Air France KLM Martinair Cargo has awarded Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) a two-year contract to provide staff for one of the palletisation lanes at its G1XL freight terminal at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. It is the first time the handler has provided cargo airline assistance via an in-house customer warehouse operation instead of in its own facility. WFS already provides cargo handling and documentation services for Air France at Paris Orly and at regional French airports.
WFS to provide Paris palletisation
Alliance Ground buys Chicago’s Maestro
Florida-based air cargo handler Alliance Ground International (AGI) has acquired fellow-Chicago operator Maestro Cargo. Established in 2017 by chief executive officer Edip Pektas and chief operating officer Sanj Rathi. Specialises in cold-chain pharmaceutical. Alliance said the acquisition also adds airport warehouses and aircraft parking at Chicago O’Hare, giving it a combined warehouse footprint of over 1 million square feet.
AGI chief executive Jared Azcuy (pictured), said: “It’s great to welcome Maestro and its employees to AGI. Maestro is well known for its customer service and innovative solution offering at ORD. I look forward to working with Edip, Sanj, and the rest of the Maestro team, who share my enthusiasm for our employees, our customers, and the handling industry. AGI will continue to aggressively pursue opportunities to partner with companies like MIC to expand our growing presence in North America and beyond with a focus on air cargo and below the wing services to the dedicated air freighter and commercial aviation markets.”
Edip Pektas added: “We are very happy to be a part of the AGI team. We have worked with AGI for years and have always admired their large operation and strategic growth approach. We are looking forward to building the business together at O’Hare and across the country and are very excited that our employees will have new opportunities and possibilities.”
A big load for a BIG plane
Volga-Dnepr Group’s AirBridgeCargo Airlines delivered 425,000 doses of oral vaccines from Chicago via Moscow to Beijing on its 747-400ERF, registration VP-BIG
The flight was organized in partnership with freight forwarding partner, Kuehne+Nagel.
The 36 tons of sensitive medicines were transported at a temperature of +5°C. Upon arrival in Beijing, the whole batch of vaccines was safely offloaded and trucked to the final destination.
Lufthansa links up with CargoWise
Lufthansa Cargo and logistics execution specialist WiseTech Global are to launch a direct eBooking connection between their systems. The integration will provide CargoWise customers with a simplified booking process within their own IT-systems, providing air cargo rates, flight availability and the booking confirmation in real-time through API connections. It will increase forwarder productivity, eliminate manual, error-prone data entry and rekeying between systems, provide increased visibility and reduce resources and costs.
Faster freight thanks to WFS’s CargoKiosk
Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has introduced its CargoKiosk’ technology to process trucks and drivers making cargo deliveries and collections at London Heathrow airport.
Drivers arriving on-site no longer have to go to the station reception desk for paperwork to be checked manually before they are assigned a loading bay but instead the vehicle and cargo authorisation process is completed electronically prior to the truck arriving. The driver simply has to enter their ID and follow the touchscreen prompts on the kiosk to conduct the full acceptance and delivery process. When a suitable door becomes available, they receive an SMS or app notification and begin loading or unloading their cargo.
WFS first introduced the CargoKiosk technology in Brussels in 2019 and in Amsterdam this summer. Following next month’s launch at Heathrow, 2022 will see the
digital process introduced at other major cargo stations, including Paris-CDG, Liege, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt. WFS is also developing similar concepts for its operations at New York JFK and in South Africa.
WFS executive vice president, EMEAA, John Batten, said;
“Given the severe shortage of truck drivers internationally, our customers value all initiatives which save their drivers time and improve their productivity. Using CargoKiosk, we can support this by removing the need to wait at the reception counter on arrival.”
End of an era for Lufthansa Cargo
Lufthansa Group rang down the curtain on the tri-jet era on Sunday 17 October when its last MD-11F landed in Frankfurt. Flight LH8161 from New York JFK touched down ahead of schedule at 12:03 p.m. local time on runway 07R, marking the end of commercial service of the aircraft type at Lufthansa Cargo after more than 23 years. D-ALCC was also the last MD-11F registered in Europe, and will now be sold to an American cargo airline.
Lufthansa Cargo chief executive and chairman, Dorothea von Boxberg, declared: “We are very grateful to our MD-11F fleet for over two decades of loyal service. We know that this particular aircraft has an incredible number of fans, throughout our colleagues at Lufthansa as well as among aviation enthusiasts worldwide. The decisive factor for the introduction of the MD-11F at Lufthansa Cargo in the late nineties was its significantly better fuel efficiency compared to the widebody freighter previously used. In the future, we will rely on the twin-engine Boeing 777F for the same reason.”
Since November 2013, Lufthansa Cargo has been gradually replacing the MD-11F freighters with twin-engine Boeing 777 freighters, which are much quieter and operate with lower emissions.
Qatar signs Saudi handling deal
Qatar Airways Cargo has signed a handling agreement with SAL Saudi Logistics Services at the kingdom’s main airports, including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Medina. SAL is the leading air cargo handler in Saudi Arabia with operations at all main gateways.
