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Body found on WGA MD-11 in Zimbabwe

60 secondswith ismail durmaz

alitalia toexpand network in 2016

third runwaya must inmunich

chep to manageulds forcargologicair

The weekly newspaper for air cargo professionals

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THE body of a stowaway was found on a Boeing MD-11 Freighter owned by West-ern Global Airlines (WGA) in Harare, Zimbabwe on Sunday, 14 February.

The freighter was carrying a shipment of cash for the South African Reserve Bank and was flying from Munich (Germany). The aircraft was being leased by WGA to Network Airline Management.

The MD-11 had stopped to refuel at Harare’s domestic airport when the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe dis-covered the body during refueling when ground crew noticed unusual streaking on the nose gear and after investigating, a deceased male was discovered in a lower compartment adjacent to the wheel well.

At present, the identity or nationality of the man is not known.

WGA’s chief executive officer, Jim Neff says: “We have been working closely with the Zimbabwean authorities as they fully investigate this situation. Along with our customer.....we express our condolences and support the efforts of the Zimbabwe-an government.”

It is unclear when and how the deceased accessed the aircraft. WGA is working with authorities to find out how.

The US and Cuba have signed a historic agree-ment to resume scheduled air services and all major US carriers are targeting services.

Politicians struck a deal on Tuesday, 16 Feb-ruary and the US Department of Transportation immediately invited airlines to apply for an allocation of the new opportunities on offer for passenger and cargo routes.

There have been no scheduled flights between the US and Cuba for over half a century.

US Transportation Secretary, Anthony Foxx says: “We are excited to announce the availabil-ity of new scheduled air service opportunities to Cuba for US carriers, shippers, and the traveling public, and we will conduct this proceeding in a manner designed to maximise public benefits.”

As part of the agreement, each country can operate up to 20 daily round-trip flights

between the US and Havana, and up to 10 daily round-trip flights between the US and each of Cuba’s nine other international airports. US carriers can run up to a 110 daily flights.

American Airlines welcomes the bilateral air service arrangement, and chairman and

chief executive officer, Doug Parker says it will submit a proposal in the coming weeks.

American’s Latin America gateway hub at Miami International Airport will be included in its application and the carrier is considering applying to serve Cuba from other hubs.

JetBlue’s senior vice president for govern-ment affairs and associate general counsel, Rob Land explains the airline eagerly awaits the opportunity to grow its service with scheduled routes between various US and Cuban cities.

United Airlines also intends to apply to offer service between some of its global gateways and Havana.

And Delta Air Lines says it will file to oper-ate a non-stop service to Cuba, and adds the market will increase the strength of its network in the Caribbean.

indian freighter service started by Quikjet Q

uikjet Airlines is looking to tap into the opportunities on offer in the Indian express cargo, e-commerce and

motor industries after launching freighter services.

The inaugural Boeing 737-400SF flight with a capacity of 21.2 tonnes, took-off at 01.20h on Wednesday, 17 February from Del-hi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport to Bengaluru.

In the first phase, Quikjet will connect Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, offering four daily flights. In the second phase, it will then connect Mumbai and Kolkata.

The ASL Aviation Group holds a 78 per cent stake in the Benga-luru-based QuikJet, which was granted an air operator permit by the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation this month.

The airline is India’s first neu-tral cargo airline offering freighter capacity with a premium over-night network and is launching with services for Mumbai-based Sovika Aviation. It will also be available for domestic and inter-national cargo charters.

Quikjet chief executive, Pree-tham Phillip says the launch signals a new era in the Indian air cargo industry: “We are significantly improving air cargo capacity and now offer customers a far more premium service keeping in mind the time sensitive nature of the air cargo business. Our newly intro-duced connectivity with Sovika will provide a key advantage to the booming e-commerce industry.

“India has seen huge growth in the number of passenger aircraft but the freighter segment has not grown, and there are now just seven freighter aircraft serving the 7th largest economy in the world.

“In some cases belly space is unsuitable for large-sized ship-ments or certain categories of goods that cannot be shipped on passenger airlines for reg-ulatory reasons. Our expertise and focus lies in providing much needed airport to airport air cargo connectivity.”

ASL Aviation Group chief exec-utive, Hugh Flynn sees a dynamic future for Quikjet: “There is a real and significant market need and Quikjet is already building

its capability to serve this need. We will be providing assistance and experience from the ASL air-lines that serve the world’s major express integrator brands.”

Meanwhile, Indian low-cost carrier Spicejet is set to launch a door-to-door cargo delivery service as it ramps up its freight services. Until now, it has made only made small revenues from cargo, but is investing in a fleet of three tonne trucks. Spicejet is set to order 200 aircraft by March.

India is one of the fastest growing air cargo markets both domestically and internationally

and is emerging as one of Asia’s economic powerhouses, driven by the rapid growth of international trade, its huge manufacturing engine and a growing population of more than 1.2 billion.

In 2015, the Airports Council International says Indian airports saw a 6.4 per cent rise in cargo vol-umes. Domestic and international freight increased by 7.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent, respectively.

The International Air Trans-port Association forecasts air cargo into India will grow at about seven per cent over the next five years.

historic air services agreement signed by the us and cuba

Volume: 19 Issue: 7 22 February 2016

aircargoweek.com

NEWSWEEK

2 ACW 22 february 2016

DHL to plough 90m euros into new hub in Milan

CARGOLOGICAIR has operated its first charter flights, sending automotive parts to Italy and fresh flowers from Kenya to the UK.

Its launch customer was Chapman Freeborn Italia, which it organised two Boeing 747-400 Freighter charters to Bari, Italy, via Frankfurt (Germany). The Bari flight carried a total of 113 tonnes of automotive parts, including engine base plates, which Chapman had booked on behalf of freight forwarder, Savino del Bene. CargoLogicAir operated two more charters for another customer from Nairobi to the UK, carrying over 200 tonnes of fresh flowers for St. Valentine’s Day.

