Reliance To Launch Air Cargo
Mukesh Ambani dreams cargo airline, has purchased 7% of Jet
Airways.
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 The
richest man in India wants an airline. Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and
Managing Director of Reliance Industries, has been planning a cargo airline
for a long time and if everything goes according to plan, he could soon
be at least a part owner of one.
The elder of the two Ambani brothers has
decided to buy seven percent of Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways.
The move by Ambani comes at a time when
all Indian airlines are bleeding heavily.
Airlines in India reported a combined loss
of Rs 4250 crore in 2007-08 (year ending March 31, 2008).
Despite the ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel)
price cut of 4.5% on June 5, the effect of prior increases could be fatal.
There is also a real possibility of airline
insolvencies in the Indian aviation industry driven by ever-increasing
operating costs.
As per latest estimates, the Indian airline
industry could well lose Rs 8000 crore in the current financial year (April
2008 to March 2009).
A businessman to the core, Ambani is looking
at the future.
Jet's cargo plan has been in the works for
quite some time.
In fact, Jet had wanted to tie up with Lufthansa
to start a separate cargo airline division.
However, according to Jet's Chief Commercial
Officer Sudheer Raghavan, who was quoted from Shanghai, the talks with
Deutsche Lufthansa AG "didn't work out."
Now that Ambani has stepped in, Jet's domestic
cargo plan can start.
To look at it, Reliance already has a logistics
arm: Reliance Logistics Ltd.
The unit has ready takers from the five
companies of Reliance:
Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum
– the refinery that is still under construction will be the largest
in the world, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, Reliance Industrial
Infrastructure and Reliance Retail.
To enhance the logistics division's functioning,
Mukesh Ambani wants to start a cargo airline with as many as three dozen
or more aircraft capable of ferrying 35-40 tons.
The aircraft will be ideal to support his
retail venture: the Reliance Fresh outlets that provide fresh vegetables
and fruits to consumers around the country.
The planes will ferry fruits, vegetables
and other perishables from Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) to metro and Tier
II airports for onward distribution.
Some two years ago, around this time, Ambani
had floated the idea of a cargo airline and had, in fact, got senior aircraft
engineering personnel from established airlines to join the cargo and
logistics division.
Reliance has a fleet of more than 10,000
trucks and the cargo airline would only add more speed to its operations.
There is another reason too: Ambani has
started work to set up SEZs (Special Economic Zones) near Delhi and Mumbai.
Once the two zones are complete, Reliance
will need cargo planes to move the manufactured products out.
Meanwhile, Mukesh's estranged younger brother
Anil Ambani has already displayed his cargo ambitions.
Two years ago, he acquired 44 percent stake
in a courier and express company, DTDC Courier and Cargo Ltd.
The younger Ambani has also invested a 31
percent stake in BLR India, a transport and logistics firm which is a
strong player in surface transport with clients like DuPont, Honda cars,
Samsung and Sony India.
Tirthankar Ghosh
(Special To Air Cargo News/Flying Typers)—In light of the
dire conditions in the airline industry being hit by a tidal wave of fuel
price hikes that have trebled the cost of fuel over the last 2-3 years,
it is appropriate, in my view, to question whether governments can foresee
the unintended consequences that may be the outcome of the double whammy
of price fixing fines and provisions taken by airlines together with fuel
prices rising to an unprecedented level that no airline could have projected.
Ultimately, the consumer will pay the price one way or the other –
either in higher inflation driven by rising transportation costs or in
losses for businesses that depend on air transport – perishables,
pharmaceuticals, valuables, high-tech products – all of which affect
the global economy.
And the passenger business isn’t far
behind.
The long term impact of high fuel prices
may drive droves of flyers away at a pace not seen since 9/11.
Perhaps governments should be reminded of
the subsidies paid to airlines during 2002 to keep them in the air.
An entire industry ‘living in fear’
of prosecution over an extended period of time combined with the disastrous
impact of rocketing fuel prices may paralyze business when the times actually
require urgent and radically new solutions to simply survive as an airline.
The industry has been often accused of throwing
too many seats and FTKs on the market; the opposite could happen before
the end of 2008; we may wake up to a much contracted industry looking
drastically different than the one we knew.
 Scores
of older jets will be parked temporarily or forever – DC8s, DC9s,
DC-10s, B747-100 and 200, to name a few, because of unsustainable fuel
costs.
