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Family Aid 2020
   Vol. 19 No. 62
Monday September 14, 2020
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If you have any words you’d like to share, any of your own playlists you’d like us to help distribute, or other content that has helped you navigate this difficult time, please share them with us. Air Cargo News FlyingTypers hopes to be like an online hearth for our cargo family. #AirCargoCoronaContent

Trust and the Market

     In case you have been at the shore all summer with no phone or computer, air cargo is not only doing very well right now, in fact not since the wild days of the China build up a couple of decades ago have rates been as sky high.
     Do the math. When the pandemic struck if you could get 4 bucks a kilo you might have been a local hero,
     Right now, ex-China rates are as high as $25 per kilo.
     So, while everybody takes a deep breath, have no fear that when and if a cure comes for COVID-19, the market will drive the delivery of therapeutics and vaccine, just as it does everything else.


Political Aftershock

     No doubt that in many parts of the world, the change in China policy can be classified politically as just short of a complete break as the aftershock of COVID-19 elevates one key word between China and most of the rest of the world.
     The word is trust.
     It seems many parts of the world in 2020 will no longer be too trusting of China, and in fact this year something that seemed impossible last year, has begun as nations are pushing back against China.


Huawei Still Forging Ahead

     But still in some quarters trust remains based on long standing and bipartisanship in both the Executive and Legislative branches of governments, with some Chinese companies including, for example, Huawei still able to advance themselves.
     In the U.S. we feel the split right now on an academic level as schools open for Fall and University transfer of data and foreign donations from China are met with increasing counter intelligence efforts and imposed sanctions.


Sanctions Go Deep

     Trade sanctions between the U.S. and China are also the rub, as currently they are deeper and a bit wider than similar trade policies that have actually been in place for some years.
     While many question the trust, the answer is as old as what President Reagan said in his dealings with Russia that culminated in the end of the Cold War:
     “Trust but verify,” said our 40th President.


Trying To Save The World Two Ways

     In the first instance we all know that air cargo alone cannot save the airlines as they are today.
     But in the second case, air cargo is experiencing gold rush times, lifting as many planes as possible right now.

    Mika Kilpinen, Finnair Cargo

Finntastic Finnair Cargo

     Finnair Cargo, the airline that still flies to HEL (Finland) and back, has gone all in to the cargo business opportunity right now.
     Among other moves to enhance its cargo offering, the always innovative and ambitious carrier converted a pax A330 aircraft into all-cargo service.
     “Without passengers how are we supposed to stay in business?” Mika Kilpinen, Development lead for Operations, Quality and Compliance mused.
     “The conversion took about two weeks of planning, but the physical transformation took five working days,” Mika said.
     “To use the cabin space for cargo, we removed Economy Class seats creating 22 cargo areas that are secured by nets. Each of those areas can carry 250 kg per square meter, between 600-1,400 kg and in volume 4-9 cubic meters.
     “We utilized the same rail that holds the passenger seats to secure the nets for the cargo load.”
     The carrier has pressed two other A330s from its fleet for enhanced cargo carriage and is also moving main deck cargo aboard its long range A350s for cargo in seat.


You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

     Look out Leroy, because just around the corner will come a sky full of therapeutics and vaccines that 8 billion people on the planet will all demand at once.
     In the case of that prayed-for-vaccine, two shots apiece is the reported prescription.
     As deals to activate CRAF, the U.S. Civil Reserve Air Fleet are now set, we will see U.S. flags pressed into service (read as FedEx, UPS getting the lead there), the airport taxiway fleet sitting silent with no place to go, will spring to life and be pressed into service.
     COVID-19 is destructive, heartbreaking, a hell on earth that has left humankind with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, touching everyone in the world in some way.
     Now human determination, spirit, hope and science will come to the fore.
     We can’t wait for tomorrow, because what we do in air cargo looks better every day.
Geoffrey


chuckles for September 14, 2020

CNS Street Smart Show


     It’s time to Fall Back!
     It’s a great time of year, when the first hint of a shift in the weather and shorter days advance the sense of renewal.
     Sorry, but this move toward laptop webinars with six people crowded on a screen has gotten old in a hurry.
     I think face-to-face from a distance with the loved ones works: we enjoy seeing Uncle Claude, young Obhishek, Nilu and Zahir via Zoom.
     But for business, while meeting in person does open up our COVID-19 closeted world a bit, the specter of the on-screen avatar, while helpful, also feels at times like sitting in the audience of a burlesque show.


Seen One, You’ve Seen Them All

     Online meetings are useful for company meetings and even some key account appearances; however, the avalanche of group think webinars going on in air cargo right now can feel like the Burly-Q of another day. While titillating at first, eventually you are left with the impression that if you have seen one, you’ve seen them all.
     Let’s face it: some webinars end up as a boring sales platforms amongst the usual suspects with nothing new to say, or overlong dissertations on roast pig or some such subject.


Feed The Need For A Trade Show

     Whilst mounted by sincere people, webinars lack delivering the standard feel of the fast-developing air cargo industry of 2020—the dynamic, electrically-charged atmosphere that networking at a trade show can provide and desperately needs at this time.