Chapman Freeborn Italia director cargo, Enrico Fantini says: “We always welcome new and professional cargo airlines because they give us greater choice for our customers so we are proud to have been CargoLogicAir’s first customer. We wish the airline every suc-cess and look forward to working together again in the near future.”

CargoLogicAir chief executive officer, Dmitry Grishin says: “We are delighted to have commenced our flight operations and to have already earned the support of such a pres-tigious customer as Chapman Freeborn. These flights have enabled us to demonstrate our operating capabilities for global charter services, which we will continue to offer even following the launch of scheduled services this month.”

First charters run by CargoLogicAir

AIRBRIDGECARGO AIRLINES (ABC) has started twice weekly Boeing 747 Freighter ser-vices to Africa, starting in the UK, then onto Germany, before flying to Gabon and South Africa, returning via Kenya.

The first service flew on 14 February and will operate on Thursdays and Sundays under an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) contract with CargoLogicAir using its air operator certificate and flight numbers. The route is London Stansted – Frankfurt – Libreville – Johannesburg – Nairobi – Stansted.

Meanwhile, ABC saw a record start to 2016 with a 30 per cent year-on-year rise in ton-nage in January, its highest ever in the month. ABC transported 43,605 tonnes of cargo onboard its Boeing freighter fleet. It attributes the figures to last year’s expansion of its fleet and network such as routes to Singapore, Hanoi, Helsinki, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Africa route for ABC and record January

DHL Express is to invest 90 million euros ($100 million) constructing a new logistics hub at Milan Mal-pensa Airport, to be completed

by the end of the second quarter of 2018.The 46,000 square metre hub within

Malpensa’s Cargo City will become DHL Express’ main gateway into Italy for inter-national goods. DHL plans to invest 350 million euros increasing services in Italy and Malpensa will become a key European hub, alongside Germany’s Leipzig Halle Airport, the UK’s East Midlands Airport and Brussels Airport in Belgium.

DHL Express Italy chief executive offi-cer, Alberto Nobis says: “The construction of the new hub stems from the need to accommodate the exponential growth in goods processed by DHL Express, the effect of which will be seen in Italy in the coming years, thus increasing the demand for inter-continental flights.”

DHL has also upped North African services with five times a week services between Leipzig Halle Airport and Ibn Battouta Airport in the Moroccan city of Tangier, via Alicante, Spain. It will use a Boeing 737 with a 15 tonne capacity and reduce delivery time by four hours and extend pick up times by three hours.

Meanwhile, rumours are circulating DHL is considering selling off its trou-bled forwarding business, DHL Global Forwarding. Reuters news agency says Japan Post is the most likely buyer.

Over in the Netherlands, express cou-rier firm TNT reports its revenues rose by 3.5 per cent to 6.9 billion euros in 2015, which was an increase on the 6.6 billion euros in 2014. TNT says it returned to rev-enue growth despite economic volatility in some of its markets, notably Brazil and China. The 4.4 billion euro FedEx takeover of TNT has been appealed in Brazil by an unnamed third party, after regulators approved it on 2 February. Despite this, the integrators expect to close the offer in the first half of this year.

aircargoweek.com

NEWSWEEK

3ACW 22 FEBRUARY 2016

A ir cargo markets were “substantially weaker” in 2015 compared to passen-ger figures with a modest 2.3 per cent growth in total freight, according to

the Airports Council International (ACI).The association says this was largely due

to subdued growth in emerging markets and developing economies, along with a more mod-est recovery in advanced economies.

ACI says this growth is comprised of a 2.5 per cent rise in international freight and a 1.8 per cent uplift in domestic freight on an annualised basis and adds: “The faster-than-expected slow-down in Chinese imports and exports reflects weaker capital investment and manufacturing activity, which were key drivers for global econ-omy over the last two decades.

“Even though all regions remained in positive territory where airfreight growth is concerned, only the Middle East demonstrated a strong increase of 10.7 per cent in 2015, whilst all other regions grew only marginally.”

ACI explains freight at hubs in Africa increased by 3.2 per cent during 2015. South Africa and Egypt grew by 11.3 per cent and six per cent respectively, but a number of countries reported declines, including Kenya (-5.1 per cent) and Nigeria (-2.6 per cent).

Airports in Asia Pacific saw a marginal increase of 0.7 per cent in December 2015. China, grew 3.3 per cent, Japan by 0.9 per cent,

Hong Kong remained flat at 0.1 per cent growth, whilst India posted a rise of 6.4 per cent . Korea saw growth of 0.4 per cent.

Europe saw 0.7 per cent growth. The largest markets of Germany, France and the Nether-lands saw declines of 0.2 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively, while the UK remained flat, up 0.2 per cent. Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and Turkey, grew by 8.6 per cent, five per cent, 4.2 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.

Latin America-Caribbean saw a major decline of 9.1 per cent. At the same time, Colombia saw a 4.9 per cent rise, Mexico a 7.8 per cent surge, but Peru and Argentina saw falls of 1.2 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively, but Ecuador saw 8.3 per cent growth. North America saw a 2.4 per cent increase in 2015.

The Middle East saw impressive 10.7 per cent growth. The United Arab Emirates saw a 4.4 per cent uplift, while Qatar saw a massive 47.3 per cent rise in 2015.

World’s airports see 2.3% cargo growth in 2015 WorldNewsAn Airbus Beluga cargo aircraft was forced into an emergency landing on Sunday, 14 February at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport after developing a problem with its wing flaps.While heading to Hawarden Airport in North Wales at 17.30h, the Airbus A300 had to land early after the wing issue. The aircraft was carrying parts to and from the Airbus site in Broughton, where wing assembly takes place.

Cargolux is to increase Brazilian ser-vices with flights to Rio de Janeiro from 4 March to cater for pre-Olympic Games demand, which is taking place from 5 to 21 August. Cargolux expects to carry valuable equipment as well as car parts and spares, chemicals, elec-trical goods, consolidated freight and household goods.

