Here is a glimpse at our picks for the interesting session tracks at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium (WCS), taking place this week in Berlin, Germany, from March 15-17.The air cargo industry is gathering its best and brightest for three days of face-to-face contact and around-the-clock meetings.
     WCS celebrates its 10th go-round this year.
     The mandated yearly gathering of IATA member airlines’ cargo chieftains, which has since the reign of IATA Head of Cargo Alex Popovich been marketed as “World Cargo Symposium,” has been an industry event and growing tradeshow profit center for the past decade.
     We are driven to talk about session tracks content because of the dense number of WCS meetings and sessions (some running concurrently).
     Our thought is that most cannot afford an army of people to attend them all, and so there is a very good chance you might miss something important.
     Here are some highlights:

Perishables Track

Wednesday March 16, 11:40 - 12:25
Shipper’s Expectations Meet the Air Cargo Value Proposition
     Perishables panelist Natasha Solano also serves as Global Business Development Manager, Perishables Logistics, Kuehne+Nagel.
     Natasha has been involved in the transportation and logistics of temperature sensitive goods by air and ocean for the past 18 years, since she began at Martinair Cargo.
     Natasha offered some interesting views on ocean versus air last year at the Caspian Summit in Baku.
     She said that over the last few years there had been a trend for perishable cargo to transfer over to ocean transport due to costs, new routes, and advanced technology, including refrigerated sea containers.
     “Temperatures of airborne perishables tend to vary because of the number of times shipments are handled, but seafreight is loaded into a container and then not usually handled again until delivery,” she said.
     She suggested air cargo should ensure staff is well versed as to the impact of temperature fluctuations upon perishable cargo.

ULD Track

Wednesday March 16, 9:15 - 10:30
Sharing Responsibility for Safe ULD Operations
     Urs Wiesendanger (right) is a panelist and he will certainly want to raise awareness of ULD Cares, the industry group with which he has been intertwined for quite some time. ULD Cares is holding its next Annual Conference in Los Angeles, California, from August 29 to September 1st, 2016.
     The best time we ever had in a ULD was sitting with some Alitalia Cargo workers picketing Cargo Building 6 at JFK. It started to rain, and after about 15 minutes the pitter-patter sound of the drops on the metal above us formed a soporific cloud over our senses.
     We are reminded, in the grip of any sort of insomnia, that the best remedy is to sit under a tin roof for a while.
     When it comes to ULDs, there a few outstanding people—Urs from Air Canada, and Bob Rogers from Nordisk (retired, left). Both are known for their knowledgeable presentations delivered at industry meetings such as the IATA WCS and the TIACA ACF. They have dedicated their professional lives to raising awareness about the ‘unknown entity ULD’ and have played a pivotal role in spreading the word.
     In 2016, ULD Cares is quite proud of a nine-minute video it created promoting ULDs in 2015.
     But for our money, a couple of minutes with Urs—with his lifelong love of cans—is enough for us.
     Give Urs 4 minutes, share in our experience.

Pharma Track

Wednesday March 16, 14:00-15:05
Pharmaceutical Management: Compliance, Cooperation, Solutions
     Nina Heinz (right) has been Global Head of Quality, LifeConEx DHL Global Forwarding for the past 10 years and is Chairman of this session.
     Prior to her career at LifeConEx, Nina worked with Lufthansa Cargo for several years as a global account manager for key pharmaceutical customers in Europe.

Sustainability Track

Wednesday March 16, 14:00-15:00
Sustaining Our Value In The Future
     Zoe Arden (right) is Director (London office) of SustainAbility, a company that states its mission is to “catalyze innovation and provide solutions to make business and markets sustainable.”
     Zoe says she specializes in “sustainability strategy, stakeholder engagement, and story telling.”
     “I am hugely excited to be working at SustainAbility. It is an organization with an impressive heritage, strong values, a talented team, and a big role to play in the future of conscientious responsible business.”

e-Commerce Track

Wednesday March 16, 16:15-17:00
Is Air Cargo Ready For e-Commerce?
     Is IATA kidding? Implementation of eAWB is uneven everywhere and decades behind the promise of anything being adopted industry wide.
     However Vivien Lau, Managing Director of HACIS has, for all intents and purposes, figured this thing out and is incredibly positive on the subject.
     The beauty part for greater air cargo is that Vivien is willing to share.
     “As a logistics provider serving the sector, it’s a matter of adopting a similar mindset and business mode with e-commerce, which attracts a host of buyers by providing good products with attractive prices,” Vivien Lau said.
     “I believe the link between air and road is the trend for e-commerce,” Ms. Lau added.
     “As the e-commerce market matures and becomes more price-driven, fulfillment is moving closer to the market to achieve economies of scale and cost reductions in logistics. Hong Kong has the global air services needed by this growing business, and Hacis’ opportunity is to provide reliable and highly cost-efficient onward connections to the new generation of e-commerce fulfillment centers in China.”

