Bali And The Jokowi Factor
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Chuckles For March 27, 2015
Fruit Logistica Is Top Banana

Vol. 14 No. 29
Air Cargo News For The Day
Keeping Up With FlyingTypers At PVG
HEL Never Looked Better
Chuckles For March 31, 2015
Lise-Marie Liked PVG
Amazon Drones On
Hapag Lloyd Hopes & Loss
The Hahn Smartens Up
Farewell To A Friend
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