Top forwarders see market share fall

AIR cargo market data analyst WorldACD says the top 20 freight forwarders saw their market share decline from 44.5 per cent to 43 per cent in 2015 – based on revenue, measured in US dollars.

The Amsterdam firm bases figures on the inputs of more than 60 (mostly large) airlines, who provide their full world-wide air waybill data every month.

WorldACD also says the top 10 forwarders remained un-changed from the previous years and the group accounts for 32 per cent of worldwide air cargo volume.

Behind DGF, the largest are Kuehne + Nagel (K + N), DB Schenker, Expeditors and Panalpina. K+N, Expeditors, Nippon Express, CEVA and DHL Express saw growth above the worldwide average of two per cent, but DGF, DB Schen-ker, Panalpina, UPS SCS and Kintetsu lagged behind.

IATA: accident rate up in 2015

THE global jet accident rate per one million flights increased to 0.32 in 2015 from 0.27 in 2014, but is improving in the long term, according to the International Air Transport As-sociation (IATA) 2015 safety performance.

The jet hull loss rate for IATA members was 0.22 or one accident per 4.5 million flights, compared to 0.12 in 2014. In the five year period between 2010 and 2014, the rate was 0.46 per million in total.

The association says though there were no jet passenger fatalities, there were two accidents resulting in loss of life including a freighter aircraft involved in a runway excursion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with eight deaths.

IATA is not including the Germanwings 9525 loss in March, as that was pilot suicide, and Metrojet 9268, which was suspected terrorism. These were considered deliberate acts and not accidents.

IATA director general and chief executive officer, Tony Tyler says: “2015 was another year of contrasts when it comes to aviation’s safety performance. In terms of the number of fatal accidents, it was an extraordinarily safe year. And the long-term trend data show us that flying is getting ever safer.”

aircargoweek.com

4 ACW 22 FEBRUARY 2016

60SECONDS

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Justin Burns, ACW: Why did you acquire Maastricht Aachen Airport?Durmaz: I know the airport well and thought we would have more focus by bringing the airport into the situation. We have this wide reaching network and by bringing them together, it is a plus for the airport. In the GSA

market, companies have difficulties to survive, and though we are growing, it is tough and changing. We want to differentiate ourselves from other GSAs and we thought we needed a home and base. We can now offer carriers not only solutions, but by being a partner and can now be more than a five per cent GSA as I say.

We can now bring a total cargo management product to the airport and can do more than the competition is doing.From both sides it is a win-win situation as we will bring logistic services for airlines such as onward road feeder services, forwarder contacts, and more, while it will have other benefits through the links at both.

Justin Burns, ACW: How will the airport be run in relation to your GSA?Durmaz: The plan is to run the airport separately from the GSA, but we are focusing on using our relationships through the GSA to grow the airport as the GSA has 85 contracts with different airlines (across the globe). We will use our contracts to help grow and expand Maastricht Aachen Airport.I would also like to work with the other GSAs and make them decision makers. At many airports on the cargo side, everything is done between the airlines and airports and the GSAs only comes in at the end, but GSAs can do more and be stronger and I would like to bring them to the forefront of the cargo business.

Justin Burns, ACW: What are your plans to grow cargo tonnage?Durmaz: We are talking with airlines we would like to come to Maastricht Aachen Airport. Schiphol and Eindhoven airports are nearly full and we are in a great area and catchment area. We believe that Maastricht can grow its passenger numbers and bellyhold cargo as there are only 10 bellyhold flights a week operating at the moment. We are talking to the Middle Eastern carriers, and also US carriers and the likes of Amazon and others around the world.On the cargo side at Maastricht we have Ethiopian Cargo who want to go from 12 to 17 flights a week, and Turkish Cargo is doing 10 flights a week and other carriers also operate cargo services. Other airlines have shown interest that they also want to stop in at Maastricht on the cargo side.The airport is in the middle of the region for logistics and is in a great location (close to Germany, Belgium, and France). We can develop e-commerce through the airport and believe cargo will grow at the airport. There will be

cargo tonnage growth, but there will also be passenger growth, which will mean more bellyhold cargo tonnage.

Justin Burns, ACW: Do you plan to develop infrastructure at Maastricht?Durmaz: We will develop, expand and lengthen the runway at Maastricht so that more aircraft can operate here. We will also invest in another new cargo warehouse of 10,000 square metres sometime over the next two years.

Justin Burns, ACW: Will the acquisition boost the GSA side of your business?Durmaz: On the GSA side we will open up new offices in North Africa and offices in Central America such as in Mexico, and have a chance to grow, which will add to the 70 offices we already have.The GSA market is not over, but they are not getting the recognition they deserve from the airlines. But in the coming years the role of GSAs will change and they will be more in the picture. We are investing to be one of the three major GSA players across the globe, and we will grow on the GSA side.

Justin Burns, ACW: Do you have plans to invest in other airports across the globe in the future?Durmaz: If our concept is working and we get the confidence at this airport, maybe we will look at operating airports in other continents. We could maybe take on one in the US where they are state-owned or in the Middle East or somewhere else. There are many airports in difficulties across the globe and many are losing money. We will look to add to our portfolio and our plan is to grow.It is a win-win for the GSA and airport. How many GSAs can say they operate an airport? How many airports can say they have a network of 85 airline contracts?

The Global GSA Group became the first general sales agent (GSA) to operate an airport after its parent company Trade Centre Global Investments (TCGI) took over Maastricht Aachen Airport last month. The move surprised a few in the industry. Air Cargo Week spoke to Global GSA Group chief executive officer, Ismail Durmaz about the move and future. 60 withISMAIL DURMAZ

Seconds

ISMAIL DURMAZ

The world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jack-son Atlanta International Airport (ATL), is on a journey to break into the top tier of the world’s leading cargo airports.

In addition to having some of the lowest operating costs in the United States, ATL

has exceptional infrastructure, an efficient layout with five parallel runways, generous airfield capacity with round-the-clock operations, and no slot restrictions or curfews.

