Tag: air cargo|logistics|transport

Cargo First, Bournemouth Airport’s dedicated cargo handling service, has strengthened its fast-track ‘One Team’ operation by bringing its on-site customs bonded warehouse facilities fully in-house. The move further streamlines Cargo First’s ground handling operation which is geared to providing a faster alternative to the congested London airport system for freight customers.

It comes as global e-commerce demand continues to grow. IATA (International Air Transport Association) suggested in a recent industry briefing that global e-commerce parcel volumes could double to 260 billion by 2025, with 80% of sales estimated to be cross-border.

And FedEx Express recently published research saying e-commerce would continue to take a growing proportion of total consumer spend. But the number one customer complaint (53%) is that deliveries take too long, with an expectation of receiving goods within three days to one week of ordering.

Bob Matharoo, Head of Cargo Development at Cargo First, said: “We’re fine tuning our system to make the cargo ownership chain as short and responsive as it can be, with no third parties. Our focus is speed to market and being a cost-effective alternative to the hub airports.

“E-commerce continues to grow, and with it customer expectations around speed of delivery. Capacity at the big London hub airports is severely constrained but we’re not. We think that’s a real opportunity for Bournemouth Airport and Cargo First, especially bearing in mind our location just 90 minutes from the capital.”

Cargo First was initially working jointly with a global logistics partner to handle customs processing through the bonded facilities on the airport site. It now has full control over the whole cargo process, from offloading aircraft through to processing, onward loading and delivery.

The company spent 18 months benchmarking freight deliveries via Bournemouth to London warehouses and found it could halve the time of delivery to the same end destinations compared with using a London hub airport.

Cargo First and Bournemouth Airport are part of the UK’s privately-owned Regional and City Airports (RCA) group, which also owns Coventry Airport, Exeter Airport and Norwich Airport. RCA also operates the XLR Executive Jet Centre FBO facilities at Birmingham, Bournemouth, Exeter and Liverpool airports.

 

Swissport has officially inaugurated a new 8,000 sq m air cargo centre near Vienna Airport – its second facility to serve air cargo customers in Vienna. The new facility is connected with Swissport’s on-airport cargo centre by a dedicated electric truck, the first of its kind in Swissport’s growing global network of air cargo centres.

Swissport continues to aggressively grow its air cargo business to participate in strong global demand for air cargo logistics and to capture additional market share. With a second cargo centre now operational in Vienna, Swissport can resolve local constraints and provide air carriers and forwarders in Vienna with additional capacity and more flexibility. The newly built 8,000 sqm facility is located in the DLH SkyLog Park in Fischamend in the immediate vicinity of Vienna Airport. Swissport is one of the first movers to the DLH SkyLog Park.

“We have invested in this state-of-the-art 8,000 sq m air cargo centre to support our growth ambitions in forwarder handling, and of course to serve existing and new airline customers with an even better product,” says Dirk Goovaerts, Swissport’s Global Cargo Chair. “We are very excited to more than double our capacity in Vienna and now have the infrastructure in place to support our vertical integration plans.”

The state-of-the-art building is set up for a superior environmental performance, featuring a 900,000kWh photovoltaic system. The system’s energy production corresponds to the annual electrical consumption of about 260 households. Swissport also relies on electric innovation on the ground: the centre in Fischamend is connected to the existing airside facility by a dedicated electric cargo shuttle. High-performance charging which is available on-site ensures that the Swissport e-truck can shuttle between the two locations without restrictions.

Henning Dieter, Head of Swissport Cargo Services Germany and Austria, comments: “We are pioneering e-mobility in air cargo handling here in Vienna together with Mercedes, Siemens, XL Forwarding & Transports and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Climate Action. The public charger available supports sustainable mobility as the dedicated Swissport e-truck shuttles air cargo between our two terminals at Vienna International.”

Swissport is working to make air cargo processes more sustainable and efficient to continue to improve its services while reducing specific CO² emissions. In 2021, Swissport handled around 70,000 tonnes of air cargo at Vienna Airport, where its capacity to support airlines and forwarders has now doubled. Within Austria, Swissport also operates a 3,500 sq m airside air cargo centre in a joint venture with Graz Airport.

With demand for global air cargo logistics already above pre-pandemic levels and persisting global capacity constraints in air and sea logistics, Swissport expects growth in air cargo handling to outperform general airport ground handling for some time. The company has made cargo a strategic priority and set ambitious goals to grow its second largest business line from 5.1 million in 2021 to over 6 million tonnes over the next couple of years.

 

 

IAG Cargo has launched a new direct service from Madrid, Spain to Male, capital of the Maldives, starting from July. The service will run three times per week from Madrid-Barajas.

The new service will strengthen IAG Cargo’s existing presence in South Asia, which already includes regular services into Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi in India. IAG Cargo’s extensive global network will allow customers in the Maldives and nearby Sri Lanka seeking to transport essential goods, such as textiles and perishables, access to key markets in Europe, Latin America, United States and elsewhere. The new route will be operated by Iberia A330-200 and A330-300 wide-body aircraft.

