Category Archives: Aviation

Qatar Airways Cargo has reintroduced cargo and pax flights to Haneda, Nice, Manama and Sarajevo while continuing to expand its Middle East operations. The carrier re-launched services to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport last week. “The reintroduced cargo flights makes up for the vast majority of exports from Tokyo followed by vulnerable cargo and dangerous goods. As for imports, they consist of general cargo, fish, seafood, fruits and vegetables,” says an official release. The carrier also commenced four weekly passenger Airbus A320 flights from Doha to Sarajevo with six tonnes of weekly cargo capacity w.e.f May 30. “Commodities mainly consist of general cargo and also include vulnerable cargo and pharmaceuticals.” The carrier relaunched flights to Nice on May 9 with exports comprising of general cargo, dangerous goods, pharmaceuticals while on the imports front, general cargo, dangerous goods, vulnerable cargo and other types of cargo are flown into Nice. “With freighters to Lyon and Paris and belly-hold flights to Nice and Paris, the cargo carrier’s weekly cargo capacity to and from France increases to 1,100 tonnes each way.” Daily flights to Bahrain started on May 25, providing cargo customers with 11 tonnes of cargo space on the A320 passenger flights each week, each way, the release added. “In addition, Qatar Airways Cargo has also expanded its network in the Middle East, effective May. The airline introduced two Boeing 777 freighters to Dammam, bringing the weekly tonnage to 350 tonnes each way. A new freighter frequency was also introduced to Riyadh, bringing the total frequencies to five Boeing 777 freighters each week on top of the quadruple daily passenger flights, providing over 850 tonnes of cargo capacity each way to and from Riyadh.”

Kuehne+Nagel has expanded its presence in Africa through the acquisition of Morgan Cargo. The companyy has plans to cater perishable market. The acquired forwarder has a presence in South Africa, Kenya and the UK, employs around 450 people and in 2022 handled more than 40,000 tonnes of airfreight and 20,000 TEU of sea freight. The company also offers “state-of-the-art” cold chain facilities, Kuehne+Nagel said in a release. Yngve Ruud, member of the management board of Kuehne+Nagel, responsible for air logistics, said, “With Morgan Cargo, we acquire a reliable logistics service provider for the benefit of our customers. Expansion in high-growth markets such as Africa clearly ties into our Roadmap 2026 and reinforces our commitment to the Middle East and Africa Region. We have been active in Africa for many years, but this acquisition is an ideal addition to our regional presence.”

Perishable exports are drastically impacted due to ceased cargo movement at 11 AAICLASS-operated airports in Amritsar, Pune, Coimbatore, etc.,” says Satish Lakkaraju, Senior Vice President, Global Head – Air Freight & Pharma, Radar Ventures. “In the past, airlines used to screen the cargo for the respective flights, which was then moved to a common user facility for multiple reasons, but now cargo is stopped without proper alternative arrangements. The air cargo industry is supposed to be the fastest mode of transport, whereas in India, the total time spent on the ground is much higher than expected because of non-alignment between agencies like BCAS, AAICLASS, and other allied agencies,” he adds. “It is time that MOCA and other agencies get together to resolve the same on priority, as it is giving such a bad image for the country and the trade. It is really sad that no one is even bothered in the country, and the customers are impacted as a result, Indian Air Cargo is going through a difficult time when customer expectations have been drastically increasing and the situation on the ground has been deteriorating with increased costs and longer dwell times on the ground because of security issues and a lack of clarity.”

IATA has lowered its expectations for air cargo revenues and yields for 2023 due to growing capacity and a weak demand outlook. In its latest airline profitability report, the airline association predicted cargo revenues of $142.3bn this year, which is 31.3% down from last year and behind the $149.4bn that was previously expected. Meanwhile, cargo yields are expected to be 28.6% behind last year, worse than the 23% fall IATA predicted at the World Cargo Symposium in April. “Yields will be negatively impacted by two factors: the ramping-up of passenger capacity which automatically increases available belly capacity for cargo and the potential negative effects on international trade of economic cooling measures introduced to fight inflation,” IATA said. However, the airline association also pointed out that both revenues and yields remained far above pre-Covid levels. Figures provided by the association show that cargo revenues stood at $100.8bn in 2019, $140.4bn in 2020, $210bn in 2021 and $207bn last year. And yield increases of 54.7% were recorded in 2020, 25.9% in 2021 and 7.4% in 2022. Meanwhile, cargo traffic in cargo tonne km terms is expected to decline by 3.8% on last year and by 5.5% compared with 2019.

