Events logistics operator Rock-It Global has opened a dedicated 15,000sq ft facility at London Heathrow Airport. It offers 13,314 cu ft of caged secure storage space, as well as rack space for 300 pallet positions for long-term storage and tour merchandise.
The forwarder has also invested in an X-ray machine for onsite screening and installed an Explosive Trace Detector machine for cargo too dense to X-ray, avoiding the need to rely on a third-party off-site provider.
It says that huge volumes of e-commerce cargo, reduced scheduled flights and staff shortages at handlers and hauliers has caused screening bottlenecks at Heathrow.
Rock-It Global provides logistics and freight forwarding services for live entertainment, music touring, fine arts, sports and broadcasting, corporate events, film and television, power projects, and humanitarian relief.
Delta Cargo has approved the Envirotainer Releye RLP temperature-controlled container for use on its fleet. Envirotainer says the Releye delivers up to 90% lower CO2 emissions compared to passive solutions. The container uses rechargeable batteries to power its electric heating and compressor cooling system and can power its system for over 170 hours on a single charge.
Computer firm Lenovo has become the latest customer to use DB Schenker and Lufthansa Cargo’s CO2-neutral flights. It is flying 20 tons of chargeable weight per week from Shanghai Pudong to Frankfurt using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) produced from renewable waste and materials such as used cooking oils.
Samskip is adding airfreight expertise to its project forwarding arm, bringing together expertise from its Bremen business and its dedicated air freight team at Schiphol airport. The one-stop-shop service includes coordinated plane and ship chartering by Samskip. Mostly associated with multimodal transport, Samskip has identified project cargoes as a strong opportunity for growth, following the launch of Samskip Air in May 2021.
The prolonged rise in the airfreight market finally came to an end in December, according to industry analysts, CLIVE Data Services.
Continuing supply chain issues, congestion on the ground, and concerns over the new Omicron virus suppressed any end-of-year uptick, it said in its latest report, published on 5 January.
CLIVE’s latest weekly market intelligence shows a -5% fall in chargeable weight in December 2021, compared to the pre-Covid level of December 2019, making it one of the weaker months of the year. Compared with December 2020, volumes rose by +1%.
It said that its data for the fourth quarter of 2021 reflected its earlier statement that the air cargo market was being driven by supply chain challenges, and less so by soaring volumes. In October, CLIVE’s ‘dynamic load factor’ – which measures both the volume and weight perspectives of cargo flown and capacity available to produce a true indicator of airline performance – reported a lower load factor for the time of year than expected, followed in November by a -1.2% drop in volumes.
Cargo capacity has remained slow to return to the pre-Covid level. In December 2021, it remained at -12% to December 2019. The ‘dynamic load factor’ for this December of 65% was +2% pts up versus two years ago.
However, the fourth quarter of 2021 did see major growth in airfreight rates, which in December climbed to 168% ahead of December 2019 (+42% versus December 2020), following earlier monthly gains compared to 2019 of 155% and 159% in October and November 2021 respectively.
CLIVE managing director, Niall van de Wouw, said: “It was certainly more complex to ship goods in 2021 by all modes of transport, which has continued to increase rates. In the general air cargo market, we’ve seen airlines focus more on managing margins than on filling aircraft. From a volume perspective, compared to 2019, November and December did not produce ‘the peak of all peaks’. The capacity and ‘dynamic load factor’ trends were more or less in line with earlier months, but rates kept on climbing.”
He suggests that the December data amplifies what at trend manifested in November, with issues on the ground hitting efficiency. “The rapid increase of Omicron and its impact on staff availability, hard lockdowns and their impact on business and consumer confidence are likely at play here.”
He added: “Looking at 2021 overall, after a very strong start to the year and pretty solid middle months, we witnessed a not-so-strong ending of the year. The wear and tear of close to 20 months of Covid started to really impact the efficiency of the value chain towards the end of 2021, and there are still no fundamental changes expected in the short-term that would change the current dynamics of supply chain shortages and elevated rates.”
European aircraft manufacturer Airbus says it has firmed up an order for four A350F freighter aircraft with shipping line and logistics operator CMA CGM Group. The order will bring CMA CGM’s total Airbus fleet to nine aircraft, including four A330-200F and one A330-200 passenger to freighter conversion
The A350F offers a large main deck cargo door and a fuselage length optimised for cargo operations. It has a 109-tonne payload capability three tonnes more than its competition says Airbus and is the only new generation freighter aircraft ready for the enhanced 2027 ICAO CO₂ emissions standards.
The Abu Dhabi-led HOPE Consortium has delivered over 210 million Covid vaccine doses to over 60 countries.
It says it has created one of the world’s largest end-to-end pharma supply chains capable of delivering millions of vaccines to two-thirds of the global population. Spearheaded by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health, the initiative began as a collaboration between Etihad Cargo, Abu Dhabi Ports Group, Rafed, Maqta Gateway and SkyCell.