Fernando Terol Armas, Director of Spanish Hub and Operations at IAG Cargo, said: “South Asia is an important market for IAG Cargo, and we are very excited to open this new service for our customers in both regions. This route will not only support Maldivian exporters get essential and time-sensitive perishable products to global markets, but also support Sri Lankan exporters using Male as a gateway to Europe and beyond.

“With our hub in Madrid one of the largest in Southern Europe, this connection opens up opportunities for further import and export growth from Europe and beyond into South Asia.”

Rob Wiemerink, Regional Commercial Manager for Asia Pacific and Middle East at IAG Cargo, said: “I am delighted to be able to provide our customers with a further route between South Asia and Europe. Male is an important trade link for Sri Lanka, where garments, automotive goods and perishables such as fish are among the principal exports.

“Exporters in the region will be able to benefit from our Constant Fresh product, ensuring produce arrives on supermarket shelves in peak condition. This will also be welcome news for exporters into the Maldives – in 2019, goods worth around US$2.89 billion were imported to the Maldives.”

Eligible customers seeking to use IAG Cargo’s services into Maldives will be able to benefit from IAG Cargo’s loyalty programmes.

Antonov Airlines has safely transported three Rosenbauer Panther 6×6 fire trucks on a single AN-124-100M-150 flight from the Middle East to Central Asia at short notice.

The team managed to find a solution within a week to get the trucks to Central Asia after a change in circumstances meant short-notice airfreight was the only way to deliver the cargo safely and on time.

“When Rosenbauer came back to us and described the developments that affected the movement of its fire trucks, Antonov Airlines was able to connect this cargo with flight schedules already operating in the region to provide a cost-effective and time-sensitive solution that met Rosenbauer’s demands,” said Ivan Bozhko, Commercial Executive at Antonov Airlines.

Antonov Airlines flew an AN-124-100M-150 aircraft from its home airport in Kyiv, Ukraine to the Middle East to load the fire trucks and transport them to Central Asia.

After arriving at the destination, the fire trucks were unloaded, and cargo for a separate project was loaded, optimising the routing and cargo capacity of the aircraft.

The fire trucks weigh 21 tonnes each for a total payload of 63 tonnes and the length is 12m each, totalling 36m for a full AN-124.

“Once again we had the pleasure of working hand-in-hand with Antonov Airlines to airlift our fire trucks to an otherwise difficult to reach final destination,” said Philip Karl, Key Account Manager, Rosenbauer International AG.

Recently, Antonov Airlines transported five Black Hawk helicopters from Poland to the Philippines on one of its seven AN-124-100 that have a payload of up to 120 tonnes.

DHL Supply Chain Iberia and Iberia Maintenance have signed a contract through which DHL will manage the internal logistics of spare parts and components for Iberia Maintenance at its La Muñoza hub in Madrid and also at the Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airports.

In addition to this contract, DHL provides Iberia Maintenance with global distribution of these spare parts when the need arises at any of the customer airline’s destinations around the world.

This contract with DHL also includes the logistics of Iberia’s IT and aircraft supply warehouses, where a large part of the elements necessary for the in-flight service are managed.

The new agreement also continues the solid relationship that Iberia and DHL have maintained for years, with Iberia Maintenance providing maintenance, repair and overhaul services for DHL’s fleet of engines since 2008. Specifically, Iberia Maintenance has serviced more than 113 RB-211 engines used in the Boeing B757s of DHL’s subsidiaries DHL Air UK and Blue Dart at its engine workshop in Madrid.

In the new contract signed by Iberia Maintenance and DHL, DHL Supply Chain’s mission will be to ensure the supply of material on demand for Iberia Maintenance technicians, and to reinforce the logistical design to ensure the reliability and visibility that this supply chain requires to optimise planning and improve the availability of the aircraft.

All this within a redefinition of the pre-existing logistics processes and with a strong focus on continuous and exhaustive stock control and inventory and material movement management, carried out by DHL with advanced digitalization tools, which will allow operations to adapt to the demand of Iberia Maintenance’s different business units in a timely manner, with the maximum quality and efficiency of service required in this complex environment.

Iván González Vallejo, Maintenance Strategy and Supply Chain Director, says: “This strengthened partnership will guarantee real-time traceability of parts moving through our system, complete inventory accuracy and the integration of the freight forwarding activity that DHL has been developing for the last three years for Iberia Maintenance.”

Matilde Torquemada, Business Development Director of DHL Supply Chain in Spain, explains: “It is an honour and a source of pride that a company like Iberia Maintenance, a benchmark in quality and customer commitment, has placed its trust in DHL to guarantee its spare parts logistics, a critical area in which DHL Supply Chain can provide enormous experience. This is a long-term agreement in which DHL provides rapid implementation with seamless transition and business continuity in these value-added services for the airline’s MRO operations, providing agile execution and centralised logistics decision making.”

Among other advantages, this new agreement allows Iberia Maintenance to integrate the interface of this logistics operation with its transport control tower, which reinforces the precision in the inventory of key parts for Iberia Maintenance’s maintenance and repair operations and guarantees real-time knowledge of the complete traceability of the components, knowing at all times where they are and their arrival times at their destination.