In 2015, ATL topped 101 million passengers. Each week, ATL accommodates nearly 8,500 departures to about 175 domestic and 70 international destinations.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has charged the ATL team with increasing its cargo operations, setting a goal to grow from its 10th place position to the top five US air-ports for cargo volume.

In 2015, Hartsfield-Jackson made strides toward this objective, handling more than 626,000 tonnes of cargo, up 4.15 per cent over 2014.

All-cargo carriers combined with passenger airlines that carry belly freight contribute to the year-round cargo traffic.

A total of four new all-cargo airlines began operations at Hartsfield-Jackson in 2015, and plans are in place for additional carriers to launch operations this year.

The ATL team stands behind what it views as its pur-pose: to serve as the Atlanta community’s chief economic development tool for the creation of jobs and the growth of wealth for its residents.

Robust cargo development helps Hartsfield-Jackson realise this mission. Air cargo is a fertile source of employ-ment and economic opportunity for metro Atlanta. According the airport’s economic impact study, ATL cargo operations support more than 27,000 jobs and generate revenue exceeding $6.7 million in metro Atlanta.

In 2015, ATL welcomed Elliott Paige, the airport’s new cargo air service development manager responsible for identifying and attracting new carriers.

ATL’s cargo route development program aims to increase overall traffic and enhance trade connectivity between ATL and global markets. This includes further development of dynamic European and Asian routes and new trade routes to Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America.

Supporting Elliott is the airport’s Air Service Incentive

Program (ASIP) which is designed to stimulate interna-tional air cargo and passenger growth, particularly along routes that link Atlanta to the world’s fastest-growing economies and air cargo traffic.

The incentive program waives landing fees for up to two years for qualified passenger airlines starting international routes not already served from Atlanta and matches up to one-half of promotional costs, capped at $50,000. International cargo service carriers benefit from a waiver of both landing and parking fees during the same periods.

The higher tier benefits are available to carriers starting service to one of the five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China or South Africa. Carriers starting service to other parts of Africa, Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia can also receive extra consideration.

To accommodate additional cargo growth and oper-ations, the airport has begun a capital improvement program dubbed ATL Next. In addition to a landmark terminal modernisation project and a variety of airfield initiatives, it includes plans to increase cargo warehouse space and improve landside access for trucks to pick up arriving and drop off departing cargo.

ADVERTORIAL

ATL CargoA Strategy for Growth

atlanta-airport.com

IMPORTS:Targeting origins that produce fresh fish, meats, and fruits and vegetables from South America.

EXPORTS:Targeting in-transit cargo shipments destined to Asia and Europe that originate from Central and South America and by developing a southeastern logistics hub for the health care and pharmaceutical industries.

PASSENGER SERVICE:Expanding passenger service frequencies to the same locations where targeted cargo traffic also exists.

MARKETING ATL CARGO:Marketing ATL cargo as offering world-class facilities in a competitive location to air cargo stakeholders globally.

ON-AIRPORT REAL ESTATE:Redeveloping existing real estate and potentially secure additional on-airport real estate to accommodate marked growth in air cargo volume.

CARGO FACILITIES:Building a best-in-class cargo and perishable facility to attract transportation providers and shippers to ATL to support import and export trade.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS:Engaging with third-party airport cargo warehouse developers to invest in cargo-facility development at ATL.

WIDEBODY AIRCRAFT:Incentivising widebody passenger and freighter service into and out of ATL to support import and export needs.

TRADE AND TOURISM:Fostering trade and tourism alliances to key destinations with key industries to help create passenger demand and lift capacity for cargo.

The Hartsfield-Jackson cargo development blueprint

ACW 22 february 2016 6

M ilan Malpensa Airport (pic-tured) passed the 500,000 tonnes mark for the first time in its his-tory, with two years of strong growth.

SEA Milano, the operator of Malpensa, says the gateway increased its share of the Italian market from 53 per cent to 55 per cent in 2015 helped by traffic that would have used road feeder services to other European airports are increasingly flying from Milan. Bellyhold cargo increased by 10.5 per cent in 2015 due to increased widebody passenger aircraft while cargo and courier movements increased by 16 per cent to over 10,000.

Malpensa’s volumes have also been helped by DHL using the airport as a gateway hub from November 2014.

“[This is] an encouraging figure showing how Malpensa cargo can give an important contribu-

tion also for passenger flight development in the airport,” SEA says.

SEA explains the economic situation in Italy

has stabilised so it hopes imports will improve despite Europe as a whole stagnating. SEA says Malpensa grew due to recovering volumes from road feeder services, cargo carriers increasing freighter capacity to attract traffic from locations including Switzerland and Southern France, improved infrastructure and developing express courier bases.

“This target will be pursued by the quality of air cargo services, the improvement of infra-structure and, last but not least, a better road connectivity. [A] New highway connecting Mal-pensa to Switzerland and Eastern Italy has been built for EXPO2015 and will be extended during [the] next [few] years,” SEA notes.

So far in 2016 January proved to be a good month though February could be slower due to Chinese New Year and China’s slowdown.

“We expect that the operators already based, both courier and full freighters, in Malpensa will consolidate their presence with some increases in terms of flights and capacity offer.

“The month of January confirmed the positive trend with +10 per cent whereas February will probably be affected by the Chinese New Year. Of course our positive forecast could need some adjustment in case of a world economic down-turn pushed by a Chinese crisis,” SEA observes.

Despie some concerns over China, SEA is happy with Cargolux Italia’s Malpensa – Novo-sibirsk – Zhengzhou services launched in June 2015. It is the only direct cargo service to China, excluding Air China bellyhold services to Shang-hai and Beijing.

The new Cargolux Italia flight is very import-ant for the business in Malpensa. First of all because Novosibirsk and Zhengzhou were not directly connected before; moreover the flight is the only cargo service to China reaching more than 50 cities in mainland China by trucking service.”

