Vienna Airport and Korean Air have signed an agreement to expand their existing partnership to meet growing demand for air cargo services. Plans include joint market initiatives targeting freight forwarders and customers as well as an exchange of industry expertise. Korean Air has been regularly operating cargo flights between Incheon and Vienna since 2004. Vienna is a cargo hub for neighbouring countries such as the Slovak Republic, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
WFS is an Air China star in LA
Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), expects to handle over 20,000 tonnes of cargo a year for Air China Cargo in Los Angeles under a new three-year contract. WFS is providing ramp and warehouse handling services for the airline’s Boeing 777 and Boeing 747-400 freighter flights as well as bellyhold cargo on passenger services.
Air China Cargo currently operates seven freighter flights a week on a Shenzhen-Mexico City (Felipe Ángeles)-Los Angeles–Shenzhen-Shenyang-Los Angeles–Beijing routing.Four passenger flights a week connect Los Angeles to Beijing and Shenzhen.
Jose Canales, WFS’s senior vice president for commercial and business development in North America said: “This is a major contract win for WFS in Los Angeles, which is such an important gateway for Air China on the US west coast. It also extends WFS’ partnership with the airline to more than 10 stations globally, including New York JFK, Washington Dulles, and Paris CDG. This relationship spans over 30 years and with Air China’s fleet and network growth plans, we hope to extend this further based on our understanding of the airline’s service requirements and the operational excellence our teams deliver.”
WFS handles over 50 airline, freight forwarding, and ecommerce customers in Los Angeles, processing over 760,000 tonnes of cargo a year.
Miami cargo hits the heights
Miami International Airport (MIA) says its cargo operations achieved 1% growth in 2023 to a record 2.78 million tons. The Florida gateway says this was driven by 2.2 million tons of international cargo and 548,976 tons of domestic shipments. Additionally, 2023 was the third consecutive year that MIA handled more than 2.7 million tons of cargo.
MIAalso achieved its highest-ever annual passenger total, handling 52.3 million travellers in 2023, a 3.2% increase over the previous year’s record.
MIA director and chief executive, Ralph Cutié, said: “In April, the airport is set to welcome its 40th all-cargo carrier, China Cargo Airlines, further strengthening its position as a key player in global air cargo.”
AviaAM delivers latest addition to the Challenge family
AviaAM Leasing has delivered a Boeing 747-400F aircraft to Challenge Group’s Liege, Belgium hub. The latest addition to the Challenge fleet, which offers nose-loading capacity and a 120-tonne payload, was previously operated by Magma Aviation.
Challenge expects that the latest addition to its fleet will be deployed between Europe and the Far East.
Challenge Group offers air freight industry solutions including handling, air and ground logistics and aviation services. It employs over 1,000 people across three airlines (Challenge Airlines IL in Israel, Challenge Airlines BE in Belgium, Challenge Airlines MT in Malta), a commercial division (Challenge Air Cargo), ground handling and a European road feeder services in Europe.
Community is the key to efficiency, says Kale chief
Air cargo community systems are driving profitability and sustainability and accelerating digital take up in the industry, Amar More, Chief Executive of Kale Logistics Solutions told Air Cargo India convention.
Such systems are helping stakeholders to work together, he explained to delegates at the gathering n in Mumbai on 15 February.
Airport congestion and operational inefficiency can be alleviated through a common digital platform, More said.
“Air Cargo Community systems act as an ‘Air Cargo Single Window’, that facilitates ease of business and global trade by eliminating duplication of data entry, reducing unnecessary paperwork, tackling airport congestion issues, and bringing shipment visibility to all stakeholders,” More in a panel discussion on digitalisation.
“Delivering end-to-end collaboration through a single platform is imperative to ensuring our industry fully embraces digitalisation, as it is essential for facilitating better coordination, resource optimisation, and rapid information exchange between all parties involved.”
“The true benefits of digitalisation emerge only when an entire ecosystem embraces it – partial adoption falls short,” said More.
“Operational efficiency driven by faster processing and the ability to provide real-time visibility and accurate tracking are all perks now expected by customers, making adopting digital solutions a necessity to compete in our industry.”
Kale works with more than 100 air cargo stations to help airports become digitally connected logistics hubs and in May will unveil its CLEAR VIEW Air Cargo invitation-only event in Istanbul on 17-18 May, focusing on best practices for digitalising the supply chain
WFS green belts to fight waste and carbon emissions
Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), a member of the SATS Group, has launched a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB) program in North America to identify opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and enhance customer satisfaction, while helping employees achieve an internationally recognised management certification.
WFS currently has 10 team members in the region who have earned Green Belts, having successfully completed 40 hours of classroom training, an examination, and a six-month project to target a specific benefit for the company. A total of 15 employees are actively going through the program, and a further 130 members are on the ‘wait list’ for upcoming quarterly programs.
LSSGB was introduced to WFS in North America by Jeffrey Bounds, Senior vice president, operational excellence and business performance, Americas, and Phil Schreibman, director, continuous improvement, and Lean Six Sigma ‘Master Black Belt’. The first LSSGB cohort commenced in 2023, and two more have started since then.
WFS is now offering an LSSGB program for up to 10 employees in North America four times a year. This is available not only to those with an operational focus, but also encompasses team members from other key areas of the business, including IT, finance, and HR.