SAL chief executive Hesham Alhussayen said: “Over the year and a half, SAL has responded to the Covid pandemic by boosting our operational efficiencies to meet the unprecedented demands of handling a wide variety of emergency, medical, and other life essential goods to those who need them most. This journey reinforced our belief in the power of partnerships and, as such, we have signed several cooperation agreements to expand our ground handling and logistics services even further.”
Chief officer cargo at Qatar Airways Guillaume Halleux, commented: “Through our agreement with SAL Saudi Logistics Services, we will be offering fast and efficient handling for all types of cargo including cool chain cargo at Saudi Arabia’s main airports. SAL and Qatar Airways Cargo share a common vision of customer centricity and service excellence.”
Air Canada restores South America links
Following its resumption of flights to India, Air Canada will also increase in capacity to several South American destinations. Service to São Paulo, Brazil will resume from Montreal on December 8 with four flights per week year-round, while from Toronto they increase to daily from December 6, all with Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Montreal to Bogotá, Colombia is set to resume on December 2 with three weekly flights, and flights from Toronto to Bogotá will increase to four per week as of November 7, all operated on an Airbus A330-300. Flights to Argentina are still pending government approval. Santiago, Chile will rejoin Air Canada’s network in January 2022 with the resumption of three weekly flights.
Vaccine flies on wings of HOPE
The HOPE Consortium is kickstarting the vaccination effort in Africa with a delivery of large freezers that will be used to store the vaccine to 21 countries.
Working in conjunction with the UNICEF aid agency and COVAX, the global collaboration that aims to ensure access for all to the vaccine – the first HOPE-facilitated flight from China to Belgium touched down in Liege Airport on 7 October carrying 65 ultra-cold chain freezers for vaccine storage, 60,000 syringes and 1,300 safety boxes. This equipment will now be transported onwards to 21 African countries, from Burkina Faso to Sudan, Zambia to São Tomé and Príncipe.
Many are difficult to reach locations, particularly with air travel disruption and the nature of the goods being delivered. Scaling up ultra-cold chain capacity is especially important as African countries prepare to receive the vaccines, which require storage at – 70 degrees Celsius.
The ultra-cold freezers are 2.5 metres high and 1 metre long, too large to transport as bellyhold on regular passenger flights, so all-cargo planes are the only option.
Chief of transport at UNICEF supply division, Jean-Cedric Meeus, said: “In addition to the large size, we also faced the challenge of reducing the amount of gas within the ultra-cold freezers to make them suitable to ship by air. We worked with the manufacturer to reduce the gas levels and re-gas the freezers at destination. These are the minute but critical details that determine what, when and how we can ship, and importantly, the cost of shipping in a highly constrained market.”
However, with the world shipping industry in turmoil due to lack of capacity, reduced flights, congested ports and soaring freight costs, the competition for air and sea cargo is at an all-time high.
The HOPE Consortium is a public-private partnership consisting of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Ports, Etihad Cargo, Rafed, Maqta Gateway and SkyCell, which provides Covid-19 vaccine storage and delivery services at its hub in Abu Dhabi. It provides transport, storage, handling, sourcing, and global distribution services (via its collaboration with leading logistical companies), offering UNICEF and COVAX additional logistics capacity during a time of great need.
Jean-Cedric Meeus, added: “In my 21 years working for UNICEF, I have never seen the kind of pressure on shipping and transport industries that we are experiencing right now. To combat the pandemic, we are moving large volumes of bulky equipment, at a time when cargo space is at a premium. This contribution from UAE and the HOPE Consortium comes at a crucial time,” said
((Pix – HOPE))
SEKO’s Californian square feet top a million
SEKO Logistics a new facility at its LAX Campus close to the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles International Airport, increasing its total footprint in southern California to over a million square feet.
The new Class A building is one of two new facilities adding over 300,000sq ft of additional warehouse space. The second warehouse in the new complex will open in early 2022.
SEKO’s new LAX Campus is 15 miles from Los Angeles airport and eight miles from the Port of Long Beach. The first building adds a further 189,000sq ft to SEKO’s existing warehouse operations in southern California.
It incorporates 40 truck doors, a mezzanine floor dedicated to ecommerce order picking, over 35,000 storage locations and 5,300 racking positions. The second building will increase SEKO’s footprint by a further 110,000 sq ft and expand capacity to 70,000 storage locations and 15,000 racking positions.
The new location serves SEKO’s broad service portfolio, acting at a multi-client ecommerce fulfilment center with a dedicated mezzanine floor for order picking, and a hub for SEKO’s freight forwarding, air freight, ocean freight, cross-border and white glove solutions. It will also manage SEKO’s US domestic truck distribution network, which has accelerated since ocean carriers reduced their own inland service offerings.
SEKO president and chief executive, James Gagne, said: “Southern California is a strong location for us, so getting an additional warehouse complex of this size and quality so close to the port and airport is a big deal for SEKO and our clients, especially in such challenging times. It will enable client growth in the region and across the US.”