Malpensa’s biggest export markets continue to be the USA and the Far East nations including Japan, China, South Korea and Hong Kong, with capacity to South America increasing. In 2015, Atlas Air started flying to Bogota on behalf of Etihad and LAN started passenger services with bellyhold capacity to Santiago de Chile com-

bined with Sao Paulo, as well as Cargolux Italia’s Zhengzhou flights.

Milan Malpensa operates more than 110 cargo flights per week and connects to about 180 destinations worldwide, including bellyhold capacity.

SEA says: “USA and Middle – Far East are our reference markets and we are focused in a stable growth in these areas. Of course other markets represent our targets for the future, such as South America or Africa, where an improvement in direct connections will be positive for the air-port and its catchment area.”

Milan Malpensa’s exports consist of products Italy is famous for, such as fashion including clothes, shoes, glasses, bags and accessories, luxury sports cars, food and wine, mechanics, design products and spare parts. Imports consist of electronics such as computers and smart-phones, semi-finished products and fresh food.

SEA is expecting pharmaceutical traffic will increase: “We expect that pharma-ceutical products will enhance more and more their importance thanks to the new CEIV [Inter-national Air Transport Association Center of Excellence for Independent Validators] certifica-tion just reached by two cargo handlers.

“During last months, both of them have improved facilities dedicated to pharma, adding more than 2,000 square metres of temperature controlled warehouse spaces to this kind of ship-ments (loose or in ULDs).”

In the coming years, companies at Malpensa will be expanding their presence, including FedEx and DHL Express. FedEx’s new ware-house will be ready by the end of July and fully operational by October.

“This building is three times the size of FedEx’s present warehouse and will allow it to gradually increase its cargo volumes being positioned in the centre of its activity for Southern Europe and Italy,” SEA notes.

A 15,000 square metre warehouse will be ready for 2017 and will be rented to Worldwide Flight Services and Italian cargo handler, Beta Trans. DHL Express is investing 90 million euros ($101 million) on a 15,000 square metre ware-house, expected to be completed by 2018.

Malpensa passes the 500,000 tonne mark for 1st timeITALY

aircargoweek.com

F ast Freight Marconi at Bologna’s Guglielmo Mar-coni Airport has experienced an export boom in 2015, helped by the arrival of Emirates’ Boeing 777-300ER services from November.

The arrival of Emirates means Bologna is now send-ing a lot of perishable produce to Dubai International Airport, something which Fast Freight Marconi service delivery and secu-rity supervisor, Ilaria Bimbi admits was a daunting prospect.

Bimbi tells Air Cargo Week: “Emirates had a tremendous effect on our business; at the beginning a daily 777-300 was hard to believe and I don’t hide we were scared. But the start up was eas-ier than expected and effects on volumes [were] impressive.”

This comes in addition to its traditional exports from the auto-motive industry of spare parts, automobiles, motorbikes and dangerous goods related to the business.

Bologna and the surrounding area is ‘motor valley’, with auto-motive companies such as Lamborghini and Maserati, and Ducati motorbikes.

It also handles medical apparatus, tiles, automatic wrapping machines, and fashion, with imports of raw material and export-ing the finished products.

Overall, Bimbi says 2015 was a good year, particularly for exports though imports have not been strong.

“We faced a good increase in volumes, especially in exports. Starting from March 2015 exports started to grow again, not fol-lowed by imports, which suffered a lack of volumes since autumn 2014.”

Fast Freight also handled a lot of charter flights on large air-craft including Antonov AN-124s and Boeing 747s during the summer, and then Emirates started its 777-300 services to Dubai.

For 2016, Bimbi has high expectations but she is still worried about imports. “I must admit we have high expectations for 2016: signs from 2015 were good; if contact phone calls, visit requests, number of meetings held, if they all can be used as unit of mea-sure, then I’m allowed to have good expectations for the year.”

She is optimistic about the meetings throughout January and February, saying there is a growing interest in Bologna Airport and Fast Freight will not say no to a good business partnership. “We would really like to become a staple for cargo charter com-panies: this is what we’re working on. Considering the strategic geographical position of Bologna in Italy, it shouldn’t be impossi-ble to achieve.”

Exports accelerating quickly in Italy’s motor valley

7ACW 22 FEBRUARY 2016

ITALY

AlitAliA is to increase services in 2016 with daily flights to Tehran and the launch of services to Mexico City.

The Italian flag carrier already operates four flights a week from Rome Fiumicino Airport to the Iranian capital, and now United Nations economic sanctions have been lifted, it will increase them to daily. The Airbus A320 flight will leave Rome at 17.30h and arrive in Tehran at 00.50h.

The Italy-Iran Chamber of Commerce says Italy is one of Iran’s major trading partners and the second biggest among European Union countries. It says trade was worth 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in 2014.

Alitalia will start three times a week Boeing 777 services from Rome Fiumicino to Mexico City from 16 June. The

flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. When the route was an-

nounced, Alitalia chairman, Luca di Montezemolo (pictured) said: “We aim to be the leading carrier on routes to Latin America, an important area for Italy and one we see growth and oppor-

tunity both in business and in leisure.”

AIRpoRTS across Italy saw cargo volumes grow two per cent in December to 82,265 tonnes, with some seeing large growth and others struggling, according to the Asso-ciazione italiana Gestori Aeroporti.

According to the association’s figures, Milan Malpensa Airport had the highest volumes in December, at 41,802 tonnes, up 3.8 per cent year on year, with Rome Fiumicino Airport second, handling 11,960 tonnes, an increase of 4.9 per cent. il Caravaggio international Airport in Ber-gamo saw volumes fall by 6.5 per cent in December to 10,595 tonnes.

Venice Marco Polo Airport saw volumes rise 11.5 per cent to 4,077 tonnes and Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Air-port was up 9.4 per cent to 3,628 tonnes. Brescia Airport (pictured) was down 23.6 per cent to 2,387 tonnes. Rome Ciampino Airport was up 6.4 per cent to 1,507 and Milan linate Airport fell by 7.9 per cent to 1,359.

