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   Vol. 17 No. 3
Monday January 22, 2018
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Winners All! Pictured at the 29th BIFA Awards in London last week are from left : Clive Smith, Superior Freight Services; Roddy Warriner, Moto Freight; Louis Perrin, Hemisphere Freight; Colin Joyce, Stansted Training; Leevi Roots, Host Extraordinaire; Herman Bosman; Morgan Cargo; Rachel Bussy, Dachser; Laurence Burford, Metro Shipping; Paul McKeown, TR Logistics Group; Stuart Allen, B&H Worldwide and Andy Hughes, Pharmafreight.

     Nothing like a big party and some awards to get the New Year started off right!
     That is exactly what happened on Thursday, January 18, as freight forwarders honored their own at The British International Freight Association’s (BIFA) Annual Freight Service Awards Competition Party at The Brewery in London.
     BIFA President Sir Peter Bottomley MP welcomed guests to the 29th BIFA Freight Service Awards luncheon ceremony and, along with entertainer & restauranteur Levi Roots, who also “serenaded the lads” at the event, presented all the finalists with their certificates.


Thanks For A Lifetime

     A well deserved “Lifetime Achievement Award” sponsored by the TT Club was given to iconic forwarding executive Colin Joyce, who 30 years ago created Stansted Training Services that specializes in advancing the forwarding arts in exports, imports, and customs procedures.
     “For over 30 years, Colin has delivered courses on behalf of BIFA and retires this year having trained hundreds of individuals and leaving a huge legacy of knowledge,” Robert (Peachy) Keen, BIFA Director General said.
     “I congratulate every company and individual who took the time and effort to enter our Freight Service Awards competition.
     “The range of finalists and winners dispels the myth that “the awards are just for the big companies”, with seven of the category winners being BIFA members with fewer than 100 employees.
     “I strongly believe that the act of entering itself allows members to improve their business systems and learn a great deal about themselves,” Mr. Keen concluded.
Geoffrey



This past Monday, workers began hanging up red lanterns to celebrate the upcoming Spring Festival or the Chinese New Year on a street in Xi'an city, northwest China's Shaanxi province.
While kickoff Friday February 16 for “Year of the Dog” is less than a month away, the high-flying air cargo business worldwide is soaring.

Air cargo rates have dropped dramatically in recent weeks, but capacity remains scarce and prices are expected to gain ground again ahead of factory shutdowns for the Chinese New Year holiday (Year Of The Dog), which begins February 16.


No Dog Days For Air Cargo

     The TAC Index covering Hong Kong to North America fell from a year high of USD$5.57 per kg on December 4 to $3.73 on January 1.
     Rates from Hong to Europe followed a similar pattern, reaching a two-year high of $3.28 per kg on December 4, before tumbling to $2.85 on January 1. (Source: TAC Index - www.tacindex.com).


Backlogs Abounding

     Yet, despite the declines around the holiday shutdowns which enabled carriers to clear backlogs, most indicators suggest prices will rebound in the weeks ahead as retailers restock ahead of CNY, not least because capacity remains hard fought over, and urgent shipments are pricing far higher than index averages.
     Web-quotation platform Freightos said U.S. airlines canceled 7-10 scheduled flights on China to the U.S. routes between December 22-30, while Russia’s AirBridgeCargo and China Southern Airlines also posted flight schedule cancellations on the China-U.S. route. But Freightos said cargo space on the route remained tight, and cancellations were pushing rates back up.
     In Europe, the intermittent bad weather took its toll on operations over the holiday period, increasing backlogs and contributing to higher air freight rates, added Freightos.


Staying Wet In Fashion

     One chartering source told FlyingTypers the wet lease market was currently tight due to multiple factors.
     “All the guys who currently have the wet leases are renewing their contracts,” the source explained.
     “But there is an additional squeeze on the market not only through e-commerce but because the previous American administration didn’t fund the U.S. Air Force properly.
     “A lot of those grey tails are not available to lift the military work and also there is a crewing issue – they haven’t been training enough crews so there’s not enough crew to fly the planes.
     “So with Trump sabre-rattling, and moving a lot of equipment around, the U.S. military is sucking up a lot of capacity.
     “It is interesting times, a lot of people are trying to wet-lease planes and there really isn’t a lot available. Those that are, are very costly - and that’s global.”


Forwarders Upbeat

     A forwarding source in Asia said the outlook for demand and rates for 2018 was positive. He also confirmed the current lack of wet lease capacity. “It is a bit early to say how the build-up to CNY is panning out,” he added. “Generally speaking, most market participants are quite bullish about CNY and the whole of 2018. It is very difficult now to secure wet lease freighters on the market: there’s no capacity left, or at least very limited availability.
     “Factories should be in full production by week three of January so that will be a good indication for the rest of the lead up to CNY.”


By The Numbers


     The latest volume figures underscore the pricing patterns seen in the run-up to the holiday season, with November proving another belter for the air freight sector. WorldACD said that the record global volume figure recorded in October was quickly relegated to the history books in November.
     “November beat October by 1.3%,” said the analyst’s latest report. “For the third month in a row, the year-on-year yield increase in USD had to be written in double figures, this time the highest since the recovery after the 2009-crisis: +17.3% year-on-year.”
     With volumes growing up 7.8% in November compared to a year earlier, airline revenues in USD for the month were more than 26% higher than in November 2016. “The most striking feature of the November figures was the yield increase from Europe,” said WorldACD. “Measured in EUR, yields jumped by almost 19% year-on-year to all destinations worldwide.”


