Pharmaceutical thermal protection specialist Tower Cold Chain has opened its new Americas region headquarters in Philadelphia.
Just 1.6 miles the International Airport, the 26,000sq ft building replicates its Centre of Excellence in the UK, offering design, laboratory, and testing capabilities. It also includes office space accessible to customers, offering opportunities for meetings, demonstrations, as well as new product development.
Tower says the facility will serve as a hub of innovation and expertise, fostering partnerships, knowledge exchange, and the development of customer-focused solutions to address the evolving challenges in the cold chain logistics industry.
An official open day will be held on 12 September.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published the winners of its Hackathon in Frankfurt, in which 20 teams submitted solutions built on its ONE Record data sharing standard to demonstrate innovative use cases that will change air cargo.
The winning projects were:
The Carbulator by Riege Software
Their solution addresses the challenge of invisible CO₂ emissions in air cargo planning. By enriching flight options with CO₂ emissions data using the ONE Record data model, decision makers can make more sustainable choices.
NE:ONE Play by Digitales Testfeld Air Cargo – DTAC
NE:ONE Play is a user-friendly whiteboard app that simplifies ONE Record data. It allows viewing, editing, and troubleshooting of data, making it accessible and easy to reach. It features an infinite canvas, connection to any ONE Record server, live editing, error detection, tooltips, and dark mode. https://lnkd.in/ddbz9brS
ONE Record Crew by Lufthansa Industry Solutions
ONE Record Crew is a solution developed to solve cargo irregularities that disrupt transportation. The solution combines machine learning and ONE Record to predict and address issues, bringing transparency, customer satisfaction, and sustainability to the cargo industry. Details: https://lnkd.in/dUGX6fDG
Switcargo by Air France KLM Martinair Cargo Team
SWITCARGO was developed to facilitate the transition to ONE Record. It enables airlines to execute shipments with partners using both ONE Record and other types of messaging.
CargoTracking.aero was developed to bridge the gap between Cargo iQ members and non-members, improving information sharing and real-time updates for enhanced planning and control.
Borderless Digital Salmon Movement by Vediafi Oy team
Borderless Digital Salmon Movement was developed to simplify cross-border transportation of time-sensitive goods. BDI nodes facilitate information exchange between transportation companies and border crossings, ensuring freshness and efficient passage.
The vision for ONE Record is an end-to-end digital logistics and transport supply chain where data is easily and transparently exchanged in a digital ecosystem of air cargo stakeholders, communities, and data platforms. The goal of ONE Record is to replace the many data standards used for transport documents with a single record for every shipment.
The next IATA One Record Hackathon will be held on 24-26 November, in Doha, Qatar sponsored by Qatar Airways Cargo.
Doyen of the Irish airfreight industry Sean McCool passed away on 16 June at the age of 92.
The chairman of the country’s largest cargo general sales and service agents, International Airine Marketing (IAM), he also played a leading role in the wider airfreight industry including Ireland’s hosting of the FIATA world congress in 2016.
His career started in the 1950s with senior positions in Seaboard & Western Airlines, Brinks (which he introduced to Ireland) and Aer Lingus commercial cargo. He also played a vital role in the origins of the Shannon Trade Zone.
He was a founder member and fellow of the Irish Air Cargo Institute; the Irish Institute of Freight Forwarders (IIFA). He is a former Council member of FIATA (when Ireland hosted two global Congress events (in 1981 & 2016), the Irish Exporters Association and a past vice-president of the CLECAT European forwarders’ federation.
He set up International Airline Marketing Limited (IAM) in 1989, which now represents over 25% of Irelands air cargo exports, staying on as chairman of the company after he retired from his executive role and passing the reins to his son, Ian.
A recipient of numerous awards, in recent years he received the 2017 Logistics & Transport Leader award for services to the industry and in 2019, was inducted into the All-Ireland Business Foundation (AIBF) Hall of Fame in recognition of an outstanding contribution to Irish industry over seven decades.
He will be remembered by all that met him for his great energy, can do and positive attitude and his happy smile. He will be sadly missed by his family, many, many friends, colleagues, customers and by all the crew at IAM.
Cathay Cargo has launched its ‘We Know How marketing campaign at a ceremony at Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited’s hangar on 21 June. The event also formally introduced the newly rebranded Cathay Cargo with the first Cathay Cargo Boeing 747-8F to receive the new livery forming a dramatic backdrop.
