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Tag: air cargo

Loneliest Lion gets Qatar Airways Journey

Posted on by Keith McKinley

After enduring five years of isolation in an abandoned Armenian zoo, Ruben, known as the world’s loneliest lion, embarked on a remarkable journey of rehabilitation in Free State, South Africa, thanks to the collaborative efforts of Animals Defenders International (ADI) and Qatar Airways Cargo.

Ruben, who was left behind when a private zoo closed down in Armenia, suffered in a tiny concrete cell with no contact with other lions. Ruben’s happy ending was at risk when ADI could not find a suitable flight for him out of Armenia.

Qatar Airways Cargo orchestrated a 5,200-mile journey for the 15-year-old lion, where he is now re-discovering his voice and confidence as he roams the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary. Despite physical challenges from years of captivity, Ruben’s resilience and determination shine through, offering hope for his remarkable recovery.

Elisabeth Oudkerk, SVP Cargo Sales & Network Planning at Qatar Airways Cargo said: “We are committed to preserving wildlife and endangered species, that is why we launched our WeQare Chapter 2 initiative: ‘Rewild the Planet’ back in 2020. We pledged to return wildlife and endangered species back to their natural habitat, free of charge and we will continue to do so.”

“When ADI approached us and explained the sad story of Ruben, we immediately knew we had to help them. There are a lot of logistics involved in moving animals like Ruben; from the logistics at the airports involved, the process for loading and unloading the animals from the aircraft, to ensuring the correct cages and wellbeing of the animals are in place. It takes a lot of effort from our team to organise such transport – but it is something we are all collectively very proud to be a part of, knowing we helped give back to our planet.”

Jan Creamer, President, Animals Defenders International added: “Ruben was really in trouble until Qatar Airways Cargo stepped up. ADI had been funding his care in Armenia since December and when we could find no flights for him we feared he could be stuck there.

“Then Qatar Airways Cargo ‘WeQare’ initiative stepped in, moving a larger aircraft with hold doors big enough for Ruben’s crate, into the scheduled passenger route out of Yerevan. We are so thankful to Qatar Airways Cargo for all their support in helping get Ruben to South Africa. Seeing Ruben walk on grass for the first time, hearing the voices of his own kind, with the African sun on his back, brought us all to tears.”

Qatar Airways Cargo’s WeQare sustainability programme consists of a series of focus chapters based on four core pillars: environment, society, economy, and culture and is a conscious endeavour to create a more positive impact on the industry and the world. Chapter 2 – Rewild the Planet encourages the preservation of ecological balance by offering free transport to organisations involved in returning wild animals to their natural habitat.

New Cargo Handling Facility at Heathrow

Posted on by Keith McKinley

IAG Cargo, the cargo division of International Airlines Group (IAG) today celebrates the official opening of its new cargo handling facility, New Premia at key international hub, London Heathrow.

New Premia will serve as IAG Cargo’s new home for handling premium loose shipments, enabling double the amount of cargo to be managed daily. To accommodate this increase in cargo handling capacity, significant focus has been given to designing bespoke IT systems and systems integration to regulate freight movements and allocations inside the facility.

The facility has been designed to handle more cargo for customers as efficiently as possible, with 11 new landside doors, meaning even faster engagement for drivers to collect or drop off cargo. The temperature-controlled building includes a state-of-the-art Constant Climate Quality Centre (CCQC) for pharmaceuticals, with 29 dedicated cool cells and temperature facilities available from +2°C to +8°C (COL), +15°C to +25°C (CRT) and -20°C (FRO) ensuring sensitive shipments are held in a temperature-controlled environment at all times. Additionally, the +15°C to +25°C (CRT) chamber includes two dedicated break and build workstations. The new facility is certified under IAG Cargo’s Good Distribution Practice (GDP) WDA licence issued by the UK Medicines & Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

Operationally, four large ‘transfer vehicles’ have been introduced which service the 20 new workstations. These vehicles pass 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 similarly the process works in reverse for imports. This process uses ground-breaking technology as the system is fully integrated with IAG Cargo’s existing Warehouse Management System – which is the first time globally that this integration has been delivered.

