Vol. 8 No. 76                                               WE COVER THE WORLD                                                             Monday July 20, 2009

 

Shipper Peppers
Air Cargo


Exclusive Springfield, New Jersey, USA—Air Cargo News FlyingTypers takes a trip into Customer Country visiting a major U.S. shipper of perishable cargo, Contel Fresh President Lou Conte. To view video click on photo.
     To say that Lou Conte is a self made man is an understatement.
     Lou and his son Gabe head up an enterprise that began its journey to greatness as an idea out of a small floral shop in Newark New Jersey.
     From these humble beginnings Lou built his business into a major supplier of perishables, moving ready made floral arrangements from Colombia to Pathmark a U.S. supermarket chain.
     Lou got into that business early and did very well with it.
     Today flowers are common as big grocery retailers all over the world utilize the color and beauty of flowers as price point specials and to set off their fruit and vegetable departments.
     When Pathmark decided to deal directly with Colombian growers, Lou Conte glided effortlessly into particular niche vegetable importing, consisting of yellow and orange peppers and other specialized offerings from Spain & Holland and elsewhere, including planeloads of fresh cherries each November from Chile.
     Lou says he spends a major portion of his cash flow on air freight.
     He also notes that while he is one tough customer, he has cargo looking for transportation, ready to do business all of the time.
     The office in Springfield is reminiscent of what is, but seldom referred to, a well-executed bull pen.
     Lou has a nice enough office; even a wine tasting set up to accommodate a passion of his and son Gabe’s—the importing of fabulous Italian wines (“tough not to drink up all the profits,”) a new business that is just getting off the ground.
     More often than not when a client or friend drops by, Lou will select a bottle from the wine cooler and pop the roof on any one of a dozen classic cars he has collected and it’s off to a nearby grotto for lunch.
     There are no airs about Lou Conte.
     He is a tough, plainspoken hard working guy, and while he doesn’t suffer fools he is also a sweetheart who is on top of his business all the time.
     As mentioned, the team effort is most evident in a big round table that centers the office at Contel Fresh.
     Everyone that works at Contel, the father, the son and other team members are stationed at their computers while either working phones or talking deals with other team members.
     At Contel Fresh, the people are eye to eye with each other and there is help and support at arm’s length as everybody is there for each other.
     For an industry like air cargo, where often deals and meetings go on behind closed doors, a visit to this place is certainly a bite of a different apple.
Geoffrey

     Jade Cargo International added Austria’s capital Vienna to its schedule. The two weekly services (Su. and Tu.) commenced July 8 and link Vienna Schwechat airport with Seoul Incheon and Shanghai Pudong.
     “There is a big market potential especially out of South Korea,” emphasized Jade’s VP Sales and Marketing Reto Hunziker (left) in an address to roughly 40 forwarding agents from Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and some neighboring places in East Europe. However, he also warned that the flights can only be successful if mutual efforts are made for developing a two-way traffic in the near future.
     So far the flows are heavily unbalanced with an incoming portion of about 80 percent while exports from Vienna to Far East account for only the difference. “We are counting on getting the necessary support from you,” he urged the agents to choose capacity provider Jade for their outbound shipments to China or South Korea.
     Things won’t be easy however, since the carrier is facing stiff competition from both Korean Air Cargo and national rival Asiana Airlines Cargo. While Korean flies eight times per week utilizing B747-400 freighters from Seoul to Vienna, Asiana serves that route 5/7 with jumbo freighters as well. Both carriers are part of an intercontinental transport chain stretching from the South Korean sites of Hyundai, LG Electronics or KIA to the individual production plants of these multinationals in Slovakia, Hungary or the Czech Republic.
     “The Koreans even took over some of the local Austrian forwarding agents for assuring the continuous flow of just-in-time supplies for Samsung or Hyundai to East Europe,” said head of cargo Peter Ecker (right) of Vienna Airport.
     Therefore, getting a foot in that door might become a tough assignment for newcomer Jade.
     For crisis-hit Austrian Airlines Cargo that reports a minus of roughly 20 percent in tonnage from January till July, the landing of Jade will lift revenues substantially. The carrier is responsible for all shipments coming on board of the Jade Jumbos into Vienna and the transit shipments to the neighboring markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

 


Austrian's Franz Zoechbauer (left) and Jade's Kay Kratky (above).


     “We’ve been appointed their general sales agent and representative for that region,” says Franz Zoechbauer, Austrian’s head of cargo. AUA is well established there, serving more than forty destinations between Poland and Uzbekistan. In addition to belly-hold space the Austrian carrier offers a tight network of road feeder traffic, including trucking from Vienna to Warsaw, Budapest, Belgrade or Zagreb. Further AUA Cargo provides main deck capacity on a B737 freighter that is serving Vienna-Kiev four times a week.
     “Those facts make AUA Cargo a perfect partner for us,” commented Jade’s CEO Captain Kay Kratky shortly before the first Jade Jumbo landed at Vienna airport recently.
Heiner Siegmund

 

Air Cargo Rodeo Next Week

     "We've come here today to kick ass and chew bubble gum," Lt. Col. Ken Kopp, 19th Airlift Wing's team chief said.
     "Unfortunately for our competitors we're all out of bubble gum."
     Little Rock Air Force Base is the largest C-130 Cargo base in the world, with about 100 planes and troops, many to and from the war zones in and around Iraq and Afghanistan.
     The Air Mobility Command expects more than 100 teams, 40 planes and 2,500 airmen to participate this year.
     In 2007, about 55 teams participated. One new competition this year reflects tactics currently used in airdrops of supplies to troops in Afghanistan. While airdrop competitions have long been at the heart of the rodeo, this year the latest system of GPS-guided drops will be a separate competition.
     "It's all about teamwork, like we always do," Kopp said. "It's teamwork within the [flying] crews and maintenance and aerial port, and its teamwork between those teams, too."

