DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, and IAG Cargo have signed a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) partnership. DHL has signed a contract to purchase 11.5 million liters of SAF Scope 3 transport emissions reductions in 2023. The SAF, certified by International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) and produced from used cooking oil and food waste, has at least 80% lower lifecycle emissions than conventional jet fuel.
Pictured left to right: Kathrin Brost, Global Head of GoGreen, DHL Global Forwarding; Simon Holt, Manager Emerging Energy Europe, Phillips 66; David Rose, IAG Cargo Director of London Operation; Koji Miyazaki, IAG Cargo Global Key Account Manager.
Royal Schiphol Group, owner of the Netherlands’ main cargo gateway, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport has finalized a deal to purchase a 40% stake in Maastricht Aachen Airport in the south of the country, becoming the second shareholder alongside the province of Limburg.
Officially signed on 8 June, the €4.2 million investment will see Maastricht Aachen Airport join Royal Schiphol Group.
“Maastricht Aachen Airport is the second largest cargo airport in the Netherlands and makes a significant economic contribution to the country,” said Schiphol head of cargo, Joost van Doesburg.
“Both Schiphol and Maastricht recognize the importance of cargo, valuable freighter slots and good connectivity with the rest of the world. This collaboration will add value for our cargo partners at both airports, as we strive towards innovation, efficiency and sustainability.”
The two hubs will share market intelligence and freight data and develop innovations in cargo transport and handling. Maastricht could also be an ideal testing ground for key priorities such as sustainable aviation.
“Partnering with Schiphol will boost market confidence, and the benefits will be passed on to our cargo customers through our improved speed, and capacity,” said Maastrict Airport chief executive, Jos Roeven. “Freight is vital to our national economy, so this is a key moment not only for the Dutch cargo community, but also the Netherlands at large.”
The two airports will also share resources in strategy, real-estate, commerce, and maintenance.
Maastricht recently announced its plan to increase its freighter capacity by extending the operational length of its upgraded runway to 2,750 meters by 2025.
(Pictured: Royal Schiphol Group chief financial officer Robert Carsouw (left) with Limburg economy delegate, Stephan Satijn.)
Tension is mounting in the global air cargo market heading into the weaker summer months, says analyst Clive Data Services, part of Xeneta.
It warns that general airfreight rates fell in May to their lowest level since March 2020 as restless airlines and freight forwarders went in search of volumes.
The global airfreight spot rate fell 40% in May from a year earlier, reaching its lowest in over three years of US$2.41 per kg, just days after IATA predicted airline cargo revenues and yields could fall by more than 31% and 29% respectively in 2023.
Softening global air cargo demand saw a less severe year-over-year drop of -1% in chargeable weight in May, the smallest monthly decline in the past 12 months, but the influx of belly capacity for the peak summer leisure travel market applied more downward pressure on rates. Global air cargo capacity in May continued its double-digit increase, up 14% year-on-year.
Less demand and more capacity led to an inevitable fall in dynamic loadfactor, CLIVE’s measurement of global volume and weight perspectives of cargo flown and capacity available. It was -5% pts lower vs. May 2022 at 55%.
Xeneta chief airfreight officer, Niall van de Wouw, said it’s not only rising capacity which is causing restlessness: “There are a lot of ambitious forwarders in the market that want to grow – but they cannot grow with their current customer bases because the airfreight demand is not there, so, as we highlighted in April, they are looking to take a bigger share from someone else.
“At the same time, we see a lot of shippers going to market now because they want to refresh their rates and benefit from the different conditions to 3-6 months ago. Challengers for their business – not the incumbent freight forwarders – smell a chance to buy volumes and are going in and offering low rates. And, whether they get the business or not, the overall rates drop because shippers often stick with their current provider but expect them to adjust their rates accordingly to this lower market level.”
He added: “In my conversations with airlines and forwarders in mid-May, I heard the market was slow, but there was no panic. But the overall market sentiment seems to be changing. Now, more airlines and forwarders are clearly getting nervous, are accepting the fact that hopes of an uptick in peak season demand later in the year are dwindling.”
The Airforwarders Association (AfA) is urging shippers to enrol on one of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)’s approved programs to avoid the risk of unscreenable cargo not being permitted to fly.
AfA executive director Brandon Fried (pictured on left) warns that new US air cargo security enhancements coming into force in October will affect certain types of freight on international all-cargo flights.
The temporary Impracticable to Screen Amendment will come to an end on 31 October, meaning cargo that cannot be screened using traditional methods due to size or volume restrictions will not be eligible for air transportation unless shippers are enrolled in one of TSA’s authorized cargo security programs.
Shippers that join one of the programs gain trusted status.
Fried said: “There will only be three options after 31 October: join one of the programs, use sea freight instead of air freight or don’t ship cargo at all,” Fried told delegates at the CNS Partnership Conference in Miami on 5 June. “TSA is holding the line on this, there will be no extension.”