A Matter Of Dronamics

Thursday March 17, 09:00- 10:15
Drones for Tomorrow’s Air Cargo
    In 2015 when the Rangelov Brothers, Svilen and Konstantin (l-r), won first place recognition amongst 1,600 companies from 98 countries and a 100,000 Euro cash prize at the “Pioneers Festival in Vienna” for their start up company Dronamics, one writer wondered:
     “Are the Rangelov Brothers following in the footsteps of the Wright Brothers [in] revolutionizing unmanned aircraft systems?”
     Svilen Rangelov chairs the last day of World Cargo Symposium in a session that takes a deeper look at drones.
     For the record, Dronamics is a Sofia-based Bulgarian/Dutch company that confidently insists: “Cargo will never be the same.”
     “We’re creating a next-generation drone—an airplane, actually—that can dramatically optimize logistics networks,” Svilen said.
     “We are working to create a smaller building block for the logistics industry and enable on-demand solutions for shipping commercial and special cargo,” Svilen Rangelov (right) said.
     “Our unmanned cargo aircraft can carry up to 350-kg payloads across routes exceeding 2,000 km and will be the first drones that can carry such a payload for non-military use.
     “By creating a smaller building block, our drones will help reduce the inefficiencies of the air cargo industry.
     “We firmly believe that drones are the future of cargo, no question,” Svilen told FlyingTypers adding that 20 or even 10 years from now people would be looking back and seeing how natural it was for the industry to evolve in this particular direction.
     “But to get there, we need two unconditional prerequisites—safety and cost.
     “If it’s not safe, we won't be allowed to—and we shouldn’t—use this technology.
     “And if it's not economically feasible, it won’t work for a competitive industry like air cargo.
     “The only way to solve this challenge, ” Svilen says, “is through technology, but engineering a solution to both these problems simultaneously is extremely hard—safety and cost are two forces that too often act in opposite directions.
     “What makes us at Dronamics confident in solving this challenge is the fact that some of the brightest minds in aerospace engineering are working with us on this exciting problem, and have brought us further ahead than anyone in our journey to making safe and economical drone cargo a reality.”
     Svilen is also “Team Member” of the “Sofia Pub Crawl,” a group that finds interesting late-night Sofia spots, as opposed to the loud tourist traps.
     No word yet if Svilen will be out and about in Berlin—which has become a great pub town for young people—but don’t bet against it.
     In any case, this one sounds like fun.
Geoffrey

     As the chief cargo officer at Delta Airlines Cargo, Vice President Global Sales and Marketing Ray Curtis is many things to a host of people around the world.
     During more than 30 years in the air cargo business, Ray has continuously moved up the ladder, equipped with the experience of belonging to a transportation family—his mom, Joan, was a well-known early pioneer in cargo, working for a forwarder at JFK International Airport in New York.
     Today at the helm of one of the great air cargo resources on the planet, Ray-Ray—as we like to call him—is still the same approachable, engaging dreamer and doer of the air cargo form, despite the weight of that great responsibility.
     Air cargo is never “old hat” to Ray Curtis.
     Ray lives in an air cargo industry that continues to evolve and inspire him at every turn.

Challenges of 2016
        
     “In looking at 2016, we know that the first quarter has been a challenge with, for example, year-over-year comparisons due to the West Coast Port issue of last year. 
     “We also continue to see excess capacity in the industry that continues to place pressure on many aspects of the business.
     “Q2 is just around the corner and moving forward there are opportunities to capitalize on to drive gains. ‎
     “The main factors for the changes we all see in air cargo are from a maturing of advanced technologies adding greater efficiencies and taking out costs for transportation,” said Ray Curtis.
     “Add to that modal shifts and geography, and we see changes in Asia and on the transatlantic with more time-viable offerings.
     “The size of goods shipped is changing; the advent of near shoring with some plants relocating from Asia to Mexico continues the movement of products into the U.S. market in a different way.
     “Yet, despite all the change, still today an estimated 70-75 percent of global air cargo fits on non-freighter aircraft.”