David Shepherd, Chief Executive Officer at IAG Cargo said: “The opening of New Premia is a pivotal milestone for IAG Cargo – the benefits it will bring both to our customers and our operational teams is huge. We strive to provide the best service for our customers and the investment into our IT systems will improve our operational performance, optimising the movement of cargo to support global trade. I’m proud of the entire team that have made it possible to officially launch today – it represents a truly exciting time for us as a business. I look forward to seeing New Premia now run at its full potential.”

Investment into learning and development remains key at IAG Cargo and to prepare for New Premia opening and the transition to the new model, IAG Cargo staff have received targeted training over the last 18 months and this training continues as normal operations takes place at the facility. New roles have also been created such as six new Planning Managers, who work closely with the Operations Duty Manager and are fundamental in delivering the day-to-day operations.

Cargo Drone Takes First Flight

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Dronamics, the world’s first cargo drone airline, has announced the successful completion of the first flight of its flagship aircraft, the Black Swan, at Balchik airport in Bulgaria, demonstrating the potential for the logistics industry to enhance efficiency in the transportation of products.

Born out of two brothers’ desire to find a quicker, greener and more affordable way to deliver goods, Dronamics says it is on a mission to enable same day delivery for everyone, everywhere. This significant milestone is the culmination of months of ground testing and subscale flights. The Black Swan aircraft was remotely piloted by two commercial airline pilots from the Dronamics ground control station.

The successful flight test validates the company’s licensed cargo drone technology for commercial flights in Europe, set to begin later this year, serving industries such as e-commerce, pharma, spare parts, and perishables with a fast and cost-effective solution to meet evolving consumer needs.

“Since the day we first imagined what the Black Swan aircraft could look like, we’ve worked towards this flight. Today we’ve made history and are proud to have demonstrated the validity of our drone technology,” said Konstantin Rangelov, Co-Founder and CTO of Dronamics. ”It’s taken an enormous amount of hard work, belief and drive to prove that what we envisioned works. We can now focus on the next step, the roll-out of our commercial operations, and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO of Dronamics.

Improve Data Quality in Air and Sea Supply Chains

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Over the past three years, global supply chains have been challenged by structural issues intensified by the COVID pandemic. Transport companies have increasingly had to push for the digitalization of their supply chains. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of transparency in logistics, as data volumes are often insufficiently filtered and processed. Following on from the air freight tracking solution BlueBoxAir, BlueBox Systems, together with its partner Vizion, now also offers a real-time overview of all the necessary logistics data for sea freight in highest quality.

The structural problems are related to the multiple large and small players that need to cooperate in a complex structure to unleash the supply chain´s full potential. To make such cooperation work, however, these actors need to know where the transported goods and commodities are at any given time. The logistics industry and in particular those responsible for air and ocean freight have traditionally struggled with the issue of transparency. The market does have a large number of providers who promise transparency. But inadequately organized or low-quality data can exacerbate existing problems, for example, by providing misleading information about the real-time location of containers and products, and making predictions faulty.

This is where BlueBbox Systems and Vizion provide relief. BlueBox Systems is the first tracking platform in the air freight sector to deliver real-time visibility of the location of air cargo shipments with highest quality data. The API-based solution from Vizion offers a similar level of transparency to users, primarily from the ocean freight sector, including logistics service providers, shippers and freight owners, as well as technology providers in the logistics sector. The Application Programming Interface (API) enables communication and data exchange between different applications. The two companies have joined forces to provide freight operators, logistics service providers and other companies along the supply chain, whether air or ocean freight, with more transparency about their shipments. Together, they are committed to delivering the highest quality data.

“Good, usable data has the following four characteristics: Timeliness, accuracy, organization and standardization,” explains Martin Schulze, CEO of BlueBox Systems. “Quality data, for instance, is always up to date, because knowing where containers and products were 24 hours ago does not help a company gain insights and make decisions. BlueBox Systems‘ data includes 10-minute aircraft positions, and Vizion’s API webhooks reduce latency to 6-8 hours or less.”

