“I look forward to the challenge of leading the cargo division of Qatar Airways to new heights.”
  With those words, American Bruce Gillette assumed command of fast-rising Qatar Airways Cargo as new general manager worldwide.
  Gillette moved from New York to take up the position, based at Qatar Airways’ headquarters in Doha, capital of the State of Qatar.
  Bruce Gillette joins Qatar Cargo from Atlas Air World Holdings, the Purchase, New York-based ACMI operator where he held key positions as vice-president products and services and, later, vice-president sales and marketing.
  Prior to joining Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings in 2001, he was director operations at LAN Chile Cargo in the U.S., responsible for freight and air operations for North America and Central America.
  Gillette’s key role in his new job is to raise the profile of Qatar Airways Cargo in the air cargo industry while developing new strategic business opportunities for the airline.
  “Qatar Airways offers tremendous scope to build the air cargo business within the company.
  “I look forward to developing new possibilities with our freight forwarder partners, as well as establish and renew our contacts in this highly competitive industry.”
bgillette@qatarairways.com.qa.

Sixty-five years ago, the Battle of Britain was won by the famed Royal Air Force few, to whom so many still owe their thanks. Many critical RAF flights operated out of an airfield called Manston that today is operated as a cargo facility and FBO, by the New Zealand company Infratil. A couple of days ago the airfield once again resounded to the throaty roar of a legendary Spitfire engine as Manston-based TG Aviation sent the WW II war bird above the field once more, this time in a shakedown flight. Read more about the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial at Manston.
www.manston-village.co.uk.

Recently we reported that Airbus is involved in building a critical part for the new Boeing B787, underscoring that the world today has only a few players with the juice to get things done in the big airplane game. Well here is another example of growing oneness, as an American company, Pratt&Whitney ships engines from Connecticut, U.S. to France to be hung on the newest super-jumbo Airbus A380. Right now high-efficiency engines are being developed by Rolls-Royce in a partnership between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney known as Engine Alliance. But moving these monsters is a horse of a different color. Chapman Freeborn got the charter to send four GP7200 engines for the Airbus A380 from Bradley/Windsor Locks International Airport (just up the road from Bridgeport, Connecticut where they are built) in the U.S. to Toulouse where they were hung on the A380. Loading the huge power plants took two days alone with two loaded on the 26th September and a further two loaded the next day onboard an Antonov 124 operated by Volga Dnepr. CF’s Chris Fisher said “The handlers in BDL did a great job, as did program engineers and the stand design team in the run up to the move. The result was a flawless load considering each engine weighs a whopping 10,800kg and each stand was 5.6mx3.6mx3.8m. The freighter was very full indeed.”

AMR Corp. American Airlines’ parent is blue about an unscheduled landing in the red for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 reporting a net loss of $153 million for the period. The fact that number is better than the $214 million deficit from the same time last year, can be of little solace as the carrier and its employees have taken drastic cuts and the reporting period is traditionally among the strongest of the annual quarterlies. AMR Corp. Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey said that AMR "must accelerate its efforts to improve productivity, reduce costs and improve revenues,” as a Performance Leadership Initiative benchmarks American "against the best in the industry in every important aspect of performance." We assume the boss also includes, making money in that deal. Stay tuned . . .

In Tokyo, ANA President and CEO, Mineo Yamamoto, and Japan Post President, Masaharu Ikuta signed a strategic agreement that will see both companies start up a new venture April 1, 2006 that will include the creation of a new cargo airline and the joint development of international express courier services particularly to the Asian market. The new cargo airline (yet to be named) will be owned two thirds by ANA, one third by Japan Post.
Operations at the new carrier are planned to commence within the first half of the fiscal year. Both companies said that they plan to cooperate in the field of international express courier services, with ANA coordinating flight schedules and priority space for products developed by Japan Post. ANA takes delivery of new freighter aircraft at the end of this year and the beginning of 2006. The new venture with Japan Post will bring its stated aim to make air cargo one of its three core businesses, alongside domestic and international passenger transportation, closer to reality. “This is just the start,” said Mr. Yamamoto. “Moving forward we will explore new ways in which we can strengthen the cooperation between Japan Post and ANA.”

Eurinpro, a leading investor and developer of tailor-made logistics solutions, and DHL Solutions are at work abuilding a new 200,736 square foot logistics center in Tiel that will be occupied by DHL Solutions. The project began in August and is slated for completion in December 2005.
Eurinpro said that it is tailoring the development to the logistics needs of the life science and health care industries, and the warehouse will be used primarily to support the activities of DHL Solutions’ customers in those sectors. Tiel was selected as the site because its central location and easy access to roads, ports and airports will facilitate the movement of imports and exports linking the Netherlands to DHL Solutions’ global warehouse and distribution center infrastructure.Eurinpro says that it is unlike other developers that build standard facilities and then solicit tenants for occupancy. “We design and build to the specific needs of a client who commits to the project before any work begins,” Ruud Weijmans of Eurinpro said. “For example, the handling of life-science products demands the application of a dust-proof floor coating in the warehouse.
“Our flexible approach to warehouse design and development made it easy for us to respond to DHL Solutions’ request.” Elsewhere Eurinpro is developing a 538,000 square foot warehouse for DHL in Lutterberg, Germany (pictured here). It has also developed warehouses in the Netherlands for Sony Corp., electronics distributor Ingram Micro and Exel Logistics.
More info: www.eurinpro.com