Proud Day: Bill Boesch is recognized for his contributions to teaching air cargo arts to U.S military at ceremony on Ellis Island. With Mr. Boesch are (l to r) daughters Robin and Heather.
     
     “These troops are among the best in the world,” said Bill Boesch who has been on assignment as special liaison teaching logistics to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan for some years now.
     The former President of American Airlines Cargo who came out of retirement to lend a hand and was recognized with the distinguished U.S. Medal of Freedom in an award ceremony under The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor last year added:
     “We are bringing forward a new group of logisticians who, should they choose air cargo once they complete their military service, can move easily into the industry.”
     

     Air Cargo News FlyingTypers leads the way again as the world’s first air cargo publication to connect the industry to the broadly expanding and interactive base for social commentary—Twitter.
     Here are updates from Twitter so far this week. To be added to this 24/7/365 service at no-charge contact: acntwitter@aircargonews.com

July 19:   Lufthansa Climb 2011targets €1 billion ($1.4 billion) in cost savings through the end of 2011. Carrier’s six-month results come July 30.

July 19:   Two PVG-based carriers received new Airbuses Friday as Shanghai Airlines took first of ten A321s at HAM and Juneyao it's first A321 in Toulouse.

Women In Air Cargo
  Our exclusive series “Women In Air Cargo” asks our readers to send some words and a picture about somebody that you know who is female and has made a difference in air cargo.
  This effort is not limited to just success or failure, it is meant to raise awareness about the legions of unique women who in most cases are unsung heroines in the air cargo industry.
  So write and we will share your story with our readers around the world.
 

July 19:   Antares DLR-H2 world's first manned aircraft with the ability to take-off using power from fuel cells flew July 17 from Lufthansa Technik base in Hamburg. DLR-H2X range is 750 km (466 miles) at speeds up to 170 km/h (106 mph).

July 19:   Queen For A Day. An Emirates A380 flies DXB/BHX and return for one day September 9 as UK airport celebrates its 70th anniversary.

July 19:   British Airways looks better after saying it will raise GBP600 million via bond issue and carrier’s pension makes $540 million available.

July 18:   USDOT fines Delta Airlines $375,000 last week as WBAL does not follow book for bumping passengers.

July 18:   JetAmerica was out of business before planned July 13 take off, as discounter with $9 fares folds scotched hopes for places like Toledo, South Bend, etc.

July 18:   Copa of Panama ordered 13 B737-800 airplanes, plus options for an additional eight. Carrier has 27 aircraft on order from the company.

July 18:   Boeing now charging an annual fee of 150K to 250K for tech support of cargo aircraft not converted or licensed by Boeing.

July 18:   Memphis cargo (FedEx) up 1.5% as 638.7 million pounds June '08 is 648.1 June 2009. “I’ll take anything I can get,” airport CEO Larry Cox said.

Remembering Walter Cronkite

     News reporter, writer and TV anchor Walter Cronkite died in New York around supper time Friday night.
     He was 92.
     Walter Cronkite was America’s first big media TV news star who may not have been the first but certainly was the best and longest lasting TV news anchor.
     He was also a writer, having started his career churning out dispatches at United Press International UPI.
     Later he was an on the ground reporter during World War II in Europe and elsewhere.
     I met Walter Cronkite twice and talked to him once.
     The first time we were driving in Manhattan enroute to JFK in 1980 with our Volkswagen bus full of copies of Air Cargo News.
     We were on 57th Street just close to CBS Broadcast Center, where Mr. Cronkite held sway over the CBS Evening News.
     I noticed him sitting in the backseat of a big black limousine and smiled and waved, catching his eye.
     He smiled and waved back.
     Instinctively my wife Sabiha held out a copy of our paper—after all we were out delivering them.
     The limo window opened and a copy of Air Cargo News disappeared inside.
     At the next light I asked Sabi:
     “What is he doing?” not wishing to gawk back into the limousine.
     “He is reading Air Cargo News,” she said.
     Twenty two years later, while attending the world premier of the movie “It Runs In The Family” a film in which our son Geoffrey II had a part, we met Mr. Cronkite again.
     He often showed up alone at events and we supposed that since the film starred Michael and Kirk Douglas, that there must be a connection there.
     I walked over and spoke to Walter Cronkite for about ten minutes about all kinds of things including the state of news coverage, some politics and what we were doing with our air cargo newspaper.
     He listened patiently, answered every question and even ventured some advice and opinion.
     He was more than generous and finally looked at me in mock seriousness and said in that famous voice
     “Can you tell me one thing?”
     As I readied myself to answer anything he smiled:
     “Where is the toilet?”
     My wife, who was standing at his arm once again instantly connected, gently taking him in hand and walked with him.
     Today when I think about that conversation, the memory is clear that Walter Cronkite made us feel good about what we do as reporters and writers covering air cargo.
     He encouraged us and in a brief few minutes offered himself to us and that made a difference.
     Somebody once called Walter Cronkite “The most trusted man in America”.
      Although he signed off from CBS News for the last time on March 6, 1981, he stayed true to his parting words, "old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more."
     Someplace we are sure he is still on the beat, covering an even bigger story.
     As he used to say ending his nightly broadcast:
     “That’s the way it is.”
Geoffrey