“Traditionally, freight forwarding companies have used electronic data interchange (EDI) to get information from supply chain systems. Vizion uses an API-first approach, which means real-time validation, greater flexibility, and much faster updates,” adds Kyle Henderson, CEO of Vizion.

But also the organization of data plays an important role. Data must be organized in such a way that analyses and quick decision-making are possible. Huge amounts of raw data will only mean more work for a company. Vizion, for example, records more than 7,000 individual events and classifies them into 60 milestones and ETAs that can be used for real-time decisions. Similarly, BlueBox Systems collects data from 130 different airlines as well as over 1,600 airports and prepares it in an intuitive interface that allows users to understand and use it. Status updates include ETA changes, flight connection risks, delays, airport performance, trans-shipment times, among others, which in turn can be compared. BlueBox Systems’ cargo platform also helps users calculate CO2 emissions per product based on aircraft type and real-time flight data.

Moreover, BlueBox Systems and Vizion specialize in standardizing data so that transport companies can collaborate at a high level internally and with third-party providers.

Hellmann Achieves Record Result

Posted on by David Priestman

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has concluded the 2022 financial year very successfully, continuing the company’s strong performance of recent years in the face of persistently challenging market conditions. Hellmann was able to increase its total sales by 24 % to EUR 5.0 billion (2021: EUR 4.1 billion) as well as shipment volumes, which grew significantly year-on-year to just under 20 million (2021: 18.1 million). At the EBIT line, Hellmann was able to achieve an increase of 31 % vs. the prior year, delivering an EBIT result of EUR 210.8 million (previous year: EUR 160.1 million). Thanks to the improved cash flow from operating activities of EUR 268.7 million, liquidity improved by a total of EUR 124.7 million despite a significant increase in investments.

Beyond its positive financial performance, Hellmann also successfully continued its strategic development last year. For example, even during continued market disruptions from the COVID pandemic and the war against Ukraine, the Group stuck to its digitalization strategy and invested significantly in digitalization of business processes and forward-looking technologies. Hellmann also made several acquisitions in support of further growth, such as the takeover of the joint venture in Peru and the acquisition of OptimNet, an overnight express provider operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The international growth course and the expansion of the Hellmann network also continued to show success: Having already expanded its business activities to Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Oman and France since 2020, Hellmann also opened its own country organization in Switzerland last year to expand its product portfolio and its footprint into the Swiss market.

An important topic of the last year was the continued development of the company culture, particularly as regards the sustainable positioning the global family-owned Hellmann Group. With the guiding principle of ‘For the better. Together.’, a vision was defined that unites the global Hellmann FAMILY and shapes the daily behaviour of all employees. In a rapidly changing world, Hellmann is living up to its goal of assuming responsibility for its employees and customers and to contribute to overcoming the current social and ecological challenges.

“2022 was once again a challenging year in many respects: While the first half of the year continued to be characterized by capacity bottlenecks, particularly in the air- and sea freight sectors, demand for transport services declined significantly from the summer of 2022 onwards due to changes in consumer behaviour worldwide. This in turn led to overcapacity on global trade lanes in almost all product areas during the second half of the year and consequently lower freight rates. Despite these challenges, thanks to our strong global and regional teams and our solid network, we succeeded in offering our customers tailored logistics solutions throughout the year and were able to achieve another record result in 2022,” said Jens Wollesen, Chief Operating Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“The goal is to continue to expand our global competitive position across all product areas in the coming years. As such, we are planning further strategic acquisitions as well as sustainable investments in the modernization of our systems and processes,” added Martin Eberle, Chief Financial Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“Our vision for all of our actions in the years to come is “For the better. Together.” In this context, sustainability is of central importance. Together with and for our customers, employees, and partners, we are committed to further developing our sustainable logistics solutions,” emphasizes Reiner Heiken, Chief Executive Officer, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

IAG Cargo Restarts China Flights

Posted on by David Priestman

IAG Cargo, the cargo division of International Airlines Group (IAG) announces it will restart services between London-Heathrow and Beijing and Shanghai after almost two years, as China reopens its borders to tourists.