Cathay Group Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam hosted the event with guests of honour including Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mr Lam Sai-hung, Director-General of Civil Aviation Mr Victor Liu Chi-yung from the Civil Aviation Department (CAD), and Airport Authority Hong Kong Chief Executive Officer Mr Fred Lam Tin-fuk.
The campaign comes at a time when Cathay Cargo is developing links in its extended home market of the Greater Bay Area, just ahead of the forthcoming Three-Runway System at Hong Kong International Airport, which will become fully operational in late 2024.
Los-Angeles headquartered live event logistics specialist Rock-it Global has been awarded Green Business certification by the California Green Business Network.
The certification recognizes Rock-it for its compliance with environmental regulations in waste, energy, water, pollution prevention, and air quality, and marks its commitment to taking an active approach towards conserving resources and preventing pollution across its operations.
Certified Green Businesses are supported by the California Green Business Network to implement practices that lead to cost savings in energy, water, and waste.
They are also able to track their environmental progress through GreenBizTracker, a web-based reporting platform that provides the tools and metrics to help businesses adopt and develop best practices and achieve their sustainability goals.
Some of Rock-it’s efforts to date include using environmentally friendly packaging material, fuel efficient modes of shipping, and sustainable routing schedules, as well as offsetting carbon emissions for the projects completed for clients.
(Pictured: Rock-it Global’s Los Angeles Green Committee members Samantha Annamraju, compliance analyst, (left) and Laura Allen, live performance touring, ESG and marketing)
Etihad Cargo has in recent years implemented a rigorous quality programme, emphasising training and development, continuous improvement and adherence to high standards across the organisation. It achieved IATA CEIV Pharma recertification in 2022 and is one of only 44 airlines to hold the certification globally.
Pharma Champions has been developed in line with IATA CEIV Pharma guidelines and enhances Etihad Cargo’s capabilities to deliver consistent standards while transporting critical cargo via its PharmaLife product.
In the last 12 months, Etihad Cargo has recorded a 49% increase in pharmaceutical and life sciences products tonnage compared to the previous year and has developed over 1,330 IATA CEIV Pharma and GDP-certified trade lanes.
Vice president commercial, Tim Isik, explained: “Pharma Champions are an integral part of Etihad Cargo’s cool chain strategy and operations for the coming years and will act as focal contact points in the carrier’s key PharmaLife markets. This will enable Etihad Cargo to enhance regional knowledge hubs, mitigating the challenges of operating across multiple time zones and ensuring the carrier can respond to customer enquiries more quickly and efficiently.”
Pharma Champions complements other features launched in recent months, such as dedicated thermal blankets. The carrier has also invested in infrastructure to support Abu Dhabi’s vision to become a global pharmaceutical and life sciences hub, including the commissioning of a 3,300sq m cool chain facility at Abu Dhabi Airport, in partnership with Etihad Airport Services Cargo and Abu Dhabi Airports. This will double Etihad Cargo’s cool chain capacity, adding 50,000 tonnes of capacity.
Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), a Member of the SATS Group, has begun rolling out a new dock management system in North America to reduce truck waiting times in New York JFK by more than 20%.
The solution is part of WFS’ in-house developed ePic Enterprise Solution, which is now operational at 52 WFS airport stations across the US. EPic offers a unified e-business platform that enables collaboration and simplified communication within the cargo community stakeholders: shippers, freight forwarders, truckers, airlines, ground handling agents, consignees, and regulatory bodies.
The new Dock Management System will be implemented across WFS’ major airport locations in North America over the next 12 months, with Atlanta, Miami, and Boston next in line to adopt the solution. Trucking companies, consignees, and forwarders will be able to create their own slot booking for cargo drop-off or recovery at WFS stations, ensuring better optimisation of truck yards and alleviating congestion.
Other features of the ePic platform include warehouse progress monitoring using live flight data from Flightaware to track arrival and departure information and the breakdown and build-up of cargo to meet customers’ service level agreements (SLAs);
iPads in WFS’ warehouse operations are also being connected to each weigh scale in its facilities to enter shipment weights automatically into the system, eliminating potential errors. The new solution has already been fitted to 60% of the scales in WFS’ cargo stations in the US;
In conjunction with airline partners, WFS is rolling out ICS2 integration and functionality to assist with compliance to the incoming EU Customs regulations.
Barcode reading applications have also been installed in ePic to support the RAFT Fully Automated Pallet Storage System, initially at New York JFK. This helps the system to quickly and accurately read and inventory cargo for input from the warehouse and dispersal to delivery agents.