This cost factor has been squeezing out
other expenditures; the old formula of roughly 30% fuel and 30% crew costs
for an airline no longer holds with fuel climbing over 40-50% for total
costs.
The situation may offer a unique opportunity
to overhaul the cargo business model.
Some welcome outcomes may include a better
understanding of and focus on the most valuable customers, optimization
of route structures, cutting out costs associated with multiple standards
for the participants in the transportation chain and pressure on national
Customs to streamline and standardize procedures
in order to eliminate expenses associated with having to support multiple
reporting requirements.
Lastly, enhanced cooperation and trust between
forwarders and airlines – despite a history to the contrary would
benefit the shipper by providing process certainty, predictability and
visibility throughout the transportation process.
Sounds pretty basic – but it is something
that has dogged the air freight industry for decades.
I am amazed to read and hear statements
that tonnage grew at some percentage point or another, rather than measuring
profit!
While I am obviously not advocating to not
fully utilize cargo capacity, at the end of the day, what matters is whether
the customer is satisfied and the airline makes a profit.
Full plane loads and growing cargo volumes
are a good thing, but if it doesn’t generate a profit it’s
just a meaningless statistic.
We have a long way to go in our thinking
and the fuel factor ought to be the catalyst to shed a ‘business
as usual’ mentality and explore new avenues in air cargo.
Ted Braun
Braun & Associates, Inc.
info@tedbraun.com
 IATA
said its e-freight initiative has completed the Detailed Level Assessments
(DLA) phase, and is now moving toward implementation
“It marks a major step forward
toward adding eight additional e-freight locations by the end of
this year,” IATA Head of Cargo Aleks Popovich told Air
Cargo News FlyingTypers.
Germany, South Korea and Mauritius
have passed the DLA and have kicked off e-freight implementation.
Additionally 11 additional locations
have passed the DLA and are now ready for IATA e-freight universe
including Australia, Denmark, Dubai, France, Iceland, Luxembourg,
New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and USA.
To help navigate this brave new electronic
world, IATA has an e-freight interactive map.
The map shows countries’ progress
toward becoming IATA e-freight locations, from the assessment phase
through to implementation.
“More than 400 people, including
airlines, freight forwarders, government customs offices and IATA
staff – were involved in the (DLA) exercise in a fantastic
example of a collaborative industry effort,” Mr. Popovich
said.
“We express our appreciation
and thanks to everyone involved.”
http://www.iata.org/stbsupportportal/efreight/
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Little Boots Big Shoes
Freight-Base an air freight forwarder/U.S.
Customs Broker/ICC carrier serving the Midwest USA in a challenged
business climate has found the time to put something back to the
community of Elk Grove/Chicago O’Hare area where the company
is based and serves.
For the past year Freight-Base has been
working and is the Sole Sponsor of the "Little Boots Rodeo"
for Children in Elk Grove/Chicago O'Hare area.
Jack Groat, CEO of Freight-Base Services,
Inc., is pictured with Kayla & Zak Montemayor at the event
held last Sunday June 22.
The all day event featured that most midwestern
USA of events - Pig Races as well as mechanical bull rides. Searching
for pennies in the hay and overall a day of good outdoor fun and
special foods and even some arts and crafts to entertain the children
with some hands on activities.
“We figure, what with all the bad
news why not bring families together for some old fashioned fun.”
Jack said.
We second that, wondering who won the
pig race?
Jack@freightbase.com
|
 Biman
Bangladesh Airlines announced an order for two Boeing Next-Generation
737-800s, with purchase rights for two additional 737s.
Biman
recently announced an order for four 777-300ERs and four 787-8s with
purchase rights for four more of each model type.
Biman
currently connects Bangladesh with 18 countries around the world,
and has agreements in place that will allow it to serve a total of
42 countries as it implements its growth plan.
Biman
Bangladesh Airlines, which began as a government-owned national carrier
in 1972, became Bangladesh's largest public limited company in 2007.
The purchase of Boeing airplanes represents
the largest capital expenditure in the country's history. |
AnadoluJet-THY's low
cost arm has increased its weekly flight frequency from 304 to
370 flights a week.
The company is also launching 3
times a week flights to Denizli Airport from Ankara Esenboga (base
for AnadoluJet).
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 Some
Words By George
George Carlin, the American
humorist who died this week just before receiving The Mark Twain
Award spent his life writing every day.