From 23rd April, IAG Cargo customers will be able to export and import vital goods on a daily rotation between London-Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. In addition, services between London-Heathrow and Beijing Daxing Airport will resume on June 3rd, with four flights each week.

During the early pandemic period, IAG Cargo offered customers cargo-only services and charters between the UK and China to support the delivery of essential cargo needed for the fight against covid-19. The business helped governments and private customers transport more than 11,000 tonnes of vital PPE and medical supplies from China.

From January 2020 and summer of 2021, IAG Cargo operated 700 charters and 160 cargo-only flights to China, with the last cargo-only service between London Heathrow and Shanghai in June 2021, and last cargo-only service to Beijing in July 2021.

Camilo Garcia Cervera, IAG Cargo Chief Sales and Marketing Officer said: “Europe – China is one of the world’s most important trade lanes, and a vital part of our network; we’re so pleased to be reopening the route after a long pause. With high-tech items, ecommerce, clothing and automotive driving both imports and exports, we can help customers to stay better connected with their trading partners across the world. Customers using our services also benefit from our wider network, that continues to grow and spans across six continents.”

Eligible customers seeking to use IAG Cargo’s services also benefit from IAG Cargo’s loyalty programmes; FORWARD.REWARDS and FORWARD.PLATINUM. Customers also have the option of utilising IAG Cargo’s extensive network, offering easy and convenient access to hundreds of destinations worldwide.

IAG Cargo is the single business created following the merger of British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo in April 2011. Following the integration of additional airlines into the business, including Aer Lingus, Vueling and bmi, IAG Cargo now covers a global network.

Cathay Pacific Cargo Rebrands

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cathay has announced the launch of Cathay Cargo, a rebrand of its cargo business, and a change of name from Cathay Pacific Cargo. The change aligns with the airline’s overarching brand redesign, and reinforces the existing strong brand association and perceptions held by its customers. Cathay Cargo aligns with the same purpose, vision and values of our master brand Cathay and all of its subsidiary brands, including Cathay Pacific, the passenger airline, and Cathay, the everyday lifestyle offering.

Cathay Cargo is united behind Cathay’s vision to become one of the world’s greatest service brands, and plays an integral role in helping to fulfil that aspiration through its world-class air cargo network, which transports products that facilitate trade across the entire Cathay network and beyond. Shipping directly to more than 70 destinations worldwide, Cathay Cargo is committed to advancing the development of all destination countries served by Cathay’s more than 200 aircraft.

Group Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam said: “Cathay’s cargo business has played a vital role in the success of the Cathay Group since 1946, when we carried our first shipment between China and Australia. Our cargo services operate out of our home base of Hong Kong, which is also the world’s busiest international air cargo hub.

“This is an opportune moment to align our cargo business with the master brand as we continue our cargo investments in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area for a promising future. This rebrand reflects our Cargo business’ commitment to the same ‘Move Beyond’ ambition as the Group, while building on a strength that the Cathay brand has long been known for – offering leading-edge services to our customers.”

Reflecting this commitment to invest, Cathay Cargo has recently introduced a number of exciting refreshed solutions, including Cathay Priority and Cathay Pharma. Cathay Mail is scheduled for a refresh in March. These services cater to the respective burgeoning demands by customers for effective temperature-sensitive solutions, and efficient and reliable delivery solutions with new digital technology that better meets the requirements for shipment visibility, reliability and speed.

Director Cargo Tom Owen said: “Cathay Cargo continues to innovate new solutions, services and technology for customers as we build towards being one of the world’s greatest service brands. Continued investment in technology and logistics will solidify our position as a leading player in the industry.”

Cathay Cargo has invested in technology in recent years. This includes Ultra Track, a multi-dimensional track-and-trace service that gives customers near-real-time information on the airport-to-airport leg of the shipment journey using low-energy Bluetooth data-loggers; and, Click & Ship, an intuitive online booking service available 24/7 with instant processing and confirmation.