Scattered growth for airports

Alitalia to expand network in 2016

aircargoweek.com

ACW 22 february 2016 8

B russels Airport (pictured) saw strong growth last year and the soon to kick-off Air Cargo Belgium air-freight community organisation will only enhance cargo operations.

Head of cargo, Steven Polmans says all the documents will be signed and sealed at the end of March and adds: “It will further strengthen

the collaboration between all stakeholders and at the same time generate enough leverage to make a difference and start projects on a com-munity level. Our focus will be on improving BRUcargo for all. There is a long list of topics we can and will work on to make BRUcargo more efficient, attractive and competitive than ever.”

In 2015, tonnage rose nearly eight per cent, but Polmans says it will be challenging to post such growth again in a tough market. “With the departure of Ethiopian Cargo end of last year, the lack of capacity of DHL for further growth until their new facility is ready and the announcement of Jet Airways to discontinue their hub operation in Brussels, this will be a challenging year. Despite all this, we still aim for a small growth this year, but realise espe-cially Q1 and Q2 might be difficult.”

He expects the next months will be difficult with negative year-on-year growth, but volumes

are there, so it is a matter of time to find replace-ment capacity and carriers to jump in the gap and grow tonnage again.

Performance in 2016 depends on a replace-ment being found for Jet and Polmans says there is an option to gain back Ethiopian or find another carrier: “Brussels Airlines and United are already adding capacity to New York and Toronto, also India is on the short list of Brussels Airlines. Etihad was allowed to further increase frequencies to double daily, so I am confident on the belly traffic.

“Full cargo will be more difficult. I am expect-ing growth next year on the integrator side when the new DHL Express facility opens, but not that much this year. It could easily be easy minus five per cent or plus five per cent. Suggest you ask me again somewhere in Q2.”

Pharma has been a focus and will continue to be so, but perishables is growing and will develop further, Polmans says, while niche mar-kets such as (small) animals are being looked at. “Not important on volumes, but shipments are making good yields for both airlines and

forwarders and need special care. One of the reasons why we want to focus on it with our cargo community.”

Polmans highlights Africa as a bouyant trade lane due to a strong network there, along with South America, as despite its struggling econ-omy imports and exports grew significantly. “This is even more remarkable knowing we have no direct flights to that continent at the moment,” he notes. A direct connection there is high priority at Brussels, and Polmans says talks are ongoing with interested carriers, so sooner or later it should be able to land a route.

Investment in infrastructure continues on real estate, the DHL building, and a new project with Swissport is about to start, while pharma and the cloud project are set for significant invest-ments, that Polmans says means more efficient processes, such as a slot and gate system for cargo deliveries and pick ups.

And the competition with Liege is healthy Polmans feels, as only strengthens Belgium’s “logistical position” and benefits Brussels.

Polmans sees a tough year in Europe, as uncertainty reduces confidence, adding: “I am not interested in a short period of growth, we do need sustainable growth in the long-term.”

Tough year ahead at Brussels but still optimismEUROPEAN AIRPORTS

Niche markets

DENMARK’S airfreight volumes saw a slow-down in 2015, but Billund Airport (pictured) still saw a positive growth of 0.7 per cent compared to 2014 - handling 63,023 tonnes.

The gateway’s senior vice president for cargo, Jan Ditlevsen says this was just shy of the record achieved in 2013, of 63,420 tonnes.

“Driving the airport’s growth in volumes through 2015 has been the export cargo while imports have lagged behind, reflecting the general picture in Denmark’s econom-ic situation through the year. But compared with other airports in the region, Billund Air-port has actually performed above average in a slack market.”

The bulk of the shipments handled at Bil-lund is incoming and outgoing trucked cargo handled at the airport’s cargo centre for airlines serving the region, while it is also handling several integrators with regular

scheduled freighter flights.Billund has set up a dedicated logistics

service targeting forwarders, allowing them to outsource their entire cargo handling to a special department within Cargo Center Bil-lund, Ditlevsen says.

“Another important segment is handling of ad-hoc freighter operations where Billund has built a reputation for competence with relief flights, project operations and special-ties like handling of live animal flights.

“Other perishables regularly handled at the airport’s cargo centre include shipments of fresh seafood from North Atlantic producers where we offer tailored, comprehensive and fully-fledged packages of services adding value to the chain of logistics,” he explains.

Being located at the cross roads of Den-mark and the European continent and between country’s industrial centre, the Danish capital area and Sweden, close to the largest trucking hub near the Danish and German border, core railway lines and several industrial harbours, should ensure continued growth.Ditlevsen says: “Heavy investments have been allocated to building a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, a modern GSE fleet, effi-cient terminal handling procedures with all cooling and freezing options as well as the latest equipment for cargo screening with three large integrated X-ray scanners dedi-cated solely to cargo purposes.”

Billund rising despite Denmark’s slowdown

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Construction of a third runway at Munich Airport (pictured) is par-amount to achieving cargo growth for the airport and Germany in the years ahead.

The gateway’s director of traffic development for cargo, Markus Heinelt (pictured) explains to Air Cargo Week future success depends on implementation of the project, which is await-ing approval by the airport’s shareholders. “Global airfreight volume will grow contin-uously worldwide. Germany has among the strongest economies in Europe and having an additional runway is only logistically possible at Munich Airport. This points to a strength-ening of Munich’s role as passenger and cargo hub,” Heinelt says.

Another runway is crucial in his view for future cargo development and will “guarantee” growth, which he notes is in contrast to other German hubs where expansion is limited.

Heinelt adds: “We place a lot of emphasis on efficiency and reliability and that matches perfectly with a strong cargo market in South-ern Germany and the neighbouring regions. Accordingly, we are very optimistic regarding the airport’s further development as a major cargo hub.”

2015 was a record year as cargo tonnage rose 8.9 per cent to 317,000 tonnes at the Bavarian gateway, driven by increases in bel-lyhold capacities and new freighter services. Thriving sectors were general cargo, express and pharmaceuticals.