Block your dates for The International Air Cargo Association’s (TIACA) upcoming regional summit in Nairobi, Kenya from June 19-June 21, 2023. The three day event will focus on drones, digital innovation, perishables, freighter capacity, global outlook and lot more. The event in Africa aims to bring together members, partners and business houses to identify and discuss specific issues that affect the industry at the regional level.

With the opening of its first Asia-based Squair Service Center, ECS Group is increasing its capabilities related to the AWB Verification service offering (known as “Verify”). As demand for AWB verification outsourcing is increasing, the new team in Mumbai, India, will perform the AWB data capture activity for existing Squair customers and allow for future growth opportunities, especially in Asia. The new team in Mumbai, India, complements the existing Squair team based in Sofia, Bulgaria that has been providing both AWB verification and customs reporting services to international airlines across 12 countries since 2019. “There is a growing interest amongst airlines to maximise efficiency in their processes. AWB verification is a necessary, resource-intensive, yet non-revenue-generating activity,” says Adrien Thominet, Executive Chairman of ECS Group. “ECS Group recognised this opportunity for a new service offering early on and is the first and only GSSA to offer AWB verification as a full quality “ability” since 2019. India is the perfect location for our Verify service expansion as it offers an abundant and skilled workforce with competitive unit costs and increases our time zone coverage”. “Our Squair team in India underwent two months of intensive training from December 2022, using ECS Group’s internal training platform, Discovery, as well as through a thorough cross-training by their Squair colleagues based in Bulgaria” Ian-Alexandre McMartin, General Manager of Squair, explains. “Squair India officially started operating on 01 February 2023, carrying out AWB verification on behalf of a leading airline operating from Spain.” The team since then took over the AWB verification activity from that same airline in the Netherlands and is preparing to extend the geographical coverage in more European countries as the year progresses. “We …

Suraj Agrawal, Secretary, Domestic Air Cargo Agents Association of India (DACAAI), “The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has formed the rules without understanding the impact it will have on the trade. Trade should have been consulted before taking decision. Prior to Container Terminal Operators (CTOs), airlines were involved in doing cargo x-ray screenings and handling on their own at the terminals, airlines were forced to stop this work later, and now again, they want airlines to operate. It is difficult to shift business from one mode to another. If something was operational from years, what was the urgency to stop it? Trade should have been consulted, solution should have been taken out, businesses cant stop like this.”

BCAS decision to stop cargo movement has affected the whole air freight ecosystem drastically, says C K Govil, Vice President, ACAAI. This decision is due to airports non-compliance with BCAS RA3 Regulations. Transhipment cargo and domestic cargo both suffering hugely, International as well as domestic freighters are going back empty, air freight rates have gone up, dwell time has been increased, sensitive cargo such as perishables lying at the Tarmac unattended for days- all this has created immense pressure on the stakeholders and local exporters, farmers suffering huge losses. This is happening due to non availability of stringent facilities at airports to ensure cargo safety, but there should be a solution – MoCA, AAICLAS and trade should come up with a solution fast to resolve this issue, which is challenging EODB, and the growth of Indian air cargo industry. The trade is suffering huge losses, this is putting India In a bad light internationally.”

Eleven AAICLAS operated domestic Common User Terminals (CUTs) at T2 & T3 Airports, have been closed for the movement of Domestic and International Cargo due to non-compliance of BCAS-RA norms by AAICLAS, said Yashpal Sharma, President, Air Cargo Forum India. AAICLASS has sighted commercial loss on running of these facilities so have not done needful. He added, “With the sizeable market for international & domestic air cargo moving out of these airports this current deadlock of RA3 facility at all these airports must be resolved by AAICLAS & MoCA on top priority. This situation, which has caused a serious challenge for the growth of air cargo industry and needs to be relooked into favourably in the interest of shippers in the catchment area of these airports if the country has to move towards the targeted growth of air cargo i.e. 10 Million Mt by 2030-31 set by the Government(MoCA) itself.”

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is planning to set up at least five logistics hubs along the 172km Pune ring road, said reports. “Since Pune ring road connects eight national highways/expressways, the MSRDC is keen on setting up at least five logistics hubs along the stretch,” MSRDC officials told in reports. According to reports, logistics hubs would come up along the expressways across the state and this would benefit both the agriculture and manufacturing sector in a big way. “Multi-modal logistics parks in hub and spoke model are part of most highways across the country. They help in lowering overall freight cost by cutting warehousing cost, reducing vehicular pollution and congestion, improving tracking and traceability of consignments through infrastructural, procedural and information technology interventions.”