Perishables As A Foundation Business

     “Perishable products are a key component of our business and we will continue to make investments to support the efficient and reliable transportation for these products in line with the needs of our customers.
     “In fact, we have increased the staffing of our product team, allowing us to more keenly focus on needs and growing our business.
     “At Delta Cargo, worldwide cooler facilities are set up to support the temperature control environments required to store perishables in transit and on arrival.
     “We invested and opened a state-of-the-art, 3,000-square-foot cooler in our Detroit facility, which features two drive-through doors with pallet-capable storage that increases capacity for shipments of pharmaceuticals, flowers, and seafood as well as fruits and vegetables in ideal climate conditions.
     “Delta and Miami International Airport celebrated 70 years of continual service by our airline into Miami last December 2015. Delta Cargo today operates a 36,000-square-foot, co-location facility in Miami with Virgin Atlantic, one of our joint venture partners.
     “DL at MIA features a 7,200-square-foot cooler space with temperature tracking capabilities and monitoring systems allowing for ideal temperature control.
     “System-wide, Delta Cargo continues to make investments to support this key component of our business.”

A Matter Of Attention

     The industry needs to continue to be innovative ‎and collaborative to enhance the value proposition of air cargo.
     “As a team we continue laser-like focus on delivering a consistent and reliable value proposition, keeping relevant in every aspect of the global air cargo business.
     “Delta Airlines invests in technology and aligns our investments with what our customers need.
     “Efficiency in moving data and accuracy are vitally important.
     “Above all, every member of our team understands that we are here with only one purpose—to never forget the importance of our customers, business partners, and alliance partners,” Ray Curtis said.

What If You Had Superpowers?

“Well, I guess the first thing would be to convert all surface cargo to air freight,” said Ray Ray.
     He added:
     “As part of Delta’s culture of giving back, having safety and nourishment for all children would be top of my mind.”
     Somehow, we get the feeling Ray-Ray’s heart and soul contribute greatly to how things are done, functioning as a prime driver of raising the form at Delta Cargo.

WCS 2016 In Berlin

     “Participating in key industry events such as WCS here in Berlin is paramount not only to the business of Delta, but also the industry. “It’s about being collaborative.
     “Air cargo needs to continue to strengthen and affirm the value proposition for air freight.
     “As part of that, there should be a quality platform that all can embrace.
     “When you look at the DOT monthly published metrics regarding airline industry, it is the same measurement regardless of carrier.
     “Air cargo faces challenges in that not all companies have the same KPI’s, so it’s not as easy when we are fragmented.”

Looking At Life

     “I would say the surprise of the world today is the speed of business and also life in general.
     “You can reflect and see how business has evolved, and how technology brings efficiency.
     “The advent of the Internet … and speed of business continue to accelerate everything, so while you intellectually realize that it will continue to advance, for me the speed of advancements on so many fronts never ceases to amaze. I even at times wonder: ‘How do you insure that you are not in the wait for me mode?’”
Geoffrey

     In a deal that will see Amazon acquire up to 19.9 percent percent of Air Transport Services Group, Inc., (ATSG), Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc.—an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc., (as expected)—has agreed to have ASTG operate an air cargo network via twenty B767s to serve Amazon customers in the United States.
     There is some immediate speculation that Amazon will now figure out a way to handle the last mile in its delivery scheme and beyond that to spread its reach globally.
     “There is no reason to believe that at some point they (Amazon) might not market their distribution services, top to bottom, to others,” a source told FlyingTypers.
     For their part, ATSG is thrilled.
     “We are excited to serve Amazon customers by providing additional air cargo capacity and logistics support to ensure great shipping speeds for customers,”said Joe Hete, President and CEO of ATSG.
     The deal includes leasing of twenty Boeing 767 freighter aircraft to Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc., by ATSG’s Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM), the operation of the aircraft by ATSG’s airlines, ABX Air and Air Transport International, and gateway and logistics services provided by ATSG’s LGSTX Services.
     The duration of the twenty leases is five to seven years; the agreement covering operation of the aircraft is five years.
Geoffrey

 
    “The airport at Tempelhof unites the characteristics of an inland sea with the yearning for faraway places,”a delighted observer once said.
     Attendees of World Cargo Symposium might want to get out of the hotel this week and take a walk over to one of the best public parks in the world, where a veritable green paradise has been crafted out of what was once the gateway of The Berlin Airlift, where modern air cargo was born in 1948.
     Today you can actually stroll down the main runway where cargo aircraft landed around the clock between 1948-49. Loaded with coal and food, these life-saving planes delivered the supplies that spared Berlin during the Soviet blockade of the city.

