Antonov Airlines keeps the home fires burning in Germany

Chris Lewis

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April 17, 2023

Antonov Airlines keeps the home fires burning in Germany

Antonov Airlines and German forwarder Rolf Riedl moved a power supply skid for an LNG terminal from Tekirdag, Turkey to Hamburg, Germany on one of its AN-124-100-150 aircraft – the biggest single piece transported by the Ukraine-owned carrier in 2022.

To load and unload the 19m long, 4.24m wide and 4m high unit Antonov used a special loading ramp, in conjunction with external cranes.

The carrier’s commercial executive, Volodymyr Goncharov, said: “A floating LNG terminal was scheduled to go into operation in Elbe port at the beginning of 2023 to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to Germany so that German households are warm and cozy. We are grateful to Rolf Riedl for entrusting with the important task of transporting the equipment and look forward to continuing to provide excellent service in the future.”

Sterling opens bigger, better Texas site

Chris Lewis

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April 14, 2023

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Sterling opens bigger, better Texas site

Sterling Transportation has opened a new facility in Coppell, just north of Dallas Forth Worth Airport.

The new building boasts 14 dock doors, 54,000sq ft of space, and capacity for over 8,000 pallet positions.

It will also be a certified Container Freight Station with full transloading capabilities.
“I’ve heard it said many times, ‘Everything is bigger in Texas.’ That statement is very true for our new DFW facility,” said vice president of sales, Jaye Fenner.

Puerto Rico launches air cargo life science community

Chris Lewis

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April 13, 2023

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Puerto Rico launches air cargo life science community

Puerto Rico (PR), the number one bioscience manufacturing hub in the US by export volume, is launching a Government-backed Life Sciences Air Cargo Logistics Community.

It will bring together all parts of the supply chain with the objective of making the US territory the most important Life Science hub in the Americas. The Caribbean island lies about 2,000km west of Miami.

The PR Air Cargo Community, supported by the PR Department of Economic Development (DEDC), will include airlines, airports, forwarders, integrators, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, ground handlers and hauliers. It will work to improve the quality of cargo handling and market Puerto Rico’s capabilities in the Life Science sector around the world.

A number of companies who will be joining the new Community have already started the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification process as part of the initiative.

Secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DEDC), Manuel Cidre, said: “We aim to put Puerto Rico firmly on the map as the best quality airfreight hub for life science in the Americas. The new Community is open for everyone in the supply chain to join and our group will also act as the Voice of the Industry with legislators and other stakeholders.”

Twelve of the world’s 20 top-grossing pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, and Abbvie operate on the island, manufacturing eight of the 15 globally top-selling biopharmaceutical products.

“We truly believe we’re heading in the right direction,” said David Olan, transportation lead, PR operations at Johnson & Johnson. “The new Air Cargo Community will give us the forum to define our opportunities to drive a consistent and solid Supply Chain logistics on the island.

“We will be able to create a more reliable and quality-oriented ecosystem that is aligned with our Life Science and Healthcare sector and at the same time, it will help us to meet and/or exceed our customers’ demands.”

Twelve out of the top 20 medical device companies also manufacture on the island, including Medtronic, CooperVision, and Boston Scientific, manufacturing products such as pacemakers and implantable defibrillators, surgical instruments, lab devices, dental equipment, and vision correction goods.

PR is designated by the US Department of Transportation as an international air trans-shipment hub, which allows unencumbered trans-shipment at its three international airports.

The community will initially aim to improve the overall quality of airfreight operations in PR by adopting best practices and a standardised way of operating, represent the community, lobby on its behalf with legislators and authorities and raise awareness internationally about PR’s airfreight capabilities and life sciences expertise.

“We have a well-trained, highly adaptable, bilingual workforce and decades of experience in manufacturing life sciences,” said Cidre. “We have the full backing of Customs, and, through cooperation and a focus on sustainable, state-of-the-art, standardized air logistics, we will improve all parts of the shipment journey.”