Street Smart

     Street Smart is the ability to think fast on your feet.
     Scott Rudin wrote a book defining street smart:
     “You've put yourself at risk and survived. Or thrived. Or have scars. You've been tested and have a bank of courage to depend on when you are tested again.”
     Book smarts, as Rudin framed it, mean someone who is good at following the rules.
     “These are people who get straight A’s, sit in the front, and perhaps enjoy crossword puzzles.
     “They like things that have singular right answers.
     “They like to believe the volume, and precision, of their knowledge can somehow compensate for their lack of experience applying it in the real world.”


The Opportunity

     But in the era of COVID-19, a new thinking has emerged as a major guiding value. It’s not just thinking in or outside the box, but rather with no box at all.
     We’ve thought about how we can handle the lack of face to face and easygoing, back-and-forth networking that air cargo desperately needs right now, while watching people in masks strapping cargo all over the aircraft. It reminded us of a line in the movie Fight Club:
     “How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?”
     Well, right now air cargo is in a fight to figure out what to do as an industry at a time when the world is aware of our business.
     We are all of us—big and small—at the doorstep of a golden opportunity to change more than the public’s perception about what our industry can accomplish. We can also change transportation itself in all forms of air cargo as well.
     Air cargo has become the greatest driver of revenue—with the most flights—across the airline industry, by virtue of COVID-19’s effect on consumer travel. At this time of maximum exposure, we need to leverage our book smarts and also our traditional street smarts into a new deal to build a better air cargo industry.


The Great Outside

     In New York City, a major portion of my education was as a salesman walking the streets of Manhattan for Ballentine Beer. The experience taught me a lot about street smarts.
     Today I see restaurant after restaurant—not only in Manhattan but also out in the neighborhood boroughs—where street smart restauranters have set up sidewalk cafes to attract diners.
     To some, my city may appear like a poor man’s Paris, but in truth the sidewalks and streets of New York are alive and filling with more and more physical distanced (what the hell is social about social distancing?) diners as a welcome, charming new look for New York.


Street Smart Outside Cargo Conference


     So, I’m wondering: why don’t we organize an outside air cargo trade show in Palm Springs or Bavaria or Istanbul, sometime after a vaccine has been released?
     Put up some airy tents outside and build some strong, meaningful sessions and dinners so that everyone can get back to the future?
     I recall when CNS met a few years back in Palm Springs, thinking how much better it would have been if everyone could have conducted business outside.
     This is a call to the trade show companies that have long profited from air cargo events: create something radically different, extend a helping hand to put us all together for the good of our industry.
     Air cargo needs some street smart thinking.
Geoffrey


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Harold Hagans Lost in the Stars

Time for a Street Smart Show


Nils Haupt

  Nils Haupt is top corporate communications officer at Hapag-Lloyd AG, the fifth biggest container shipping line worldwide.
  Nils served in the same position at Lufthansa Cargo between 2002 and 2012. Here, he brings an enlightened, objective view for today and tomorrow.


We live In challenging times. During the pandemic our industry is under enormous pressure to fulfill their promises as online orders are skyrocketing, air cargo is booming and also ocean freight is surging again.
  But still: undoubtedly the logistics industry is totally underestimated in public, although it is crucial for the success of the global economy.
  The transportation of a box from South China to a remote village in Wisconsin - just within a few days - is taken for granted.
  The huge complexity of our business and the interdependence of the various players is hardly understood and barely appreciated. People keep applauding the nurses and doctors while truck drivers, seafarers and warehouse workers are the unseen heroes during this pandemic.
  As a communication professional in this industry for close to two decades I am asking myself what we’ve done wrong until today - and what we need to do in the future to make this industry more heard, more seen and more appreciated.
  There are still so many stories to be told, so many heroes to be named, so many logistics records to be revealed.
  Admittedly I don’t believe that the pandemic will help us to receive more worldwide acclaim.
  We are and we will remain the Sherpas who are indispensable to reach the mountain top.
  And while doing this day in day out we might have become too humble to be in the limelight.
  While writing this still tens of thousands of seafarers are not allowed to leave their vessels, many of them having served more than one year onboard without knowing when they will finally see their loved ones again.
  Yes, maybe we are the Sherpas.
  But perhaps now is the perfect time to speak up and to stop being humble.
Nils Haupt


Isaac and Monique Nijankin

  Isaac Nijankin will always be recalled as “Mr. Air Cargo” for his legendary run at pioneering Varig Brazilian Airlines. Founded in 1927, it ended just short of 80 years of leadership in 2006.
  Later, Isaac served at Cargo Air Lines. During a distinguished thirty-plus year air cargo career, he guided the fortunes of Varig Cargo and initiated and supported various efforts to advance the industry.
  Isaac was a key pro-industry source who was very instrumental at the start-up of TIACA and CNS.
  Now retired, he is still thinking about these things . . .

