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New team put their back into Air Canada Cargo sales

Air Canada Cargo has made a series of new appointments as it ramps up its freighter network.

Matthieu Casey has been named managing director, commercial – cargo, overseeing global sales, revenue management, and cargo analytics.

Dotane Harel has been named director, regulatory and operations process engineering and will have oversight of Cargo’s worldwide airside, warehouse, and freighter operations.

Herve Riboulet becomes director, cargo analytics and CRM and will be accountable for establishing a CRM and Analytics Centre of Excellence.

Jeffry Edwards is now director, cargo network control. 

Tal Mor has been named director, global partnership programs, Sebastian Cosgrove becomes director, global customer service and Stephen Phillips is now director, cargo sales.

ECS to open LA office for Korea’s Air Premia

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ECS is to open an office in Los Angeles to handle flights operated by Korean carrier, Air Premia. It will carry out cargo sales, reservations, and ensuring the handling of regular and full charter flights. ECS Group also represents Air Premia in the rest of the world.

The GSSA recently opened a subsidiary company in Korea, GAC Korea.

Air Premia is due to launch a Los Angeles route in August its first US destination, and ECS Group will be opening an office there to manage sales out of the North and South America.

Air Premia will also add flights to Narita in August and already serves Singapore and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. The airline plans to add two B787-9 aircraft to its fleet every year until 2025 and to operate wide-body freighters by 2026.

CMA CGM to take stake and sign freighter joint venture with Air France-KLM

Freight forwarder CMA CGM has signed a deal Air France-KLM for a joint freighter network and to take a stake of up to 9% in the Franco-Dutch airline.

The freighter deal will initially create a fleet of ten full aircraft – four from CMA CGM and six from Air France KLM – but will include a total of 12 additional aircraft that are on order for the two operators. The joint venture will ultimately include CMA CGM’s outstanding orders for eight additional aircraft and Air France-KLM’s outstanding orders for an additional four aircraft, potentially creating a fleet of 22 freighters.

The deal will also include Air France-KLM’s belly aircraft capacity, comprising over 160 long-haul aircraft.

CMA CGM Group also plans to become a shareholder of Air France-KLM Group and plans to take up to 9% of Air France-KLM’s ex-post share capital, subject to approval at the next shareholders’ meeting on 24 May.

The partners will also create a single sales force. The move is expected to increase revenue significantly as well create a more integrated and resilient supply chain.

Marseille-headquartered CMA CGM created its CMA CGM Air Cargo arm, including full freighter operations, in March 2021 and its acquisitions over the last three years include CEVA Logistics, and logistics company GEFCO.

Chairman and chief executive of the CMA CGM Group, Rodolphe Saadé said the move would significantly accelerate the development of CMA CGM Air Cargo, and was fully in line with CMA CGM’s strategy to become a leader in integrated logistics

Air France-KLM Group chief executive Benjamin Smith added: that it would significantly strengthen and expand its position in the air cargo industry.

Kuehne+Nagel airfreight shuttle goes electric

Kuehne+Nagel North America has launched an electric truck service to shuttle air cargo between Los Angeles International Airport and its Torrance airport warehouse. It is part of a sustainable airport corridor solution for pick-up and delivery service from the airport within a radius of 70-80 miles. Kuehne+Nagel plans to expand the new sustainable offering to other major US air freight hubs.

IAG appoints chief people officer

IAG Cargo has appointed Caroline Andrews as chief people officer. She joins from DHL Express where she was vice president of HR, UK and Ireland, and in her new role will focus on the development of IAG Cargo’s talent strategy globally, overseeing employee experience for a workforce of 2,250.

IAG Cargo recently launched its biggest ever recruitment drive, looking to hire 500 new employees.

CargoAi launches API suite

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Airfreight tech firm CargoAi is officially launching its API Suite services. It allows users to plug into its system to retrieve real-time schedules, availability, rates and tracking information.

The Schedule API includes a pool of schedules and real-time routes data of virtually all airlines worldwide. The Rates & Book API offers real-time availability and pricing and allows the freight forwarders to make instant bookings or booking requests on CargoAi’s 130 airlines. The Track API can be used to monitorshipments irrespective of the channel used for booking.