IATA Bullish For Now

     IATA now expects cargo operations to continue boosting airline revenues through 2018. The Association said volumes uplifted by carriers globally in 2017 totaled 59.9m tons, up 9.3% year-on-year, and forecasts they will expand a further 4.5% to 59.9m tons in 2018, further boosting the bottom lines’ of carriers.
     IATA forecasts global industry net profit will rise to $38.4 billion in 2018, an improvement from the $34.5 billion expected net profit in 2017, revised from a $31.4 billion forecast in June.
     “The cargo business continues to benefit from a strong cyclical upturn in volumes, with some recovery in yields,” said the Association. “The boost to cargo volumes in 2017 was a result of companies needing to restock inventories quickly to meet unexpectedly strong demand. This led cargo volumes to grow at twice the pace of the expansion in world trade (4.3%). Cargo yields are expected to improve by 4.0% in 2018 - slower than the 5.0% in 2017.
     “While restocking cycles are usually short-lived, the growth of e-commerce is expected to support continued momentum in the cargo business beyond the rate of expansion of world trade in 2018.
     “Cargo revenues will continue to do well in 2018, reaching $59.2 billion, up 8.6% from 2017 revenues of $54.5 billion.”
SkyKing


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     “Qatar Cargo is now the third largest cargo operator in the world after Cathay Pacific,” declared Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker, as QR added a second B747-8F last month.
     “We hope that this year our ranking will become number two.
     “Qatar Airways flies to over 150 passenger destinations and when we add our freighter destinations we fly to more than 196 destinations worldwide,” Akbar Al Baker said.


Cherries Jubilee

     Chilean cherries, which are in high demand in China received huge lift just in time for Chinese New Year. Qatar Airways Cargo led the way, moving shipments of the much-prized seasonal favorite.
     As Acting Chief Officer Cargo Guillaume Halleux, (pictured above) preparing to make his debut upon the global leadership stage at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium in Dallas, March 13, said:
     “Logistics plays a fundamental role in ensuring the cherry exporters in Chile meet their clients’ expectations.
     “We are very proud to support and partner with our customers moving these prized perishables across the globe,” Guillaume added.
     “QR Fresh is the seamless cool chain for all temperature-sensitive shipments, from origin airport through to final destination.
     “Our operations at Gateway Doha Hamad International Airport are fully compliant with IATA Chapter 17 standards,” Mr. Halleux added.


Second B7478F

     Currently the world’s third largest international cargo carrier, Qatar Airways Cargo counts more than 60 exclusive freighter destinations worldwide via its Doha hub with a fleet of eight Airbus A330 freighters, 13 Boeing 777 freighters and two recently added Boeing B7478Fs.
Geoffrey




  
  If you happened to be above France last week and noticed a slight bump in the air, no doubt it was a collective sigh of relief from Toulouse as an order for 36 A380s arrived from Emirates Airline. That order has saved the Airbus flagship plane from the scrapheap.
    Airbus had delivered 222 A380s since 2007 and had said recently that it might end A380 production unless a big, new order came in soon.
    “We are still talking to Emirates but quite honestly they are the only one that has the ability in the marketplace to take a minimum of six a year for a period of eight to 10 years,” Airbus COO John Leahy, said.
    “Airbus needs to make at least six A380s a year in order to maintain an efficient production line,” Leahy added.
    Last year A380 did not book a single order.
    So while A380 makes a curtain call with new hope for the future, doubtful the same can be said for the venerable Boeing B747 that appears to be headed toward its finale a half century after the first aircraft entered service at Pan Am.
    But don’t cry for Boeing.
    In 2017 the company booked 912 orders and delivered 763 planes.
    Current Boeing order backlog is 5,864 commercial airplanes or about seven years' worth of production, according to Boeing.
    But Boeing's order book and the skies around the world are saying goodbye to the Boeing 747 in its passenger variant.
    Airlines are retiring the epic four-engined, wide-body from their fleets in recent months and have gone to sleeker, more fuel-efficient twin engine models.
    Boeing, as we recall, was over the moon with a UPS bailout order for 16 B747-8 freighters two years ago, whilst we were attending TIACA Paris, and once again received a call last October for 14 more B7478Fs from UPS.
    So stay tuned:
    Lovely sentimental Friendship Farewell Flight here.


  European transport business as usual was unusual last week, as powerful windswept storms battered Germany and Netherlands Belgium, Romania and parts of UK cancelling flights and rail service. Here some trucks took the worst of it on the motorway A 71 near Erfurt.
  The weather also played havoc earlier this month, causing delays and cancellations all along the Eastern Seaboard. The “Bomb Cyclone" that hit the East Coast ushered in several days of record breaking single-digit temperatures.

  Rebecca Hollis of New Zealand dragged her suitcases through Times Square in New York City on her way to a hotel after flight cancellation.

 


If You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
Access complete issue by clicking on issue icon or
Access specific articles by clicking on article title

Vol. 16 No. 100
Slots Some Are Set Maughan
Chuckles For December 29, 2017
Lightbox For Christmas 2017
Buttercake For Christmas
Lifting For Christmas

Vol. 17 No. 1
The Billion Dollar Baby
Chuckles For January 8, 2018
2018 Early Rising Marks

Vol. 17 No. 2
Take A Tip From The Tulip
Chuckles For January 17, 2018
Dhaka Cargo From The Heart
Punch Up Chicago Cargo


Publisher-Geoffrey Arend • Managing Editor-Flossie Arend
Film Editor-Ralph Arend • Special Assignments-Sabiha Arend, Emily Arend • Advertising Sales-Judy Miller

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