Recently-launched Georgian Airlines has added a third freighter to its fleet as it looks to capitalise on cargo volumes travelling between Asia and Europe. The airline has added a third B737-800 converted freighter through a deal with Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings subsidiary Titan Aviation. The aircraft is being added through a long-term dry lease deal. Irakli Mezvrishvili, general director of Georgian Airlines, said: “As we expand in the airfreight market, we are honoured to partner with Titan Aircraft Investments to bring more air cargo capacity to the region with the addition of the 737-800 freighter. “We look forward to a strong partnership with Titan’s excellent team as they help us meet market demand and capitalise on cargo flows between Asia and Europe.” The cargo carrier commenced operations in February 2022 and offers cargo charter and regular flights across Europe, the Baltic region, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Region, the Middle East, eastern, and southern Asia. The airline said that the Black Sea region is a key transit and trade corridor for Eurasian countries and believes the Georgia has the potential to become an important hub for the aviation industry.

Aircraft operator ASL Aviation Holdings has partnered with Reliable Robotics to explore the possible use of autonomous freighter aircraft. The two companies will select a suitable aircraft for Reliable’s Remotely Operated Aircraft System with an initial focus on large twin-engine turboprop freighters. ASL and Reliable will jointly assess the demand for remotely operated aircraft in Europe and in addition to remotely piloted air cargo services, the companies will evaluate aircraft suitable for remotely piloted humanitarian operations. ASL Aviation Holdings director Hugh Flynn said: “This collaboration between ASL and Reliable is anchored on a common purpose to fully evaluate how remote and single pilot technologies can be developed and used to deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective cargo and passenger services. “At ASL we are looking at how new technologies will change and improve aviation, and how we can be at the forefront of that change to offer enhanced services to our customers.” Myles Goeller chief business officer of Reliable Robotics added: “ASL and Reliable see urgent market demand for automated systems that will enhance safety, increase utilisation of aircraft assets and support sustainability goals. ASL shares our commitment to investing in pioneering technology development to serve industry needs and improve how goods and people are transported.”

xpress has signed a non-binding MoU with Aramex India, to collaborate across multiple avenues, with the aim to offer reliable and service responsive international solutions to India-based B2B & B2C customers. Under this partnership, synergy benefits are set to accrue due to this global collaboration between the two parties, by focusing on joint product development, customised business solutions for specific regions and customer segments, leveraging physical infrastructure and Line-hauls, sharing transportation capacity and best practices. The partnership between DTDC Express and Aramex India will also explore business and operating synergies across several areas including Sales, Marketing, Technology, Network, Transportation and Customs Clearance. Both the entities believe that it will enable them to utilize each other’s physical operating infrastructure to promote and cross-sell their products, services and solutions. In addition to this, DTDC Express aims to cross-sell Aramex’s flagship product- Shop & Ship through the Company’s network of around 14,000 customer access points across India. Subhasish Chakraborty, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of DTDC Express Ltd, said, “DTDC Express is delighted to partner with Aramex. Our agreement recognizes the strength of DTDC’s Network and Express Delivery capabilities. India has seen a substantial growth in bilateral trade with several countries including the US, the European Union and the GCC. The United States is our largest trading partner, and it continues to show strong growth. India’s bilateral trade with the EU has increased 43.5% in FY22, and with the GCC it has increased 78% as per Commerce Ministry Data. The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement is set to further boost bi-lateral trade between the two countries from $60 billion to $100 billion in the next five years. Considering this growth ahead with major …