All three APIs also include the CargoAi CO2 calculator.

New commercial VP for Etihad

Etihad Cargo has appointed Tim Isik as vice president – commercial, based in Abu Dhabi. He joins Etihad Cargo from American Airlines, where he gained over a decade of experience working within the aviation and air cargo sectors. In his new role with Etihad Cargo, Isik will oversee the development and deployment of the carrier’s sales strategy and be responsible for further growing Etihad Cargo’s strategic relationships, executing sales and marketing plans and driving team performance.

Cold chain container company Tower opens in LA

Cold chain container specialist Tower Cold Chain has opened a hub in Los Angeles, putting it on track to double its global network during 2022.

The latest hub, 18 miles from the international airport, gives Tower its first location on the US West Coast. It is operated for Tower by freight forwarder DSV, and offers up to 10,000sq ft of dedicated, secure warehousing.

California is home to several major biotech and pharmaceutical hubs, it was high on Tower’s priority list for a hub – pending the right local representative to operate the hub.

Global head of operations, Natalie Robinson, said: “We approached DSV because of its overall quality and calibre as a freight forwarder, but also the excellence of its Los Angeles operation.”

“DSV was able to provide us with dedicated space within its facility – initially, 5,000 sq. ft but with the flexibility to grow to 10,000 sq. ft. Its specialist staff also gave us every confidence they can manage the requirements of the Tower solution.”  

Tower containers offer a passive solution, requiring no manual intervention or power supply during transit and this places particular importance on pre-conditioning th, to maintain the required temperature for 120 hours.

AGI set to buy fellow handler TAS

Ground handler Alliance Ground International (AGI) is to acquire  passenger and cargo specialist Total Airport Services (TAS), subject to regulatory approvals.

TAS specializes in cargo, ramp, and passenger handling services at eight locations including Chicago O’Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Rickenbacker International. Headquartered in Spring, Texas, it  employs a team of 1,600 and regularly handles up to 331,000 tons of cargo a year.

AGI chief executive, Jared Azcuy (pictured), said: “TAS boosts AGI’s operations in the passenger handling market, which is key to our current strategy and complements our cargo handling capabilities at key US hubs. TAS is an excellent fit, and we’re excited to welcome the TAS team to AGI.”

Azcuy added: “We will continue to pursue acquisitions that fit in with our strategy of expanding both our product offering and our global reach, with particular focus on Latin America, Europe, and Canada.”

TAS chief executive Silvio Tano commented: “It is clear that AGI and TAS complement each other very well. We are very proud of what TAS has achieved to date and look forward to further growth and opportunities as part of the AGI team.”

Quarter of global capacity on CargoAi – with more to come

The CargoAi online platform says it has attracted a quarter of the world’s airfreight capacity to its digital marketplace. More airline and GSA contracts are in place to double this by the end of this year, it adds.

It attributes its success to the fact that it uses code instead of servers to support its applications, deploying the latest available technology in building its solutions, together with its easy-to-adopt spot request feature available for more than 80 airlines. Freight forwarders can use it to request larger shipments (averaging 2 tonnes that are often not covered by airline systems due to technical limitations.  

CargoAi says that more than 5,000 freight forwarders in 103 countries are actively using the platform,  while its current contract roll out will connect 50% of the world’s air cargo capacity by the end of 2022, with more in the pipeline for 2023.

CargoAi is already integrated with every airline cargo management system such as Cargospot, iCargo, or Skychain, allowing carriers to  quickly interface at minimal cost. It takes less than four weeks to activate the live distribution and receive the first eBookings, it says.

CargoAi chief executive, Matthieu Petot, said: “I created CargoAi three years ago because I saw that the air cargo industry is still very much in the infancy of digitalisation and could hugely benefit from technologies and digital best practices that are already standard in other industries…We have greatly expanded our product portfolio since then and are implementing a very clear five-year roadmap. Our advantage, as the only neutral marketplace provider, is the huge potential in terms of technology and additional efficiency that we can develop and offer to all airlines and freight forwarders.

He added: “Our sights for 2022 are set on North and South American expansion with the recruitment of more than 15 people worldwide this year, and we will be launching new airlines and partners in those regions in the coming weeks.”