As part of its rebranding campaign, Cathay Cargo’s website has been revamped to reflect the brand ethos, and enable users to easily access popular features such as booking, track and trace, and flight availability, whilst also providing a clear showcase of recent campaign offers and featured solutions. The rebrand will connect Cathay Cargo to the master Cathay brand – a premium travel lifestyle brand offering a range of products and services that create more value for customers and partners. Cathay Cargo will have more exciting initiatives in the coming months as the company works toward a complete rebrand.

IBS Software Acquires AFLS

Posted on by David Priestman

IBS Software, a leading SaaS solutions provider to the travel industry globally, has announced the completion of a transaction to acquire Accenture Freight and Logistics Software (AFLS). AFLS provides technology platforms to help airline and ocean transportation companies manage their freight operations and grow through digital transformation and innovation.

The acquisition will strengthen IBS Software’s leadership as a technology provider to the air freight industry by bringing together complementary solutions and a shared vision for innovating and transforming the air cargo businesses. Boosting the freight business is an increasingly critical priority for airlines and the AFLS acquisition consolidates latest innovations to accelerate growth, especially AFLS’ cloud-based collaboration platforms which deliver advancements in airline partnerships – a major focus area for carriers.

The acquisition is also a strategic step in recognizing IBS Software’s vision to establish itself as an end-to-end player in the global freight supply chain. AFLS has a strong heritage in ocean freight innovation with a suite of new generation platforms that enable ocean carriers to automate critical business functions and make data-led decisions for commercial operations. Further, the transaction helps the company to deploy its cargo and logistics management expertise in the ocean transportation sector.

With increasing industry focus on the digitalization of the ocean supply chain to improve efficiencies, expansion into ocean cargo presents a significant growth opportunity for IBS Software. The acquisition will also allow the company to tap into a highly capable talent pool of experts in logistics and supply chain management that can drive innovation and deliver value to the industry.

To support this expansion, IBS Software will open a new development centre in Chennai, its fourth in India, for travel, transportation and logistics. The centre will accelerate the company’s mission to transform how travel companies operate in a digital world by delivering next-generation products to accelerate growth, drive efficiency, and create differentiated customer experiences.

“The acquisition of AFLS is a strategically important milestone for our cargo and logistics business to broaden its global footprint, with ocean transportation being a natural adjacent industry in which to expand our expertise,” said V K Mathews, Executive Chairman of IBS Software. “It is a synergistic opportunity to bring our decades of experience and expertise to the ocean cargo business, as well as strengthen our own capabilities to provide greater value to the air cargo customers.”

“Cargo and logistics are vital to the global economy. It’s an area ripe for growth and hungry for transformation. Recent moves by logistics businesses to enter air cargo as they seek to influence the supply chain at every level are evidence of the growing disruption in the sector. AFLS will be pivotal in our wider mission to transform the global supply chain through digital innovation,” said Anand Krishnan, CEO, IBS Software.

15 Years in Hong Kong for cargo-partner

Posted on by David Priestman

On February 17th international logistics provider cargo-partner hosted a celebration for employees to honour the 15th anniversary the regional hub for Asia-Pacific, in Hong Kong. In addition, the year 2023 also marks the 40th anniversary of cargo-partner’s founding in Austria.

The year 2023 is cause for celebration in the international cargo-partner network. Not only is it the 40th anniversary of the company’s founding at Vienna Airport, but several local organizations are celebrating significant milestones as well. One of these is the branch in Hong Kong, which represents the company’s regional head office for the entire Asia-Pacific region.

More than 1,000 employees in over 40 offices across Asia

In 2004, cargo-partner decided to set foot in Asia with its first offices in Taiwan and Mainland China. In 2006, the company added an office in Hong Kong, at first under the company name “c.p.” In 2008, the company name was officially changed to “cargo-partner” and the Hong Kong branch became the regional head office for cargo-partner’s continuously growing presence in Asia-Pacific. Since then, the logistics provider has completed its regional network with additional branches in India, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Australia. Today, cargo-partner is represented at over 40 offices with more than 1,000 employees across Asia, representing a quarter of the company’s global staff base.

