IATA has signed up Cathay Cargo, CHAMP Cargosystems, Global Logistics System, IAG Cargo, IBS Software, LATAM Cargo, and Lufthansa Cargo as inaugural members of its Digitalization Leadership Charter.
The charter, announced at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium in Hong Kong on 14 March, aims to boost innovation and efficiency while promoting sustainable and harmonized digital transformation with data sharing based on IATA’s ONE Record protocol.
The Digital Leadership members must commit to developing unified and collaborative digital strategies, interoperability and to use new technology ethically.
It also calls for resilience through robust infrastructure and safeguards against cybersecurity risks.
Munich Airport was the only German major air hub to increase freight traffic in 2023 with an increase of 6.6% year on year, said the Bavarian gateway. Total airfreight volume in Germany as a whole fell by 7.1%, according to German Airports Association figures.
Munich’s freight totalled 284,000 tons, much of it belly cargo, which grew by 11%. January and February 2024 were up by 6.5% and 10.8% respectively on 2023 and freight is now back to almost 90% of the pre-pandemic level.
Munich now has direct connections to China, a new route to Bangalore and four weekly flights to Taipei. This year, it will gain new routes to Seattle, Johannesburg, and Vietnam, as well as additional flights to Beijing and Osaka.
DHL Express will open a new freight building in summer.
Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Cargo has implemented a customised version of Awery’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to manage its cargo chartering programme and help it meet a 35% surge in requests. It says the intelligent automation (IA)-based system will streamline operations, improve response times, and improve customer service. And allow Etihad Cargo to classify and prioritise charter queries, improve analytics and performance evaluation, as well as providing access to historical pricing data.
Emirates SkyCargo is now live on the Cargo.one digital airfreight platform. Customers can access schedules, tariff and contract rates, and gain real-time access to available capacity. During the initial launch phase, the partnership will roll out in select countries in Europe before expanding across the Americas, Africa, the Far East and Australasia. Emirates SkyCargo’s four core products are listed on cargo.one, including Fresh, Fresh Breathe Airfreight Priority and general cargo.
Marie Seco-Köppen is to take over from Lothar Moehle as Executive Director of the Cargo iQ. The airfreight quality organisation has also launched a new membership engagement scheme including a tiered membership program and scorecard for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Seco-Köppen brings over 20 years’ experience in delivering process improvements and digitalization, joining from the Im3pact AG transport consultancy. She is currently also Master Operating Plan (MOP) working group chair at Cargo iQ, said: “In our fragmented industry, quality standards and digitalization remain crucial to attain increased performance visibility, which is required to remove redundancies and jointly
drive-up service consistency for the shipper.”
Moehle is retiring in June after a 50-year career in air cargo and will formally step down in May. He commented: “Cargo iQ is taking the next step in driving quality in our industry by engaging members in two initiatives that put implementation transparency at the heart of the process, as well as ensuring all stakeholders have clear KPIs against which they can measure success and define improvements,” said Moehle.
“The scorecard system will be open for all air cargo stakeholders who engage with Cargo iQ members to use, to measure the quality of their partner’s service, but also their own performance.”
The scorecard is under development for forwarder-carrier and carrier-ground handling agent relationships, concentrates on measuring selected Cargo iQ milestones, including Notified for Delivery (NFD) performance and timely and complete information exchange.
The tier system scheme awards members Bronze, Silver, or Gold membership according to level of implementation and reporting conformance.
Unilode Aviation Solutions has signed a service partnership to manage airfreight unit load devices for Air India.
It will provide management services, along with digitalised containers and pallets from its pool for the carrier’s 120-strong fleet of aircraft which serve 100 domestic and international destinations, offering bellyhold and cargo capacity.
Chief commercial officer, Mohammed Akhlaq, said that Unilode would acquire state-of-the-art ULDs for Air India, contributing to its sustainability goals, as well as providing network-wide global repair services.
He added: “As the owner of the world’s largest ULD fleet, our global reach and scale will ensure we can deliver throughout Air India’s network whilst we commit to acquiring new state-of-the-art ULDs to meet the demands.”
Unilode chief executive, Ross Marino, commented: “We are excited about Air India’s ambitious growth plans, and look forward to contributing to their success and supporting them with Unilode’s full-service ULD management solutions.”
Lufthansa Cargo will launch twice-weekly B777F freighter service between Brussels and Chicago O’Hare on 3 April, a service aimed mainly at exporters of pharma productions in one of Europe’s leading manufacturing countries.
The flights originate from Frankfurt’s main Frankfurt hub on Mondays and Wednesdays and will return directly there from Chicago.
Lufthansa said that Brussels International’s pharma facilities were second to none with the largest amount of suitable temperature controlled warehouse space in Europe and a closed cold chain from warehouse to aircraft, thanks to its Airside Pharma Transporters.
Brussels was the first world gateway to receive the CEIV Pharma certification, it added.
Lufthansa Cargo chief executive, Ashwin Bhat said: “With our new connection, we can now offer an even more attractive network, and in particular a direct connection for particularly time-critical freight.”
Geopolitics has had little effect on the trend towards globalisation, except in a few specific cases says DHL in the 2024 edition of its Global Connectedness Report, due to be published on 15 March.
It claimed that in 2023 globalisation remained at close to the record of 2022, despite a wars, crises and other geopolitical shocks.
But it noted a falling off in trade and ties between the US and down by about a quarter since 2016 and a trend that gathered pace in 2023. However, trade flows between the two countries are still among the largest in the world.
The other major exception was trade between Russia and Europe, following the imposition of sanctions as result of the invasion of Ukraine.
The report, which seeks to measure trade connectedness in more than 180 countries and regions, named Singapore, the Netherlands and Ireland as the most globalized countries. The UK’s flows are the most broadly distributed around the world, it added.
There is little, if any sign of globalization giving way to near shoring and trade is in fact taking place over greater distances,. Only North America shows a definite trend towards near-shoring, said DHL.
Companies earnings from sales abroad is increasing and there is no sign of any reduction in cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
However, the report adds that globalisation must be put into context; it is growing rapidly, but from a low level and domestic still far exceeds international trade.
Kale Info Solutions has joined the Airport Council International – Latin America and Caribbean (ACI-LAC), which fosters innovation and digital transformation in the region’s air cargo industry. Kale Info Solutions USA, a fully owned subsidiary of Kale Logistics Solutions, provides a suite of software as a service–based solutions for the logistics community at airports and ports and has delivered digitisation for over 100 gateways around the world. Its Cloud-based Enterprise Systems and Cargo Community Platforms facilitate multimodal cross-border trade, providing a single electronic window supporting operational flows.
President of Kale Info Solutions, Amar More, said: “Our goal is to establish a dynamic forum where organisations recognise the potential of digitisation, share a collective vision, and elevate air cargo operations into a realm of increased agility, sustainability, security, and technological advancement.”
Cathay Cargo Terminal and Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) have become the first airfreight handling-companies to achieve IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) certification.
IEnvA is a comprehensive certification programme developed by the International Air Transport Association that independently assesses the commitment of aviation stakeholders to continuously improve their environmental and sustainability performance. By adhering to globally recognised standards and best practice, IEnvA ensures that organisations minimise negative impacts on the environment while maintaining operational excellence.
Cathay Cargo terminal chief operating officer Mark Watts said: “The programme brings real rigour to environment management systems and reflects the significant investments our companies are making.”
Hactl chief executive Wilson Kwong added: “By attaining this certification, our two companies have set a high standard for the entire industry to strive towards. This achievement solidifies our position as leaders in promoting environmental responsibility, and underscores the importance of sustainable practices in the aviation sector.”
