Freight forwarder Geodis is now offering its customers alternative fuels for air and seafreight, in addition to the road transport option it already offers. The fuels are produced using food and agricultural waste (mainly cooking oil) and their use allows for a massive reduction in CO2 emissions of at least 80% for air and 90% for sea transport, along with a reduction in other pollutants.
It’s not just vaccines that are vital
Volga-Dnepr Group’s AirBridgeCargo Airlines arm has completed five Boeing 747F charter flights with packaging machines for Covid-associated materials from Frankfurt in Germany) to Atlanta.
Over 200 tons of machinery was delivered under the National Healthcare Association project in cooperation with Geis Air + Sea.
Global healthcare director at Volga-Dnepr Group, Yulia Celetaria, said: “The success of our joint battle against COVID-19 spread lies not only in the scale of vaccine production facilities but also in the well-timed logistics of the so-called peripheral cargo – packaging, vials, injection syringe, PPE for medical personal and other associated items.”
UPS opens UK mega-hub
UPS has officially opened its expanded air hub at East Midlands Airport. The36,000sq m operation can now sort up to 22,500 packages per hour – more than twice the capacity of the previous facility and scale up more easily during peak periods. There are six daily flights to key markets, including Germany and the US.
The facility features automated scanning and sortation systems and it is served in part by liquefied natural gas UPS vehicles that refuel at the nearby ground hub in Tamworth.
Don’t pay us – donate, Cool Chain Association tells delegates
The Cool Chain Association is asking delegates to its virtual Perishables Conference on 15 September to donate to children’s charity Every Infant Matters instead of paying a registration fee.
Every Infant Matters serves poverty-stricken communities in India, Nigeria, and the Dominican Republic with last mile healthcare solutions.
The conference will provide a platform for delegates to learn about new ways to drive quality and efficiency in the temperature-controlled supply chain. It takes place on Wednesday 15 September from 15:30 to 18:00 CET.
Indian airport hits monthly record
Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru has reached its highest monthly cargo throughput since starting operations in 2008. It processed 37,319 tonnes in August – the highest ever since the Airport commenced operations in 2008. International cargo – imports and exports – accounted for 24,304t also the highest ever. The airport is the third busiest airport in India and has the highest cargo processing capacity.
Latam to restart more Europe flights
Latam Airlines Group, Latin America’s largest airline says it will restore some Brazil/Europe routes in October-December and increase frequency of others, reports RoutesOnline. There will be more flights between São Paulo, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris and Frankfurt and three times a week services to Barcelona will be relaunched in November while the Milan route will resume in December. However, flights from Brazil to London Heathrow will remain on hold.
Interline deal increases Africa options
Airlink Cargo South Africa and Astral Aviation have signed an interline agreement to connect their networks. through their hubs in Johannesburg and Nairobi. Airlink Cargo will include Dubai in its network while Astral Aviation will have access to services operated by Airlink Cargo beyond Johannesburg including those in Mozambique, South Africa, Congo DRC, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Madagascar and Namibia.
Aid for Haiti
Volga-Dnepr Group has delivered over 110 tons of essential cargo from Madrid and Liege to Porte-au-Prince following the earthquake in Haiti on 14 of August. It organized two charter flights on An-124-100 and Il-76TD-90VD aircraft to deliver cargo including tents, water purifiers and mobile kitchens.
Air Malta extends cargo management deal
Air Malta and Network Airline Services (NAS) have extended their Total Cargo Management (TCM) Agreement for a further two years.
The carrier says that NAS has vastly expanded its cargo business and helped it establish itself in the global market during the two years of the existing TCM. It has built a strong platform for cargo to become an important revenue contributor.
The TCM solution is increasingly popular by several global airlines, allowing them to generate new business opportunities while concentrating on their core passenger business.
Head of cargo sales and marketing, John Vella, said that Air Malta had grown its market share and is now a carrier of choice.
NAS sales director, John Gilfeather, added: “NAS looks forward to diversifying Air Malta’s product range and global coverage even further; the extension of this TCM agreement allows us to do so.”
Retailer demand and airport shut-downs keep airfreight under pressure
Resilient international demand for air cargo capacity in August versus a shortfall in supply pushed global rates up 112% of their pre-Covid level as a local lockdown in Vietnam and the closure of cargo terminals at Shanghai, said analyst Clive Data services.
Volumes were up 1% compared to the same month of 2019, before the pandemic took hold, and 19% versus August 2020. But the biggest challenge remained available cargo capacity at 16% below the level seen in August 2019.
Clive managing director, Niall van de Wouw, said even before the latest disruptions in Pudong and Vietnam, air cargo capacity was already tight due to fewer international passenger flights and demand is also being driven by retailers switching from shipping to air cargo to replenish stock levels in time for their peak season.
He explained: “The problem for the air cargo industry is not demand, it’s clearly capacity. The market is solid from a demand viewpoint, but it is currently based on a scarce and fragile infrastructure. As we saw in August, a small handful of Covid cases at Pudong airport led to the closure of air cargo terminal operations. When something like this happens at the world’s third largest cargo airport, it only reflects how fragile things are for global supply chains and the immediate impact on rates which were already high.
“Shippers want to see more cargo capacity from the return on airline passenger operations, but some signals suggest this may get pushed back again on intercontinental routes following the recent EU recommendation to pause on all non-essential travel from the US to Europe. For passenger airlines operating cargo-only flights, it’s all about the margin per flight and not about adding capacity to grab market share. Airlines want and need passengers back and I suspect airline cargo departments are anxious to see this too because of the pressure they are under to generate revenue – but even when cargo revenues double, if passenger revenues are down 80%, it’s not a sustainable situation for passenger airlines.”