Within its first year in operation, it built partnerships with over 12 freight forwarding and logistics leaders, including Aramex, Bolloré Logistics, Agility, DB Schenker, DHL, FedEx Express, MICCO Logistics, Hellmann and Kuehne + Nagel, RSA Global and UPS.
It also collaborated with UNICEF to deliver 65 ultra-cold freezers to 21 African nations
The HOPE Consortium is also working closely with key partners in Belgium, a leading global pharmaceutical hub, to help establish a fully compliant origin-to-destination pharma distribution corridor to serve the world in vaccine delivery and future life science needs.
Hondura’s new airport, Palmerola International, has handled itsfirst scheduled flights. On December 11, the airport greeted Spirit Airlines as the first scheduled carrier with daily flights from Houston and four weekly flights from Miami. United Airlines, American Airlines, Copa Airlines and Avianca are also now operating regular flights. Destinations served are Houston, Miami, Dallas, Panama City, El Salvador and Guatemala City. From January 2022, Spirit Airlines plans to add further flights to Ford Lauderdale and AeroMexico intends to introduce flights to Mexico City.
Palmerola offers a runway length of 2,440 meters. All international traffic has been moved from Toncontín Airport, with its short runway and challenging approach. which continues to handle domestic flights and general aviation only.
Munich Airport’s consulting arm, Munich Airport International has been providing consulting services in Honduras since 2015 for the planning and commissioning of the new airport.
ACS volunteers helped keep Covid test kit supplies flowing earlier this month. Two flights arriving at Birmingham Airport in England with more than two million kits on board were unable to be offloaded by the local handling agent alone so the charter broker sent a team of ten people from its Surbiton headquarters to help unload every box by hand. Group cargo director Dan Morgan-Evans, explained: “With the lack of freighters in the marketplace at the moment, ACS has been using ‘preighters’ (passenger aircraft loaded with cargo) as the solution for many of our clients’ shipments.
“The downside of these aircraft is the additional manpower required for loading and unloading. Unlike a regular freighter where pallet-loads of cargo can be removed relatively quickly using a forklift or high-loader, this required taking off each box, one by one which requires a much larger number of staff to unload than a specialised freighter.”
He added that while ground staff at some airports have worked miracles, for two of the flights from Shenzhen to Birmingham it became clear that the ground handler simply couldn’t provide enough manpower to unload the A330 and B787 quickly enough to turn the aircraft around within the timeframe required.
He said: “I sent out a message to everyone in our headquarters, asking for a team of volunteers to head up to Birmingham and I was staggered with the response. We had volunteers from our marketing, accounts, legal, IT and HR teams, all willing to get up early and to travel to Birmingham to do their bit in keeping this essential cargo coming into the country.” The first aircraft, the B787-9, arrived shortly before lunchtime and the team quickly got to work, in conjunction with the handling agent. The complete offload took just over an hour, allowing the aircraft to depart for its next flight.
There was much more cargo on the second, larger aircraft, which arrived mid-afternoon. Again the handling agent and ACS staff worked well together and the offload went very smoothly. The aircraft departed later that evening for its next operation. Dan Morgan-Evans added: “I was so proud to see everyone pull together to get the job done. These are exceptional times and people recognised the significance of what we were doing and dropped their day job to get their hands dirty”. Video: ACS Volunteers – 2.3 Million COVID-19 Rapid Tests – Birmingham Airport – YouTube
Airfreight coldchain specialist Envirotainer is calling for continued collaboration between pharmaceutical firms and the logistics industry as it marked the billionth Covid vaccine carried in its fleet of over 6,500 temperature-controlled air cargo containers.
With much of Europe introducing new lockdowns in the face of the Omicron surge, the whole sector needs to be ready to meet increased demand for vaccines and boosters, it says.
Just 56.9% of the world population has received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, it says and pharmaceutical manufacturers, forwarders, airlines and cold chain-solutions providers need to work seamlessly as extensions of each other, it says.
This calls for total transparency on which consignments are crucial and need to be prioritised and also requires further advance planning, not only in terms of keeping COVID-19 treatments moving, but also other life-saving drugs that are required every day across the globe.
Envirotainer’s chief operating officer, Niklas Adamsson, said: “We’re incredibly proud of handling a billion vaccines at a time when air freight has been restricted and demand has been sky high. This is thanks to the incredible collaboration we’ve been part of across the industry.
“We’ve worked closely with our partners and customers, and now want to work even closer with those efforts in the face of Omicron. It’s crucial we continue to work in unity across the cold-chain to get the next doses to the patients, where they’re needed. It’s our responsibility as part of the fight against coronavirus, and we’re ready to do all we can.”