A Community Board will include, along with community members, the DDEC, Invest Puerto Rico, the Industry University Research Center, Aerostar Airport Holdings, and the Port Authority of PR.

The new Community and Board will meet for the first time in April to plan its next steps.

ACS opens in Mexico City

Brokers

Chris Lewis

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April 12, 2023

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Air Charter Service has opened a new office in Mexico City, its 12^th in the Americas and 30^th in total. It is headed by Marco Circosta, who joined ACS nine years ago, and has worked in multiple ACS offices around the world, along with focussing on the Mexican market for the past two years.

Encore settles arguments once and for all

Chris Lewis

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April 12, 2023

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Encore settles arguments once and for all

Air cargo quality standards group Cargo iQ has updated its Encore management platform to give ground handling agents visibility over specific time commitments for shipments in their care in order to meet service level agreements.

Technology and product manager Chris Davies (pictured) said that this not only means that shipments are more likely to arrive on time, but it also helps to protect the integrity of time-critical shipments and protect stakeholders from incurring unfair penalties.

For example, when an airline agrees that a forwarder can collect a shipment within a specified timeframe after landing, this data is input into the system and is used by the Cargo iQ Data Management Platform (CDMP) to create the route map for the shipment’s journey, which can then be monitored.

Discrepancies in actual versus planned process times can lead to disputes between handlers, airlines and forwarders but with GHAs now able to view the service agreement data in ENCORE, there is a single place for referencing offsets, making it easier to meet targets.

FAA certifies compact Opticooler

Chris Lewis

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April 12, 2023

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The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has certified DoKaSch Temperature Solutions’ Opticooler RKN container (pictured, left). It follows earlier certification of the larger Opticooler RAP (pictured, right).

Both containers have already been used for active air cargo transportation on US routes by non-US airlines. First technical approvals are currently in process by US based airlines.

While the Opticooler RAP offers space for four CP 1 pallets (or five Euro pallets), the Opticooler RKN holds one CP 1 pallet (or any standard US pallet, up to max. 48 inch x 48 inch).

Redundant systems for electrification and full air-conditioning enable precise heating and cooling without dry ice.

Silk Way to Houston

Chris Lewis

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April 12, 2023

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Baku, Azerbaijan-based Silk Way West Airlines is operating new weekly flights to George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston, alongside existing regular flights to Chicago and Dallas. Vice president commercial, Fadi Nahas, said: “Our growing presence in the Americas demonstrates our commitment to providing reliable and efficient cargo solutions for our customers in this region. This new route will also enhance our ability to connect customers to key markets in Central Asia and the Middle East.”

Cargo.one offers import airfreight quotes in an instant

Chris Lewis

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April 12, 2023

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Cargo.one offers import airfreight quotes in an instant

The Cargo.one air freight platform has launched a new service that allows import agents to instantly compare and book live import rates. It says that, until now, procuring rates from abroad took import agents hours or even days with the process made more inefficient by agents being located in different timezones,. Shipments can be booked day and night, with instant confirmation, routing and airway bill details.

Cargo.one adds that import agents using cargo.one pro will often be the first to quote their customers, an advantage that could win more business.

Bookings between agents are covered by Cargo.one protect non payment protection.

Tennesa Chetty from Swift Worldwide Logistics, in South Africa, has already booked numerous import shipments using an agent and said: “We often approach three agents and two agents come back the following day. There’s a clear advantage for an agent on cargo.one pro because they are basically the best to meet our turnaround time for quotations.”

Hauke Langert, airfreight chief executive at Germany’s Skyline Express International adopted cargo.one pro and comments: “By using cargo.one pro on both the import and export sides, instead of sending an email to a partner in Asia for example, we are now able to send quotes to clients or to agents within seconds. Since listing our rates on cargo.one pro, we’ve been amazed by the number of our quotes being shared and accepted – it’s a game-changer.”

Cargo.one says that interest from freight forwarder networks has been remarkably strong.