Also boosting the hub was how well Munich is being well received and marketed by logistic companies, Heinelt says, but he warns of the impact of growth: “Our growing traffic pres-ents a challenge for our cargo infrastructures and the respective processes. It is, thus, crucial for Munich Airport to concentrate on optimis-ing efficient processes to guarantee further growth.”

Expansion of cargo infrastructure is on the cards and he says the airport is in negotiations with interested parties for projects with a deci-sion expected this year so work can start soon.

In 2016, Heinelt expects additional capac-ities for the summer schedule from new long-haul routes like Lufthansa to the USA. The express market has already seen an increase in capacity as DHL has started operating with larger aircraft and introduced a new flight to Ljubljana.

He adds: “We expect more demand in freighter services. From all this, we forecast a further gain in cargo tonnage for 2016.” Munich looks set to move into the top bracket of Euro-pean cargo hubs, but Heinelt warns: “Competition in avi-ation can also be driven or influenced by external factors such as possible financial support or bilat-eral air transportation treaties.”

EUROPEAN AIRPORTSThird runway a must in Munich

9ACW 22 FEBRUaRy 2016

OSTEND-BRUGES AIRPORT is recovering after losing ANA Aviation to Liege Airport in May 2014.

The Belgian gateway faces intense com-petition with others in the vicinity competing for more of a slice of the air cargo pie.

Airport chief executive officer, Marcel Buelens says 2015 was a mixed bag: “Since we lost a major customer (ANA Aviation) to Liege Airport in May 2014, and 75 per cent of tonnage - we managed to limit the dam-age in compensating this loss with a few new and existing customers that generated new and extra volumes in 2015.”

In 2014 with ANA operating Ostend-Bru-ges handled 24,883 tonnes, compared to 46,485 in 2013, but last year without ANA it recorded 16,884.

ANA’s move to Liege clearly still rankles with Buelens: “We do not compete with Liege nor Brussels, unlike the Liege man-agement that steals from whomever they can get it with their subsidised airport. Any-thing that is successful at another airport in their proximity is open for attack and under-bidding. We try to create new business with new partners.”

He says he is also curious to see how Maastricht Aachen Airport will devel-op after its management changed hands, but is positive about 2016: “We hope to achieve between 30-50,000 tonnes this year, depending on how fast our new cus-tomers will start in the year.”

Ostend-Bruges specialises in livestock and perishables and Buelens says it is con-

sidered the fastest and most reliable UK cargo airport outside of the UK, with Calais in its proximity. Livestock and perishables make up much of cargo volumes, while the rest is mainly general cargo and relief goods, but pharma is growing.

Buelens explains the main trade lanes are to and from the European continent, notably the UK. He says the airport’s 24/7 operations and ease of accessibility and mobility to and from the airport helps. Oper-ations could be expanded and the airport is considering further deploying the dedicated cargo platform one, which can host eight simultaneous widebody cargo operations.

The only cargo arriving is on freighters, but Buelens says it is talking to carriers about starting bellyhold services, but com-petition is high in Europe, while freighters have not grown as expected: “We are a 24/7 airport, which does help in certain cases, but the integrators have made their choice on the EU hubs.

“It will be interesting to see how FedEx will integrate the TNT Liege hub in its net-work in the next three to five years.”

ANA move affecting Ostend

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ACW 22 february 2016 10

CHEP Aerospace Solutions has signed a contract to manage unit load devices (ULD) with new UK cargo carrier CargoLogicAir.

The firm’s president, Ludwig Bertsch (pictured) tells Air Cargo Week it is just the start: “As I speak, we are

negotiating a new ULD management contract, which will intro-duce our second largest partner after Cathay Pacific. We cannot reveal the name yet, but are very excited and hope to be able to conclude the contract negotiations successfully within the next couple of weeks.

“We are also in advanced discussions for a ULD management agreement with another prospective partner and hope to be able to announce this shortly too.”

CHEP has also renewed several key ULD management agree-ments with European airlines, and believes customer retention is just as important as winning new customers.

Bertsch says: “Our global presence allows us to serve all airlines regardless of their location, but as most widebody operators are in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, we’re focusing our efforts on these areas.”

CHEP expects 2016 to be a success and is aiming to expand its ULD repair and management network and add more airlines to

the 31 it now has ULD partnerships with.Bertsch explains it is focusing on larger network carriers and

cargo airlines - as they have widebody aircraft with a significant container and pallet demand, but it also has several leisure carri-ers in its portfolio.

“For low-cost airlines operating narrowbody aircraft, we can add value via our galley cart global maintenance and repair net-work. This enables us to provide savings on the repositioning costs of damaged units and reduces repair turnaround times,” Bertsch says.

This year marks an important milestone in CHEP’s sustainability commitment as it has now converted all its LD3 passenger airline containers to lightweight models weighing 65 kilograms or less. A carrier operating with 1,000 containers can expect an annual fuel saving of around $2 million, even with the record low fuel prices, alongside 13,000 tonnes of CO2 savings.

A key highlight in 2015 for CHEP was starting with Cathay Pacific, and Bertsch says the carrier is reaping the rewards: “This new partnership has significantly increased our ULD pool, which will soon be in excess of 90,000 units. We are managing Cathay’s ULDs as a dedicated fleet whilst using our pooled pallets to fulfill their cargo requirements.

“Additionally, to ensure we provide the best possible service, we have set up a dedicated account management team in Hong Kong, based at the Cathay Pacific Terminal.”

In 2015, it opened ULD management operation centres at Lon-don and Chicago O’Hare and moved to a larger repair facility in Singapore to meet the demand of Singapore Airlines. CHEP also boosted its facility at Brussels and this year will move to a new station in Frankfurt within the next few months.

Bertsch says contracts wins and renewals will be unveiled at the International Air Transport Association’s World Cargo Symposium in Berlin from 15-17 March.

ULDs

JETTAINER plans to increase its presence in major markets across the globe this year.