     THF, as the airport was known, still beckons Berliners and visitors alike to enjoy the old airfield’s expansive public space and sweeping vistas in the center of the German capital city.
     Tempelhof was closed in 2008 and turned over to the public in May 2010.
     Today, barbecues smoke and bicycles careen with families, joggers, and children at play where aircraft used to swoop in and out.
     “No other city would treat itself to such a crown jewel of open space,” said Ingo Gräning of Tempelhof Projekt, the state company running the site.
     “There’s 300 hectares here. The principality of Monaco has 200,” he smiled.

Far From Abandoned

     Despite closure as an airfield after THF was made redundant by the building of BER, space in Tempelhof’s huge sweeping hangar remains occupied by City of Berlin Police (the Polizei have been here since 1951) and the radar tower is still in use by the German Army to monitor flight traffic.
     Architect Norman Foster called Tempelhof “the mother of all airports”.
     Today in addition to all else happening there “Mom” serves as Germany’s largest refugee center for people from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
     The interior of the old airport terminal is the scene for several businesses including a kindergarten, a dancing school, and the charming “La Vie En Rose,”a live vaudeville theater currently featuring a daily revue titled “Fly And Dream.”
     “La Vie” has been performing at THF for nearly 40 years.

Tempelhof Freedom

     In 2011 city planners advanced a scheme by former Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit to build apartments on airport land. The plan was shot down by a referendum that led to a citywide vote where more than 64 percent cast their ballots telling politicians and investors to keep their hands off Tempelhof.
     The Tempelhof Conservation Act now protects open spaces at the airfield from any change, including removing the old airport signage and runway markings that are looked upon today with reverence by people who use the park. Today Tempelhof has been branded Tempelhofer Freiheit, or Tempelhof Freedom.

Gardens on Pallets
      
     The Stadtteilgarten Schillerkiez community gardens at Tempelhof are open to the public and provide a free space to meet people, read, partake in any number of events, and even grow vegetables.
     Blooming under the Tempelhofer Freiheit umbrella, this initiative is for people to experience ‘the countryside without ever having to leave the city.’
     The structures within the improvised urban oasis are built from an array of found and recycled materials, with pallets transformed into benches and shopping carts converted into compost bins. Benches and raised beds organize the vast space into small allotments where members of the gardens can grow vegetables or simply sit back and relax.
     Digging in Tempelhof’s grounds is completely forbidden, as no one knows what sits beneath the soil—a tip of the hat to THF’s military past.
     With the content of the soil uncertain, members of the gardens grow their food inside the raised, movable beds.

Looking Ahead

     Because the people of Berlin took matters into their own hands, Tempelhof—at least in the near term—will remain largely as it is.
     Further development is underway with direct community involvement.
     And while change is underway at the terminal building for adaptive reuse into studios and recording facilities and offices for start-ups, the process is closely monitored to respect THF’s  protected status.
     Today, Berliners have taken Tempelhof into their hearts and souls.

Heart Of The City

     It only takes 20 minutes to ride on a bike from the airport to the Brandenburg Gate and the monumental Reichstag, which houses the German Parliament.
     “From the roof of the airport's enormous, semi-circular complex, 1,230 meters (4,035 feet) from one end to the other, looking out at Berlin's sea of buildings it is like THF were set in the middle of a vast prairie; the flatlands that postwar West Germany's first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, famously dubbed ‘the beginnings of the Russian steppes,’” wrote Der Spiegel.
     Whatever Tempelhof Airport may have lost when the airplanes departed, it has gained back with dividends as the emotional heart of one of the great emerging capital cities of the world.
Geoffrey

Vol. 15 No. 20
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Brave Bessie Blazes A Trail
Chuckles for March 9, 2016
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