No Doubt COVID-19 has completely changed the landscape of the world today.
Until things normalize, in the short-term, people will be more cautious which will result in major flight reductions and less capacity.
  Less capacity will now more than ever challenge air cargo to be inventive and entrepreneurial in managing what will certainly also be increased demand as business gets back to normal.
  Right now forwarders and large shippers are looking to cargo companies to charter aircraft to move their goods when capacity is not there . . . and this appears to be the trend moving forward.
  Air cargo has always been a critical component to the supply chain, from its inception it has always been the "go to" solution in getting time sensitive and time critical shipments (i.e. vaccines and PPE, pharmaceuticals, donor organs) to their destinations, efficiently and expeditiously.
  As companies realize the continued growth of air cargo and how it benefits the global community, we should concentrate our effort toward developing ways air cargo can better adapt to supply and demand.
  At some airlines cargo has always been treated as a third wheel. Passenger movement always holds more value.
  However during this protracted meltdown in the COVI-9 lockdown worldwide, we have seen how quickly airlines working in total survival can convert more PAX aircraft to cargo.
  Right now cargo is the story, and in many cases is on a par or even outstripping PAX activity, but I have my doubts how long this will last.
  For the all-cargo carriers many of those companies have seen their prospects rebound as some brought mothballed aircraft back from the dead.
  Right now and into the future, demand is there and with the prospects of needed vaccines and therapeutics and restocking, plus the upcoming holidays ahead, air cargo should remain center stage reaping the benefit of enhanced visibility and profits for a long time to come.
  Despite the global ordeal and the terrible suffering and loss of life, we are battling through what feels to many as the perfect storms.
  But with compassion and determination and reaching out to each other and lending a helping hand, air cargo will do what it always does as we will find a way with heart and soul to deliver.
Isaac Nijankin


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Harold Hagans with staff in 2004

Harold Hagans     A great man of the logistics business, both in Atlanta and worldwide, Harold Hagans, died September 10. He was 82 years old.
     Harold and Gail Hagans created Atlanta Customs Brokers (ACB) in the early 1980’s and grew it from a small customs brokerage operations to a legendary international freight forwarder and customs brokerage firm that is today, as their slogan says “locally grown, internationally known”.
     Harold was instrumental in getting Fish and Wildlife federally funded and making Atlanta a Designated Port.
     He also helped get UDSA in Atlanta set up as a PPQ.
     Harold was a great community builder, serving as President for both the Atlanta International Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers (formerly IFFCHB) and the Atlanta Air Cargo Association.
     His friend and colleague Donna Mullins of Mullins International Solutions remembers:
     “Harold was a man of honor who served his country courageously.
     “On the day of his death, just hours before he took his last breath, Harold was awarded an Achievement Medal, the 2nd highest honor given to our Vietnam Veterans.
     “He wore his pin as he left his home and journeyed to heaven,” Donna said softly.
     “Hubert Harold Hagans retired Sergeant Major from the Army receiving a Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, and finally his Achievement Medal.
     “He was a sweet man.”
     We recall meeting Harold several times over the years and being at once impressed by his decency and kindness and the sense that whatever happened, Harold would be there and lend a hand.
     The offices at ACB were always warm and friendly with business going on for sure, but via a large female population of workers that when created, was quite uncommon in our business.
     Everyone we noted moved quite nicely, around and through the work spaces, which featured warm touches, including oriental carpets and places to sit, take a break, and think about things.
     That kind of pride of place meant to us that ACB would be a good company to ship with.
     Harold, surveying the landscape one day, decided that what Atlanta air cargo needed at Thanksgiving was an open house invitation to every single member of the local industry to come over for a genuine southern fried turkey dinner with all the trimmings.
     So began a tradition that continues to this day, of a great meal open to everyone every year in late November.
     “The turkey is fried in peanut oil at high temperature, and is a delicious way of bringing people together,” Harold told me.
     I thought of Harold and his sense of sharing and giving earlier this year when Donna and her team, garbed in mask and gloves, stood out on the trucking lines at ATL, giving away chicken dinners to big rig drivers, who during the early scary days of the pandemic with everything closed had nowhere else to go.
Deborah Torma      One good thing leads to another, I thought.
     Thanks for leading the way, Harold.
     “Today we lost a great man,” Harold’s wife Sylvia said.
     Harold and Sylvia were married after Gail died.
     “He never quit and he was not a quitter,” Sylvia added.
     “He was fighting a beast without a cure.
     “Men like Harold do not come along very often,” she said.
     Deborah Torma, (right) Harold’s oldest daughter, who today is President and CEO of Atlanta Customs Brokers, said simply,
     “Dad was a true American, an honored veteran who served his country, a father, husband, friend, leader and a true Southern Gentleman.”
Geoffrey

Sarah Vaughn Lost In The Stars


If You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
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Vol. 19 No. 59
Days of Futures Past
Ancher Handicaps Cargo Futures
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Pandemic Pulled Blanket Off
Dave Brooks Look for Opportunities
Cargo 1000 Goes American
United Krems a Cargo Superstar

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Vol. 19 No. 60
True Confessions of a Freight Forwarder
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Air Cargo Took off above the Himalayas
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