The unit load device (ULD) management firm’s managing director, Carsten Hernig tells Air Cargo Week it is aiming to continue its ambitious growth path and is working on gaining customers of “huge global importance”.

He says: “As some of our major accounts are up for renew-al and we never ever lost a customer at the end of a contract period – we are working on the extension of the existing con-tracts. We are eying at the acquisition of new airlines. In this regard, we plan on further increasing our presence in target markets such as the Americas and Africa.”

The ULD market is competitive, which Hernig says is “kind of good” as it “continuously stimulates further improvement”. He feels Jettainer is well placed: “We are continuously and successfully increasing our presence in the global market, it gets more easily to establish our services among poten-tial customers. Still, we experience more and more airlines identify the outsourcing of their ULD management as one of the last opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce cost.

“However, in terms of the ongoing consolidation we are also facing the fact airlines increasingly group and get financial-ly involved in each other. The slices of the potential market share are becoming bigger and more extensively linked on a global scale. According to this development, an efficient sub pooling of units will become even more important for us.”

This year, it will launch a new lightweight pallet with a joint venture partner, and Hernig says the new pallet is being test-ed now and will be available via Jettainer only.

The firm’s operations director, Michael-Thomas Popp feels further improvement of the repair flow management pro-cess as well as continuous advancement and promotion of standards for the handling and treatment of units is needed as “will contribute to a further enhancement of the over-all efficiency of the industry”. He adds it is supporting the development of intelligent containers that provide basic in-formation on their position and condition.

Popp urges more attention on standards for handling and treatment of ULDs. “We realise an increase of damages due to improvable care in handling ULDs. This trend has to be reversed. It is impacting safety and does damage to cargo shipments or baggage.”

CHEP to manage CargoLogicAir’s ULDs and eyes more wins

Major market focus for Jettainer

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NEWSWEEK

Fresh fruit and vegetables imports helped Lufthansa Cargo record low two-digit growth across its perishables business in 2015. “We can look back on a very success-ful year,” says Uta Frank, product & solutions manager in

temperature sensitive logistics.“Growth rates can be identified for fruit and vegetables, espe-

cially from Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Senegal, and from South America where we introduced additional capacity to cover the demand for berries and cherries from Chile. Our new freighter service from Natal in Brazil was adopted well by our customers, especially for the transport of papayas.”

Extending the shelf-life of perishable goods is part of

Lufthansa’s plan to increase its customer base during 2016. “The combined effort and co-operation of all partners in the supply-chain, from farm right through to customer delivery, is becoming more and more important,” says Frank.

“We have again improved our Fresh/td To-Door Services together with CCG Cool Chain Group to reach a seamless sup-ply chain which is safe and transparent,” she explains. “We plan to establish the service at our Munich hub and extend it to Rus-sia, which is a very interesting market for us.”

Technology developments are playing an increasing role in optimising the appearance and shelf-life of produce and, in coop-eration with the Perishable Center Frankfurt (PCF), Lufthansa offers the possibility of vacuum-cooling at the airport.

“Its fast yet gentle cooling which helps maximise the lifespan of sensitive, perishable goods such as flowers, and it is also often used for fruit during transit through Frankfurt,” says Frank. “The vacuum-cooling is being used for flowers and a fast cooler for fruit such as berries.”

Lufthansa sees the perishable market as an important part of its cargo mix and, mirroring the thoughts of other major carriers, Frank says the specialised transport of perishables is showing more potential for growth compared to overall airfreight.

FINNAIR CARGO has appointed Airborne International as its general sales and service agent (GSSA) for Germany from 1 March.

Airborne International, based at Frankfurt Airport’s Cargo City South, will take over from Aero Cargo International, which will remain Finnair’s German GSSA until 29 February.

This announcement follows from 2015, when it appointed three new GSSAs. On 1 June Inter Aviation Services start representing Finnair Cargo in Belgium.

Globe Air Cargo took over GSSA business in Poland from Star Ways from 1 July.

On 1 October, HAE Group started representing Finnair in the US states of Florida, Texas and Georgia, taking over from Network Cargo Services.

Alexander Arafa (pictured) has been appointed head of glob-al area management at Swiss WorldCargo, to take over on 1 June.

Arafa is currently head of cabin crew at SWISS, a position he has held since 2008. He is taking over from Ashwin Bhat, who became head of cargo last Oc-tober. In his role as head of global area management, Arafa will be responsible for worldwide sales of Swiss WorldCargo products and services.

SWISS chief executive officer, Thomas Kluhr says: “We are delighted to have appointed a proven executive from within our own ranks to this important position. In addition to his extensive sales expertise from his earlier carrier, Alexander also brings the ideal credentials to his new post through the eight years he has spent as the head of our cabin crew corps.”

Bhat adds: “We are pleased to welcome Alexander Arafa to Swiss WorldCargo. Alexander’s strong commercial expertise, vast experience and personality, will perfectly complement our current skill set and Swiss WorldCargo culture.”

Arafa has worked has worked at SWISS since 1999.

Lufthansa Cargo seeing perishables growth

Ethiopian Airlines is to start a twice daily bellyhold service to Delhi International Airport in India with a Boeing 737-800 on the route, from 26 March this year.

Ethiopian Airlines Group chief executive officer, Tewolde GebreMariam says India is one of the strongest economic muscles “zooming into the global economic picture”.

Air India is also set to begin a cargo service to Surat in the next two months, as part of an upgrade of its fleet. The carrier will reportedly replace its CRJ flight between Surat and Delhi and the Mumbai-Surat flight with Airbus A320 and Airbus A319, to tap into the cargo potential in Surat and South Gujarat.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) is set to build a cargo ter-minal in the city and expects 40,000 tonnes to be handled in the first year. Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and India Post have warehouses in Surat, but most air cargo is trucked by road to Ahmedabad and Mumbai from where it is flown.

India on the radar for business

Arafa gets newSwiss role

Airborne for Finnair

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