Schreibman said: “We chose Lean Six Sigma because it not only drives operational excellence, it also inspires transformational change. The Lean principles are very hands-on and focus on removing waste from processes, while Six Sigma traditionally comes more from a manufacturing and engineering environment.
“So, by combining the two and creating a Green Belt level, we are teaching leaders and future leaders how to look at our day-to-day operations, to not only remove waste from existing processes but to also create standardized processes that can work across the network. It is also giving everyone involved a skillset to look at data to make the best decisions possible.”
Initiatives have included transforming ground operations week-to-week data for planning across all pools of productivity to ensure targets are met and resources are applied most efficiently; generating income from recycling of IT assets and; identifying work opportunity tax credits and ensuring the business optimizes the credits it is entitled to.
Bounds added: “The way our team have embraced the Lean Six Sigma concept has reinforced the eagerness for the program. The reason why we limit each quarterly group to 10 people, and part of the uniqueness of what we’re doing, is because we couple it with mentorships, aligning the program participants with our continuous improvement (CI) directors, who are all Lean Six Sigma Black Belts and above. Having that partnership with a CI team already very excited about driving change and improvement is contagious.
“We are committed to providing our customers with the highest level of service and believe that implementing this initiative is a critical step in achieving this goal. This program is not only bringing positive change to our operations, it reinforces and builds a culture of continuous improvement that will benefit our customers, employees, and stakeholders for years to come.
“It is giving our LSSGB team members the opportunity to attain an internationally-recognized certification that they will carry with them for the remainder of their careers, and produces a return on that investment for the business as well,” he added.
Broker appoints Nordic business chief
Air Partner has appointed Kim Borgaard as head of business development for the Nordics region. The broker says it reflects growing demand cargo and passenger charters. He will be based just outside Copenhagen, and will leverage his wealth of expertise to drive the company’s growth across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. He joins Air Partner from Chapman Freeborn where he spent 13 years as Nordic sales manager and also worked for SAS Scandinavian Airlines.
Etihad launches secure high tech service
Etihad Cargo has launched a SecureTech service for consumer electronics. It is the ninth addition to the carrier’s suite of premium products and is dedicated to the safe and secure transportation of consumer electronics, including mobile phones, laptops, tablets and other lithium battery-powered devices.
Products are monitored during the build-up and break-down of palettes in secure and controlled storage areas at the origin, during transit and at the destination. Constant surveillance is provided by security personnel or CCTV systems, ensuring only authorised personnel have access to shipments during transportation.
Etihad Cargo recently became the third Middle Eastern airline toachieve IATA Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators Lithium Batteries (CEIV Li-batt) certification. It delivers training programmes to ensure teams are handling lithium batteries safely and securely and with the aid of a specifically designed acceptance checklist.
The carrier has seen a surge in demand for air cargo capacity for the transportation of consumer electronics, with a significant increase in the number of mobile phones from India.
SriLankan space available on Cargo.one this summer
SriLankan Cargo has signed a partnership with the Cargo.one platform, its first deal with a digital sales channel.
From summer 2024, freight forwarders can use Cargo.one to book SriLankan Cargo capacity, for both general cargo and perishables, across its entire network including London, Frankfurt, Paris, Chennai, Delhi, Singapore, Shanghai, Canton, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Sydney.
SriLankan Cargo has a network of 37 destinations in 21 countries across Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Far East and Australia and, with its road and partner networks, reaches over 200 destinations worldwide.
Head of cargo at SriLankan Cargo, Chaminda Perera, commented: “Our digital sales progression is now a key driver of our growth, and cargo.one is a logical expert to expedite our transition. We can have total confidence that every SriLankan Cargo customer will enjoy a top-class digital experience. It is excellent to see that our teams are already kick-starting smart initiatives to maximize our market opportunities.”
Founder and co-chief executive of Cargo.one, Moritz Claussen, added: “We are proud to play an important role in fueling the exciting growth of SriLankan Cargo, our first South Asian carrier. By entering the digital market strongly with a world class, customer centric sales channel, SriLankan Cargo is best placed to leverage its valuable strengths and deliver for many more forwarders globally.”
Schiphol launches upgraded community system
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (Schiphol) has launched the upgraded version of its port community system (PCS) following four years’ of development with its wholly-owned cargo information platform, Cargonaut.
The PCS is a single platform for information and data exchange between all cargo stakeholders at Schiphol and external authorities such as Customs.
The improvements deliver faster data processing, greater transparency and full compliance with latest IATA standards and guidelines.
Schiphol head of cargo, Joost van Doesburg (pictured), said: “By upgrading specific parts of the PCS, the system is more robust and future-proof. This means we can continue to safely ensure the smooth import and export of a large amount of cargo.”
He added that careful development means that the PCS is fully future proofed being able to integrate upcoming tech as it evolves. For example, later in 2024, a Secure Import System is scheduled for implementation. This informs forwarders when an import shipment is ready for collection by an air cargo handler, at the same time cross referencing data to improve security.
Work is also underway on the Truck Visited Management System to improve and streamline waiting times for cargo deliveries and collections.
Head of Cargonaut, Marco van Katwijk, added that new technologies, including API Connections (software), XML (data migration) and the OneRecord data model, allows air cargo partners to exchange data easily and transparently.