Joint Atlas Air-DHL Express freighter operator Polar Air Cargo has expanded its cargo handling partnership with WFS in North America with a new long-term contract at Los Angeles International Airport.
WFS is providing full warehouse handling services for over 5m kilos a month for Polar out of LA, out of an all-airline total off 22m kilos. WFS already handles Atlas Air’s scheduled and ad-hoc freighter service from the airport.
Polar has grown its footprint at with a second warehouse totalling more than 230,000sq ft. WFS already provides handling services to Polar Air Cargo at its hub in Cincinnati, as well as in Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York JFK, Seattle and Toronto airports.
Vice president of sales for WFS in North America, Guido DiGiandomenico, commented: “In Los Angeles, thanks to the hard work of our local WFS team, we have earned a solid reputation for providing quality cargo handling services in what is a challenging marketplace. We look forward to supporting Polar’s continued growth at this very important west coast gateway.”
Air Canada Cargo has made four appointments to key leadership positions. Peter Laub has been appointed senior director, cargo – USA & Latin America; Janet Wallace is now senior director, cargo transformation; Milt Fenske becomes director, cargo sales – USA; and Barb Johnston has been named director, cargo operations Canada.
Janet Wallace has 28 years of experience with Air Canada with experience in call centres, airports, inflight and cargo. She will focus on strengthening areas related to engineering, quality management systems, learning and development, procurement and eCommerce.
Peter Laub brings with him more than 30 years of cargo sales and operations experience from the passenger and freighter markets and his vast experience in freighter operations will be beneficial to Air Canada Cargo’s launch of all-cargo operations. In a previous role as vice president of business development at Aloha Air, he oversaw the introduction of Aloha Air Cargo’s Boeing 767-300 freighters.
Milt Fenske has been at Air Canada Cargo for almost 20 years and has been responsible for USA cargo sales, operations and global accounts, during which time he and his team have increased Air Canada Cargo’s market share and significantly increased export revenue.
Barbara Johnston also has more than 30 years of experience in cargo and has held key positions in roles including process and procedures, regulatory affairs, cargo technology, eCommerce, safety and cargo sales. Her role will be to elevate the customer experience and employee engagement while driving safe, dedicated, and reliable operational teams.
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.