Lufthansa Cargo increases freighter capacity to China

Airlines

Chris Lewis

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April 11, 2023

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Lufthansa Cargo increases freighter capacity to China

Lufthansa Cargo is adjusting its freighter route network on both long-haul and short- and medium-haul routes in response to corresponding demand for the 2023 summer flight schedule. Weekly frequencies to destinations in China served by B777F aircraft will be both increased and combined in routing, offering customers more flexible capacity for the fast and direct transport of their shipments. In addition, Lufthansa Cargo is expanding its A321F network on short- and medium-haul routes.
Lufthansa Cargo’s current 2023 summer flight schedule includes a total of 79 weekly intercontinental connections. All long-haul destinations will be served from the international hub in Frankfurt by a total of 16 B777F aircraft. In particular, the route network will be expanded to include flights to China: In the future, Lufthansa Cargo will offer a total of ten freighter flights per week to Shanghai (PVG). On two of these Shanghai connections, Lufthansa Cargo will also fly to Chengdu (CTU), doubling its capacity there. In addition, the number of weekly flights to Hong Kong (HKG) will increase from five to six, including one stop in Almaty (ALA). This destination in Kazakhstan was last part of the route network in 2019 and will now be resumed.
The combined service from Frankfurt via Mumbai (BOM) to Hyderabad (HYD) will also be increased to two flights per week.
Lufthansa Cargo will continue to offer its B777F rotations to destinations in North and South America and on the route to Tel Aviv (TLV) in combination with Cairo (CAI) in the summer flight schedule.
On short- and medium-haul routes, Lufthansa Cargo continues to offer more than 50 weekly connections, using two Airbus A321F aircraft. By the end of July, the A321 freighter fleet will grow to four aircraft. Related adjustments and extensions to the flight schedule on short- and medium-haul routes are currently still being planned.
“Looking at the Chinese market in particular, we are seeing an upturn in economic activity and thus also an increasing demand for a reliable and quality transport solutions by airfreight for sensitive and high value goods. Accordingly, we have specifically adapted the flight schedule to meet the demands of our customers. The extensive capacity of our fleet gives us more flexibility on intercontinental routes as well as in the short- and medium-haul network,” said Ashwin Bhat, Lufthansa Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer.
The summer flight schedule comes into effect on March 26, 2023. In addition to the freighter offering, Lufthansa Cargo also markets the additional load capacities of some Lufthansa Group airlines, which are growing strongly with the resumption and frequency expansion of numerous passenger connections and thus represent almost half of Lufthansa Cargo’s capacity. In the 2023 summer flight schedule, cargo will be regularly transported on more than 7,000 flights a week operated by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings Discover and SunExpress.

GEODIS continues IATA CEIV program with eight sites in Europe now certified

Forwarding

Chris Lewis

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April 11, 2023

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GEODIS continues IATA CEIV program with eight sites in Europe now certified

By the end of 2022, GEODIS had received the IATA CEIV Pharma certification in 7 additional sites in EUROPE on top of the already existing site in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Having this certification ensures that facilities, equipment, operations and staff comply with the appropriate applicable standards, guidelines and regulations expected from a pharmaceutical manufacturer. This industry-wide standard aims to extend industry best practice and achieve a globally acceptable standardization. By forming a common baseline from existing regulation and standards, this certification ensures international and national compliance to safeguard product integrity while addressing specific air cargo needs in pharma logistics.
Pharma projects for GEODIS are looking extremely promising entering 2023 and will benefit further from IATA CEIV certification at the following sites in the EUROPE region: London, UK; Manchester, UK; Frankfurt, Germany; Arlanda, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; Warsaw, Poland; Brussels, Belgium; and the already validated site in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which gained certification in December, 2021.
Thomas Kraus, GEODIS’ President & CEO of the EUROPE Region said, “Having 8 sites CEIV-certified within 1 year demonstrates the commitment of the EUROPE Region of GEODIS to pharma logistics excellence. Our goal is to be an essential part of the growing GEODIS pharma network worldwide for the sole benefit of our pharma customers and the patients using their products.”