WFS vice president cargo for North America, Shawnpaul Booth said: “For WFS in North America, ePic is ahead of other handling software because it is constantly evolving based on expertise from the field. We have a process to continually look at requests from within our business, which can come from Warehouse Supervisors or Office Agents, and we prioritize them. The improvements we make are driven by users. The fact that ePic is designed to be quite a simple system, means building APIs is very quick and easy, which is leading airline customers to ask us to implement it within their own locations because they see the efficiencies where we work with them.”
EPic allows WFS to use a single system to handle multiple airline customers in multiple facilities using one centralised solution, simplifying operational processes, training requirements, and maximizing efficiency.
Handler and ground services company Swissport International has opened a warehouse for temperature-controlled pharma at Dublin Airport.
It says the 400 sq m facility is the first of its size at the Irish capital’s airport. The new cold storeroom is fully dedicated to pharmaceuticals, and can hold up to 200 pallets.
The facility has been built in partnership with Celtic Cooling and operates between 15 to 25°C. It has been sensitively designed to minimise environmental impact by using cooling technology that relies on propane gas – compared to other refrigerants, propane has a very low global warming potential. The warehouse also has an additional unit capable of operating at 2-8° C.
Bournemouth Airport on Britain’s South Coast is now host to the UK largest non-integrator freighter fleets – and will be by a considerable margin when current business plans are realised at the end of 2024.
Local carrier European Cargo has a fleet of 12 Airbus A340-6000 aircraft, either of them currently based at Bournemouth. It has been converting its fleet to full freighters using a unique main deck cargo pod system; three are now currently operational, six modified aircraft will be operational by the end of the year and ten by the end of 2024.
The aircraft were originally in the Iberian and Virgin passenger fleets. They were tailor-made for long, high routes in hot climates but are almost equally at home on short intra-Continental hops, says European Cargo chief executive, David Kerr. Reputedly the longest aircraft in the world (some sources suggest the Boeing 747-8 just pips it by three feet), each aircraft offers a maximum payload of 76 tonnes or 440cu m.
Some of the fleet have already been in cargo service, moving PPE and other essentials from China to Bournemouth during the Covid pandemic under the special dispensations that allowed unmodified passenger upper decks to be used to carry cargo.
Now, however, the aircraft are being fully modified with 39 fixed fire-retardant pods on the upper deck. At 237cu m, this capacity will be aimed at e-commerce and similar light goods while the lower decks will be used for denser cargo.
Cargo on the upper deck will be loose-loaded but special equipment such as moveable roller-beds will speed the process and the aircraft will offer quick turnarounds, says David Kerr.
While the conversion is thorough, the ex-Virgin aircraft still display some signs of their heritage – the on-board nail bar and the odd bit of diamante décor on the bulkhead. More importantly, some of Virgin’s crews transferred with the aircraft to European Cargo and have remained there.
As well as its operational advantages, the A340-600 was selected because they are relatively young aircraft and the cost of conversion relatively low, says Kerr.
The plains will operate under a mix of UK and Maltese licences to maximise traffic rights.
Potential routes include services from China to Europe – already being operated – to and from North America and, salmon from Norway worldwide.
Bournemouth Airport is owned by Regional and City Airports (RCA) Group and freight operations are handled by its Cargo First arm, which offers a complete service including handling and trucking. Cargo First’s head of cargo development Bob Matharoo brings 25 years’ industry experience, including a nine-year spell at BMI Cargo.
RCA also owns Coventry, Exeter and Norwich airports but Bournemouth is its main cargo hub. It can offer freedom from the congestion of other major south-east hubs while at the same time, it says, it is just 90 minutes by road from London (2½ hours might be a more reasonable estimate for a truck to Heathrow). It is also one of the few UK airports with capacity to handle significant numbers of freighters; East Midlands is very busy these days, Stansted is virtually full, while Manston and Robin Hood have closed).
Maersk is increasing frequency and introducing additional aircraft on its freighter flights between China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US.
It will double weekly rotations from three to six between Chicago Rockford and Hangzhou Xiaoshan in China and from two to three between Greenville-Spartanburg in South Carolina, Incheon in Korea and Shenyang Taoxian in China.
The service between Billund Denmark and Hangzhou will increase from three to five weekly and will receive a newly converted Boeing 767 freighter, operated by Maersk Air Cargo, the company’s in-house cargo airline. It is the fifth and order for six such aircraft.
Maersk recently opened a new Chicago air freight gateway for customers using Chicago O’Hare International and Rockford International.
