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Delta gears up for baby milk airlift

Airlines

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June 13, 2022

Delta is transport the equivalent of more than 3.2 million 8-ounce bottles of baby formula from the UK to the US in support of Operation Fly Formula. The carrier will fly the Kendamil formula from London Heathrow to Boston Logan Airport and Detroit Metropolitan on 13 flights on June 20-24.

The formula will be distributed and available for purchase at retailers nationwide, as well as online, as part of the US government’s Operation Fly Formula to speed up the import of infant formula and start getting more formula to stores.

The departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services are authorized to use Defense Department-contracted commercial aircraft for the flights. The operation has already brought in the equivalent of 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of infant formula to the US, the White House said.

Lufthansa names freighter Namaste

Airlines

Chris Lewis

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June 1, 2022

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A Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777F, registration D-ALFH was named Namaste India at Mumbai Airport on 31 May.

Lufthansa Cargo has been naming its aircraft after its main markets within its global route network since 2013 with the theme: ‘Say hello around the world’. The Namaste greeting is widespread in Hindu culture.

Since starting services to India in 1959, Lufthansa Cargo have expanded to today’s four times a week freighter services from Frankfurt to Mumbai and twice weekly to Bengaluru and Chennai.

Freightos to raise $80 million on NASDAQ

Chris Lewis

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June 1, 2022

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Freightos to raise $80 million on NASDAQ

The Freightos freight booking and payment platform says it will go public on the US NASDAQ exchange in the coming months and plans to raise at least $80 million in new investment. It will merge with Tel Aviv-based Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Gesher Acquisition Corp.
The combined entity will have a pro forma enterprise value of about $435 million, says Freightos
A SPAC, sometimes known as a blank cheque company has no commercial operations and is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering or the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company.
Freightos says the exercise will allow it to accelerate growth in its online freight bookings, which already number hundreds of thousands a year. It claims well over 10,000 shippers, 3,500 freight forwarders and 200 carriers.
Freightos chief executive Zvi Schreiber (pictured) said the investment “presents a massive opportunity to digitalize one of the last large offline industries”.
Gesher chief executive, Ezra Gardner, added: “Freightos is modernizing the global shipping industry as a true innovator in the logistics space. Following the combination, Freightos will be the only pure-play public global freight platform investment opportunity available, and we’re excited to partner with Zvi and his team on this enormous market opportunity.”
In addition to the proposed merger with Gesher, the combined entity has obtained $80 million in capital commitments from investment firms and industry players including Qatar Airways, which has agreed to invest another $10 million in the combined company, M&G Investments ($60m) and Composite Analysis Group( $10m).
Existing shareholders in Freightos include FedEx Singapore Exchange, airlines, including Qatar Airways, IAG Cargo and LATAM Airlines.
Freightos says it is modernizing an industry stymied by intermediation, offline communications and inefficient pricing through its two core platforms – Freightos.com and WebCargo. It allows users to compare available shipping routes, capacity on specific vessels or aircraft, receive accurate, binding and all-in prices, complete with carbon emissions from shipping options, and to book in real-time.
Freightos is the calculating agent of freight shipping price indexes including the daily 40’ container index.
The Freightos management team will remain in place with Zvi Schreiber continuing as chief executive and Ran Shalev remaining as chief financial officer. The board of directors of the company is expected to include Dr Udo Lange, chief executive of FedEx Logistics and Guillaume Halleux, chief cargo officer of Qatar Airways.

Etihad strengthens Americas team

Chris Lewis

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May 31, 2022

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Etihad Cargo has appointed Caroline Pappas as general manager – Americas as part of an expansion of its US commercial team.
Based in Chicago, and reporting to Etihad Cargo’s director – cargo commercial west, Mark Faulkner, she will be responsible for establishing new and further developing existing relationships with customers in North and South America.
Pappas joins Etihad Cargo with over 30 years’ sales and commercial experience within the air cargo sector.
Etihad Cargo operates daily cargo passenger flights between Abu Dhabi and New York, Washington and Chicago, and six flights per week in and out of Toronto. It also operates two freighter cargo flights per week via Europe to Chicago.

Swiss joins Cathay-Lufthansa joint venture

Airlines

Chris Lewis

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May 31, 2022

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Swiss joins Cathay-Lufthansa joint venture

Swiss WorldCargo has joined Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Cargo in their joint business agreement, created in 2016.

The three carriers will collaborate on international lanes via their respective hubs with cargo handling in Hong Kong coordinated at the Cathay Pacific terminal at the International Airport.

Under the expanded joint business agreement, they will work closely together on network planning, sales, IT and ground handling. Initially, the airlines will cooperate on traffic from Hong Kong to Zurich and Frankfurt, with traffic to and from Hong Kong and the rest of Europe planned to be included later this year.

Cargo customers will be able to access the entire joint network via the booking systems of all three partners.