Due to globalisation, dynamic market and consumer behavior, the warehouse management systems (WMS) should be integrated with the external systems for accurate and timely data communication and effective business collaboration, says E-Handbook on Warehousing Standards in India released by the Warehousing Association of India (WAI). Managing these systems integration becomes complex and tedious when the business runs on different industry verticals and on different platforms. Hence, it becomes very important and necessary for the logistics service providers to standardize the systems with integrated solutions when it comes to WMS implementation, it adds. Different aspects of WMS are Training and deployment, Project management, Business requirements, Configuration, Integration and Testing. The WMS should be deployed after detailed evaluation of the functionalities that exists in the system and are relevant to the processes and flows adopted in a warehouse. The WMS should be able to provide all reports and performance dashboards that show the health of the operations like productivity, efficiency, work done and pending, time taken for various activities etc., adds handbook. The broad functionalities of the WMS are to: (a) Process fresh receipt and return of goods, (b) Putting away of goods to storage (c) Sampling, inspection & grading (d) Picking, checking and packing of goods (e) Dispatch of goods (f) Integration with Transportation Management System (TMS) (g) Inventory count and reconciliation (h) Inventory management and its visibility to clients (i) Seamless integration of advance inward shipment notices, dispatch notes, outbound orders, triggering of alerts and notifications. (j) Integration with Warehouse Control Systems (WCS) between equipment like sorters, diverters, put to and pick to light systems, advance storage equipment like ASRS, pallet shuttles and robotics.

Damco India, a subsidiary of international container shipping and logistics giant AP Moller-Maersk, has taken a warehousing facility spread across 243,000 sq. ft. on lease for five years. The facility is in Bhiwandi on the outskirts of Mumbai, documents accessed by CRE Matrix showed. The starting monthly rent is Rs 47.62 lakh. The company has paid a security deposit of Rs 1.90 crore for the property, the documents showed. The leave and licence agreement was registered on October 21, 2022. The lock-in period is for three years and the rent escalation provision states that there would be a 4 percent increase in rent at the end of every 12 months, the documents showed. Damco, a separate brand earlier, has now been integrated with the Maersk brand. In September, Maersk India inaugurated its fifth warehousing facility this year spread over 250,000 sq ft, in Bhiwandi taking its total footprint to over 2.1 million sq. ft., including the warehouses from the recently completed acquisition of LF Logistics, a company statement said. Maersk’s new facility in Bhiwandi is the fifth to go live in 2022 after one each at Sikandrabad in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata in West Bengal, and Pune and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra. Being strategically located on the Mumbai-Nashik highway, it provides excellent connectivity to manufacturing hubs and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, it said.

As part of its expansion plan and to tap rising demand from e-commerce and third-party logistic companies, Macrotech Developers, which markets its properties under the Lodha Green Digital Infrastructure (LGDI) platform, has acquired around 8 acres of land in Kurla, Mumbai, the company said in a statement. The land will be used for the development of about 4 lakhs square feet of Grade-A in-city fulfilment centre to provide the last mile warehousing infrastructure to 3PL, e-commerce and quick-commerce companies. “The development will involve a total investment of around Rs 330 crore and is expected to be completed in the next 12-18 months in phases,” it added. Shaishav Dharia, Director, Lodha Green Digital Infrastructure, said this is the second acquisition in Mumbai. “We see that there is a huge demand for Grade-A digital infrastructure in our country and we are aligned with our aim to develop industrial and logistics parks as well in-city logistics assets across multiple cities in India,” he said. This is the second acquisition by the LGDI platform in Mumbai and it seeks to acquire more such assets in the city and other key consumption/manufacturing hubs across India like Pune, Bangalore, NCR, and other cities.