On February 17, 2023, cargo-partner’s Hong Kong branch hosted a celebration for employees to honour the 15th anniversary of its founding. The local team took this opportunity to look back on the successes achieved in the past one and a half decades. cargo-partner CEO Luca Ferrara expressed his appreciation to the teams in Asia: “We’ve achieved a lot together in the last 15 years. In particular, the past three years have been the most turbulent period the global logistics industry has ever seen. Our team across Asia-Pacific has mastered this time exceptionally well, reacting quickly and flexibly to each new challenge and proving our resilience and passion for innovation.”

Steady growth in transport volumes

Since its founding in 2006, the cargo-partner branch in Hong Kong has grown from only 10 staff members to 130 employees. At the same time, the local team recorded a steady increase in transport requests and shipment volumes. In 2022, the Hong Kong organization handled over 52,000 transport requests, with the largest volume increase in air freight, amounting to 42,900t in the past year. The demand for warehousing services has also grown exponentially, evidenced by an increase of 52.5% in logistics turnover between 2021 and 2022. cargo-partner currently offers 9,600 m² of warehouse space in Hong Kong and over 32,000 m² of warehouse space across the entire Asia-Pacific region.

At the moment, the cargo-partner team in Asia is focusing on the further development of its services, especially in regard to information technology, e-commerce solutions and vertical market expertise in food and beverage, healthcare, and fashion and textiles. Looking ahead, Luca Ferrara is optimistic: “I am very proud of the performance of our teams and convinced that our organization has grown stronger with each new challenge. We will continue to build on our successes, grow our expertise and go the extra mile to exceed our customers’ expectations.”

In addition to Hong Kong, the cargo-partner branches in Thailand and Singapore are also celebrating their 15th anniversaries this year. The logistics provider currently operates three offices with over 100 employees in Thailand and an office with over 30 staff members in Singapore. cargo-partner is a privately owned full-range info-logistics provider offering a comprehensive portfolio of air, sea, land transport and warehousing solutions. With 40 years of expertise in information technology and supply chain optimization, the company designs tailor-made services for a wide range of industries to create competitive benefits for its customers all around the world. Founded in 1983, cargo-partner generated a turnover of 1.8 billion euro in 2021 and an estimated 2.05 billion euro in 2022 and currently employs 4,000 people worldwide.

Airbridge for Turkey Humanitarian Relief

Posted on by David Priestman

Amid widespread devastation caused by the recent earthquake people in the affected areas in Turkey and Syria need all the humanitarian relief available as soon as possible. UPS has put its worldwide smart logistics network to the task to transport relief supplies.

A Boeing 767 is currently taking off every night from the UPS Air Hub at Cologne Bonn airport, transporting urgently needed goods to Turkey from national and international aid organizations, UPS employees, citizens, and companies.

The willingness to donate in the region was so extensive that on-site donations are not currently being accepted. In-kind and monetary donations should instead be given to other aid organizations providing support.

The UPS Air Hub at Cologne Bonn Airport is UPS’s European air freight hub for international transport of goods. As a European hub, it is not only a platform to service customers but is also central to disaster relief efforts and support. The UPS Air Hub was also able to demonstrate its strategically important position and its reliability in the handling of shipments for the worldwide distribution of vaccines.

Relief supplies and donations receive freight space within the UPS network

In addition to the Cologne-Istanbul airbridge, UPS and The UPS Foundation have taken other measures to provide assistance where it is most needed. This includes:

• Pledging more than US$1 million in global logistics services.
• Working with the World Food Program, UNHCR and International Red Cross & Red Crescent to fly in relief items from Dubai.
• Offering transport capacity in UPS trucks for the Istanbul city government and NeedsMap, a local NGO that UPS supports.
• Activating EDUARDO, an emergency air dashboard created by skilled UPS volunteers to help humanitarian relief organizations quickly access all available flight capacity available at airports across Turkey.

Frank Jørgensen, President of UPS Germany, Austria and Switzerland, told us “Our hearts and thoughts are with the people of Turkey and Syria. Our sympathy also goes to the many relatives – including numerous UPS employees – of the people affected in the earthquake area. Above all, we help by using what we have: our committed employees with their expertise and our global logistics network.”

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