Cathay Pacific director cargo Tom Owen said: “We are delighted to welcome Swiss WorldCargo into our joint business agreement. Cathay Pacific is always looking for more ways to give our cargo customers greater choice and more options for shipments whenever they fly their goods with us.

“The addition of Swiss WorldCargo’s flights to the already large combined network of Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa will further bring Hong Kong, the world’s busiest air cargo hub, closer to Europe and strengthen one of the world’s great trade lanes.”

Joint activities will be carried out in full compliance with all applicable laws, including the competition rules of the European Union and Hong Kong.

UPS appoints UPS UK, Ireland and Nordics president

Chris Lewis

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May 30, 2022

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UPS appoints UPS UK, Ireland and Nordics president

UPS has named Rick Fletcher as its new president of UK, Ireland and Nordics. He has been with the company for nearly 25 years, and has held several positions in engineering and operations including in Sweden and Turkey. His most recent role was president, operations, Europe Region.

Emirates receives eleventh freighter

Airlines

Chris Lewis

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May 30, 2022

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Emirates SkyCargo has received another Boeing 777F, taking its dedicated 777 freighter fleet to 11 aircraft.

From Boeing’s Paine Field in Seattle, A6-EFT headed to Hong Kong to pick up its first load before touching down on Saturday morning at its new home, Dubai World Central, with a full load of freight.

Divisional senior vice president, Nabil Sultan, said: “We are scheduled to receive delivery of a second 777F in June. And in 2023 we will begin a programme to convert four passenger 777 aircraft into freighters and all of the converted aircraft will be re-delivered by end 2024.”

UPS joint venture moves in on Indian market

Chris Lewis

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May 27, 2022

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UPS joint venture moves in on Indian market

UPS has joined forces with travel and hospitality conglomerate InterGlobe Enterprises to launch a new MOVIN brand to serve the Indian market.

MOVIN (a combination of Movement and India) will offer a range of express and premium services coverage across the country with emphasis on B2B domestic services including a day-definite, express and time-definite solutions.

The venture will build technology-backed solutions and offer seamless integration across air and ground networks.

Headquartered in Gurugram, MOVIN will launch operations in a phased manner and will ramp up in July of 2022 starting with Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Bengaluru – with more expansions to other metros and cities across the nation to follow.

Director of InterGlobe Enterprises, JB Singh, said: “India’s growth towards a $5 trillion economy will be largely supported by the growth of local businesses and logistics which are key contributors to India’s economy. I am confident that InterGlobe’s deep understanding of the Indian market, combined with UPS’s 114 years of logistics expertise will make this venture a success.”

UPS President Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, Ufku Akaltan, commented: “With a strategy of customer first, people led, innovation driven, UPS further expands its global network, including healthcare solutions, through a unique partnership that creates a suite of services to serve B2B customers’ need to grow.”

Airblox offers live space feed

Chris Lewis

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May 26, 2022

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Airblox has launched a live feed of global air freight scheduled flight capacity to support users of its electronic Block Space Agreement (eBSA) booking service.

Airblox’s online marketplace enables freight forwarders and airlines to trade air cargo capacity in the form of standardised eBSAs.

The new live feed will enable users to view upcoming capacity and make informed business decisions by lane by making bids for, and securing eBSAsat competitive prices.

Airblox says it is pioneering the digitisation of BSAs, where companies purchase cargo space on a flight in advance, to make the BSA a tradable commodity.

Airblox founder Edip Pektas said: “By digitising capacity in a centralised exchange in a standardised format, the market is assigning a certain value to it that can be trade.

“We believe that the future of air cargo capacity is as a tradable concept, and by launching this new feed, we are a step closer to giving full transparency of the scheduled global air freight capacity to our users so that they can make informed decisions.”

Forwarders need to be convinced of digitisation benefits, says industry chief

Forwarding

Chris Lewis

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May 26, 2022

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Forwarders need to be convinced of digitisation benefits, says industry chief

Forwarders are ready to digitalize but need clear evidence of its value, says Airforwarders Association executive director Brandon Fried.

He said his members were ready but needed to better understand its worth beyond regulatory or customer requirements, Brandon Fried told delegates at the CNS Partnership Conference in Phoenix on 25 May.

“There has been steady acceptance and adoption in the air cargo sector at large, but within the independent freight forwarder community, digitisation is driven by the shipper,” said Fried.

“Many AfA members invested in automation before the pandemic and could work from home, so in many ways th lockdowns were a gigantic proof of concept. But for continued and more widespread streamlining of operations through digitization, there needs to be a more clearly articulated value proposition.”

Fried emphasised that for the necessary increased engagement to happen forwarders need to understand what is at stake.

Acknowledging the challenge of reaching out to the diverse US forwarder community of up to 4,000 companies, he stressed that software providers had to be better at demonstrating the benefits of digital compliance.

“If the benefits of adopting a specific automation solution are not properly communicated, forwarders won’t move on from legacy practices,” he argued. “The software providers have to be better at demonstrating the benefits of digitisation and until they do I think the industry at large is paying the price.”