Warehousing and logistics supplies are likely to double to cross 700 million square feet by 2030, for which more than USD 20 billion additional investment is needed, CBRE Group’s latest report stated. According to the report, the first nine months of 2022 saw the sector getting only about USD 144 million across greenfield and brownfield assets from global investors. The report said that leasing activity in the segment grew 40 per cent to 9.2 million square feet in the third quarter over the second quarter. The warehousing and logistics sector requires at least USD 20 billion of fresh investments by 2030 to develop incremental warehousing spaces, most of which will be needed in tier-II and III cities, said the report. It is also estimated that the warehousing and logistics stock will double by 2030 to cross 700 million square feet as occupiers continue to expand across segments such as e-commerce, third-party logistics, and engineering & manufacturing. Further, the share of grade-A warehousing and logistics stock is also expected to rise from 35 per cent now to more than 50 per cent by 2030. During the first three quarters of 2022, leasing remained stable, with around 22 million square feet of space getting leased. Third-party logistics players led the leasing activity with a 50 per cent share, while the total supply addition in the period stood at 13 million square feet, according to the report. Cities like Lucknow, Nagpur, Indore, Kochi and Coimbatore are driving supplies and these demand centres are also expected to witness stronger leasing as several occupiers prefer to locate their warehouses closer to consumption hubs to reduce transportation costs.

ANA Cargo has partnered with WebCargo to provide thousands of forwarders across the world with real-time rates, capacity, and eBookings. ANA Cargo will leverage WebCargo’s uniquely global network of 10,000 forwarding offices to complement their in-house booking portal, as an integral part of their omnichannel strategy to deliver access to products and services. With the launch, scheduled for the first quarter of 2023, forwarders will gain access ANA Cargo’s fleet of over 200 aircraft across many of ANA Cargo’s 130+ routes that span five continents. Airlines representing over 50% of global air cargo capacity are available for booking on WebCargo, the largest capacity availability on any platform. Bookings will also be available via WebCargo’s embeddable portal, used by top forwarders by both API and embedded user interface. This delivers reliable booking efficiency for forwarders within their existing software tools. “ANA Cargo continues to improve customer experience with the implementation of digital technology. The expansion of our ebooking network through Webcargo’s platform is a large step that moves us forward to this goal. This is an exciting opportunity to use innovation to make an extraordinary, positive impact for our customers and the industry as a whole,” said Kenichi Wakiya, Executive Vice President of ANA Cargo.

Air cargo traffic is predicted to drop by a further 4% next year, while yields and revenues are also expected to weaken compared with this year’s levels, said IATA. The airline association’s head of policy analysis Andrew Matters, at IATA’s global media day suggested that cargo volumes are expected to fall 4.3% year on year to 57.7m tonnes, following on from an 8.1% fall this year to 60.3m tonnes. “This reflects the challenging global economic backdrop in terms of global economic growth but also in terms of international trade,” Matters said. He added that as a result of load factors returning to pre-Covid levels, yields are expected to decline by around 22% next year, following on from a 7% increase this year, a 24% increase in 2021 and a 50% increase in 2020. Matters said that current yield levels were unsustainable. “It (22%) sounds like a big number and quite dramatic but it isn’t too unreasonable given the very strong increases we have seen in recent years,” he explained. Airline cargo revenues are expected to fall around 25% next year around be $149.4bn, although Matters pointed out this was still around 50% higher than pre-Covid levels. “The exceptional period that we have had looks like it is coming to an end. We started to come back to levels across a number of these variables that we are more accustomed to.”

Teleport has raised new growth capital of $50m to build its freighter fleet and expand logistics operations in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, said release. The funds will also be used to further invest in technology that supports its operations across southeast Asia, said Teleport, the logistics venture of Capital A (formerly AirAsia Group Berhad). In September, the company announced it would be increasing its freighter aircraft from one to four, with the addition of three Airbus A321 freighters leased from BBAM. Teleport further said the three A321Fs would be operated by AirAsia and will be delivered in stages starting in the first quarter of 2023. Pete Chareonwongsak, chief executive of Teleport, said, “Our mission from day one is to deliver consistently better than anybody else in Southeast Asia. We believe if we guarantee next-day speed at a cost anyone can afford, everyone will choose to ‘Teleport It’. “Today we are profitable, larger, and growing faster than pre-COVID. We are battle-tested and believe a challenging environment is the perfect opportunity to build the leading cross-border logistics company in Southeast Asia,” he added.