AfA will be holding its next face-to-face meeting about the security programs on 27 June in Chicago, working with the International Air Cargo Association of Chicago and the Chicago Brokers and Forwarders Association, followed by events in New York and Los Angeles.
Geodis’ airside site at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport has been awarded CEIV Pharma certification, a year after opening. Located in cargo zone 4 of Europe’s second-largest airport, the facility extends over 6,000sq m and includes two cold rooms (2/8° and 15/25°).
Chief executive of Geodis’ freight forwarding line of business in France. Massimo Norcaro, said: “CEIV certification is a guarantee of quality, confirming our expertise and our ability to handle the air transport of pharmaceutical products to their final destination, whether in France or round the world. It is proof of our complete mastery of the logistics chain, through the conformity of our facilities, equipment, operations and staff training, and it guarantees total product integrity.”
IAG Cargo has launched a direct service between London-Heathrow and Cincinnati, Ohio for the first time. It operates five days week in summer and four days in winter with a B787-8 aircraft.
Worldwide Flight Services has opened a fourth cargo terminal at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, increasing its capacity by over 10% 310 million kilos a year.
WFS, now a member of the SATS group, has signed a 15-year lease on the new facility in the Northeast Cargo Area, which commenced operations last month. It provides an additional 122,000sq ft of warehouse space, 10,000sq ft of offices and 200,000sq ft of ramp space at the third busiest airport in North America.
WFS has operated for nearly 40 years at Chicago O-Hare and supplies cargo, ramp, mail, and passenger services for customers including China Airlines, Eva Air, Kalitta Air, Flexport, Atlas Air, UPS, USPS and Air France KLM Martinair. Its three existing warehouses have a combined footprint of 595,000sq ft.
The latest WFS facility is equipped with electric forklift vehicles, solar panels and electric vehicle chargers. It is also fitted with a three-tier AKE storage racking system to optimise handling capacity and an automated bypass system.
Frankfurt-based NEO Air Charter has appointed Sascha Nauck as airfreight business development manager to head up its Neutral Airfreight Solutions division. Nauck’s 24-year career has been spent in air logistics, including spells at DB Schenker and GSSAs Kales Group and Euro Cargo Aviation.
NEO’s new Neutral Airfreight Solutions division provides bespoke capacity for urgent shipments that do not warrant a whole plane charter, but are too large for NEO’s On Board Courier services, offering its solutions only to bona fide freight agents and intermediaries. It uses block space agreements on selected routes, frequently at below-normal rates which are not generally accessible.
It’s been a long time in the making – work started in 2018, before the Covid pandemic hit – but IAG Cargo’s New Premia building at London Heathrow airport is now officially open for business.
Part of a £100 million investment in cargo facilities in London for, it adds not only more capacity for premium loose shipments at the IAG group of airlines –British Airways, Iberia, bmi, Aer Lingus, Vueling and Level – but more importantly ushers in a whole way of working for the group’s cargo arm.
According to IAG Cargo, the new building will greatly enhance the carrier’s capacity and ability to service customers, particularly in the pharma segment. As well as a new physical facility, New Premia also offers greatly enhanced processes with a new design that will optimise cargo flows through the premises, together with more automated handling systems that have been fully integrated with the warehouse management system.
Four large transfer vehicles service 20 new workstations, passing through rapid-rise doors allowing cargo to be moved autonomously through the facility and into storage in advance of collection and delivery to the aircraft for exports and in reverse for imports. The system is fully integrated with IAG Cargo’s existing Warehouse Management System –the first time that this integration has been delivered.
Whereas the old Premia building generally built up cargo one flight at a time, the new facility can work much more proactively, building up freight in advance where possible and helping to smooth out the often very prominent spikes in air cargo activity.
Outside, the road traffic system has been completely redesigned with a new one-way system. Large electronic screens call forward trucks to the allocated door and, in place of the old system that allocated randomly, the new operation allocates doors that are appropriate to the type of cargo or flight.
At the time of writing in late May, IAG had started to transfer flights to the new building. New Premia in fact handled its first cargo in 2022, but without the benefit of the new automated systems which are now being brought on stream. Transition to the new building is expected to be completed by the third quarter of the year.
New Premia is temperature controlled throughout with blowers at the doors to maintain the correct internal temperature. The building itself can be maintained at 15-20°C but it also incorporates a full Constant Climate temperature controlled area that offers precisely controlled temperatures.
UPS has appointed John Bolla as its president of its Healthcare arm. He joined UPS in April 2022, having previously worked for Adare Pharma Solutions and GSK, where he eventually became vice president of North American supply chain and then senior vice president of third-party sales and contract manufacturing.
Bolla’s appointment follows the retirement of Wes Wheeler earlier this year, who served in the role for over three years. Wheeler was previously chief executive of healthcare logistics firm Marken, before its acquisition by UPS in 2016, after which he launched the healthcare vertical.