George wasn’t a buff or particular
fan of the airlines, but he thought a lot about his time as a passenger,
offering an often ribald look at common experiences writing things
like:
“If the “black box”
flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash , why isn’t
the entire airplane made out of that stuff?”
We love George Carlin who joins Lenny
Bruce and Red Skelton and Jack Benny as all time favorites who have
died but somehow live on.
George Carlin wrote and did his stage
routines in off color terms using colorful language.
He in fact turned censorship upside
down with a famous routine titled “Seven Words You Can’t
Say On TV”.
For the rest of his career he just
simply always used those seven words as part of his act.
Today a couple of those words are
used regularly even on broadcast news while the rest are heard on
cable TV around the world all the time.
But if you are easily offended, stop
reading this article.
Otherwise fasten your seatbelt and
enjoy the ride.
-On Boarding the Aircraft:
“Someone is telling you to get
on the plane.
"Get on the plane. Get
on the plane.
"I say, "f**k you,
I'm getting IN the plane! IN the plane!
Let Evil Knievel get ON the
plane! I'll be in here with you folks in uniform!
-On Airline Announcements:
"In the unlikely event..."
This is a very suspect phrase,
especially coming, as it does, from an industry that is willing
to lie about arrival and departure times.
"In the unlikely event
of a sudden change in cabin pressure an oxygen mask will drop down
in front of you. Place the mask over your face and breathe normally."
Well, I have no problem with
that.
I always breathe normally
when I'm in a 600 mile-an-hour uncontrolled vertical dive.
I also shit normally!
Right in my pants!
-On Leaving The Aircraft:
"Before leaving the
aircraft, please check around your immediate seating area for any
personal belongings you might have brought on board."
Well, let's start with "immediate
seating area."
“It's a goddamn seat!
Check around your seat!
"For any personal belongings..."
Well, what other kinds of
belongings are there besides personal?
Public belongings?
Do these people honestly
believe I might be traveling with a fountain I stole from the park?
"... you might have brought on board."
Well... I might have brought
my arrowhead collection!
I didn't.
So I'm not going to look
for it.
I'm going to look for things
I brought on board!
It would seem to increase
the likelihood of my finding something, wouldn't you say?
-On The Boarding Process:
“People add words when
they want things to sound more important than they really are.
"Boarding process."
Sounds important; it isn't.
It's just a bunch of people
getting on an airplane!
People like to sound important.
Weathermen on television talk about "shower activity".
Sounds more important than
"showers." I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a "rain
event".
I swear to God, he said,
"Louisiana is expecting a rain event."
And I thought, "Holy
shit, I hope I can get tickets to that!"
-On Emergency Exit Procedure:
They tell you to locate your
nearest emergency exit.
I do this immediately!
I locate my nearest emergency
exit, and then I plan my route.
You have to plan your route.
It's not always a straight
line, is it? Sometimes there's a really big fat f**k sitting right
in front of you.
Well, you know you'll never
get over him.
I look around for women and
children, midgets and dwarfs, cripples, war widows, paralyzed veterans,
people with broken legs, anybody who looks like they can't move
too well; the emotionally disturbed come in very handy at a time
like this.
You might have to go out
of your way to find these people, but you'll get out of the plane
a lot God damn quicker, believe me.
I say, "Let's see...
I'll go around the fat f**k... step on the widow's head... push
those children out of the way... knock down the paralyzed midget,
and get out of the plane where I can help others."
I can be of no help to anyone
if I'm lying unconscious in the aisle with some big moron standing
on my head.
I must get out of the plane,
go to a nearby farmhouse, have a Dr. Pepper, and call the police.
-On The Safety Lecture:
As soon as they close the
door to the aircraft, that's when they begin the safety lecture.
I love the safety lecture!
This is my favorite part
of the airplane ride!
I listen very carefully to
the safety lecture, especially that part where they teach us how
to use the seatbelts! Imagine this:
Here we are, a plane full
of grown human beings... many of us partially educated, and they're
actually taking time out to describe the intricate workings of a
belt buckle!
-On Flight Attendants
Sometimes, they actually
refer to these people as "uniformed crewmembers". Ah,
uniformed, as opposed to the guy sitting next to me in the Grateful
Dead T-Shirt and the Bite Me Hat . . . who's working on his ninth
little bottle of Kahlua. |
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