Etihad Adds Johannesburg

  Etihad Crystal Cargo that currently serves seven all-cargo destinations—Frankfurt five times a week, Khartoum, Chennai thrice weekly, New Delhi and Milan twice a week and Mumbai and Calcutta once weekly, adds Johannesburg cargo/passenger flights twice-weekly (EY 6303) on Thursday December 1, 2005.
  “With trade volumes between the Gulf and Africa increasing, we are bringing our style of total service to a route with high payload and profit capability,” said Ingo Roessler, Etihad Vice President Cargo.
  Etihad has appointed Airline Cargo Resources (ACR) as its General Sales and Services Agent (GSSA).
  ACR will provide cargo sales, customer service and support functions for the whole of South Africa, while South African Airways will supply ground handling.
  ACR is a decade old company with head offices in Pomona and branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
  “Expertise and profound market knowledge of ACR will help Etihad Airways and Etihad Crystal Cargo to build up a strong presence on the Abu Dhabi-Johannesburg route.
  “Our GSSA strategy in cargo has proven to be very effective in rolling out our network in the past and will continue in the future,” Mr. Roessler said.
  Johannesburg is the third destination on the African subcontinent for Etihad Airways.
  Other destinations include Cairo with all-cargo services and Khartoum that launched combination flights in July 2005.

Although that deal between the U.S. and Europe to “open skies” last Friday fell short of opening up for total foreign ownership of U.S. airlines, the long sought after breakthrough is at hand to liberalize air services between the U.S. and Europe.
The deal that still needs approval by the U.S. and the 25 EU member states, goes beyond individual bilateral treaties between the U.S. government and several EU members.
Soon U.S. and European airlines will be free to fly to airports in each other’s territories and to third destinations.
The EU/U.S. agreement will most certainly lead to some big-time mergers between airlines.

The U.S. Cargo Sales Joint Venture, LLC (US JV) based in Atlanta that is the U.S. cargo sales and marketing organization of SkyTeam Cargo members Air France, Delta and Korean Air, which began in 2000 mostly as a way for Delta to get out of that end of the air cargo business, named J.D. Cha, CEO to replace Bernard Frattini who leaves to work his magic on the Air France and KLM “Joint Cargo Team.”
J.D. from Korean Air Cargo, has served as vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S. Joint Venture.
In 2001 SkyScream added Alitalia Cargo and CSA, Czech Airlines Cargo.
KLM joined after being acquired by Air France in 2004.
Continental and Northwest are also members.
In 2004, the partners carried 22.6 billion freight ton-kilometers.

On the third Thursday in November, hundreds of thousand of bottles of young wine take flight worldwide followed by a tasting on the ground via an invite to the party in Paris, London or Frankfurt, if you’re lucky.
In Frankfurt, Chapman Freeborn, Air Cargo Logistics and Lufthansa Charter had a nice reason for the sister companies in the 2005 beaujolais nouveaux shipping business to savor a couple of cases and throw a party inviting some 180 people from the Frankfurt cargo agency community .
Some typical French dishes including the famous flame cake and cheese baguettes and other specialties were welcomed.
Just as the new wine must get to the tables of Tokyo and New York and elsewhere at the absolute perfect moment, that time was recalled behind the glasses at Cargo Point, a place known for Cucina Italiana but in the New Europe serving up French in Cargo City South at Frankfurt this night.
Here (L to R) Michael Roll and Bruce Petersen, of Chapman Freeborn and Air Cargo Logistics celebrate with Claire, Chunqing and Brittney in the picture just before the BoJo overwhelmed the evening.
(GFM)

Still beautiful after all these years, a B757 goes all-cargo.
Alcoa-SIE Cargo Conversions B757-200 passenger to freighter conversion program took off last week with the successful first flight of the prototype aircraft.
Converted on behalf of launch customer Babcock and Brown Aircraft Management, this B757 is the first of several freighter conversions at Alcoa-SIE in Abbotsford, British Colombia
The company is touting its cargo conversion for the 757-200 – as a low cost quick way to create an aircraft that carries 14 88 x125 containers or pallets on the main deck and a 15th smaller container or pallet in the aft most position.
More @ www.alcoa-sie.com.

Deutschland Uber Fracht Dept.:
Deutsche Bahn buying BAX Global expands DB big time as an international logistics services provider in the Asia/Pacific region, and also in China and the USA. Expect the $1.1 billion deal to close by Christmas. Another DB company Schenker should fit well in the new mix, the thinking goes.

The requisite majority of Exel shareholders have approved Deutsche Post/ Exel for 3.7 billion EUR. Deutsche Post World Net made its takeover bid for Exel in September.

British Airways World Cargo added five weekly belly services from London Heathrow to Bangalore on October 30, 2005. Bangalore is a key market for British. Kamal Kikani, BAWC commercial manager India and Nepal feels that the new flights compliment the existing schedule and road feeder service, with Bangalore becoming the fifth destination to be served directly from London. “The new services accommodate the growing volumes of cargo in the southern region.”

Third party logistics provider and cross-border trade specialist (USA/Canada), Purolator USA, Inc., has been approved to operate under the terms and conditions of the TSA (Thousands Standing Around)) standard security program for Indirect Air Carriers (IAC). What that means is that Purolator with IAC status can negotiate directly with, and tender airfreight directly to commercial carriers. More @ www.purolator.com.

Korean Air third-quarter profit rose 80.6% to KRW154.2 billion ($148.1 million) compared to KRW85.4 billion in the third 2004.