Hong Kong will be a three-runway airport by 2023

Hong Kong's government has approved a third runway for the city’s international airport.
Expected to open by 2023, it will help the island maintain its status as the world’s busiest air cargo hub and help Hong Kong maintain its position against other Asian rivals in China and Singapore.
The HK$141.5bn (US$18.2bn) scheme will be funded from internal funds, borrowings and user fees, including a HK$180 (US$23.20) additional passenger fee.
The new runway would be to the north of the airport and will be for landings only. It is expected to boost the airports capacity from 68 flights an hour to 102.
The news was welcomed by local carriers. Cathay Pacific chief executive Ivan Chu said his airline “reiterated its unequivocal support for the development of a third runway which it believes is necessary to maintain the long-term competitiveness of Hong Kong as a premier aviation hub".
Chu said the announcement was “a remarkable milestone" in the third runway project and welcomed the endorsement by the Executive Council.
He added: "Building third runway is the only viable way for our airport to keep pace with future growth and to continue to support Hong Kong’s pillar industries in tourism, international trade, logistics, and finance and professional services.”
Joe Ng, vice chairman of the Board of Airline Representatives in Hong Kong, which represents 76 airlines, said he believed the third runway would “strengthen Hong Kong’s status as one of Asia’s premier aviation hubs.”
He added: “Aviation is an industry that contributes some  eight per cent to Hong Kong’s GDP and accounts for eight per cent of employment in the city; the third runway is urgently needed to maintain the airport’s competitive strength and to ensure continued growth for the benefit of Hong Kong.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/hong-kong-will-be-a-three-runway-airport-by-2023.html

Continue

Cargojet network expansion

Canada’s Cargojet is expanding its domestic air cargo network from the beginning of April.
Cargojet, operating overnight services across North America plus global charters, has a total freighter fleet of 24 aircraft, including the recent introduction of five B767-300ERFs, three B767-200ERFs and one B757-200ERF.
The carrier did not outline in detail the extent of the network expansion.
Ajay Virmani, Cargojet’s president and chief executive, said “With additional overnight frequencies; more direct flights; and wide-body freighter service to ten major Canadian cities, this new enhanced air cargo network will provide our customers with the consistent operational reliability that they demand.”
Dr Virmani added: “As demand for premium air cargo services continues to grow, especially in response to e-commerce business activity, Cargojet will continue to expand our range of value-added services and overall capacity available to our customers.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/cargojet-network-expansion.html

Continue

WCS: Shippers slam poor service

If the air cargo community was under any illusion that its efforts to speed up door-to-door delivery and eliminate paper documents are winning over shippers, it may have to think again, writes Martin Roebuck.
Two major shippers tore into the industry for its poor service quality and communication in a no-holds-barred session at the World Cargo Symposium (WCS) in Shanghai.
Of more than 330 shippers who responded to a recent global IATA’s survey, 94 per cent ship some product by air, explained Tom Windmuller, the association’s senior VP airports, passenger, cargo and security. Scoring the industry from zero to 10, they gave the industry an average performance rating of 7.08.
Asked to give his own satisfaction rating, Robert Mellin, head of distribution logistics at Ericsson, awarded the industry a five. Alex Xu, associate supply chain director at Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical, said that five years ago he would have rated airfreight at seven or eight, but now it would be between six and seven.
It is not so much that standards are deteriorating, but the industry is perceived as struggling to keep up with customers’ evolving demands.
Windmuller said seven per cent of survey respondents were unhappy with their air freight service provision on some level. “That’s $4bn at risk [in terms of potential lost revenue],” he said. “But it’s more. We all know what unhappy customers do - they talk.”
Ericsson has reduced its use of airfreight “quite drastically,” but still flies up to 80,000 tonnes of freight per year to more than 160 destinations, Mellin said.
“We don’t it for fun, but because it’s essential.
“Speed and agility, the ability to act the right way when things happen, is vital for us. We are very keen to have better service but we haven’t seen so much happening in the last 10 years.”
While the slow migration to e-air waybills (e-AWBs) was welcome, Mellin said that “at the same time we’ve seen surface transportation moving rapidly forward. Everybody knows the problem – crucial information doesn’t go through, documents are missing - it’s so old fashioned, somehow. We’re totally disconnected. The technology is there, but information sharing is not. We’re protectionist.”
Xu said that air is Lilly’s major international transport mode, and as the company develops new bio-medicines, more products will be temperature sensitive.
“New regulations are controlling the external business environment, pushing us to try and find the most effective ways to manage quality control and logistics. But talking with air freight forwarders, they say ‘I don’t understand, we don’t have this information’ when there is a temperature excursion between Europe and China.”
Lilly discovers whether there has been a problem on the truck, in the aircraft or while awaiting loading only when it interrogates the shipment afterwards, Xu said. “We have other modes we can choose, such as shipping, which can provide a more stable temperature.”
Fellow panellist Chris Welsh, secretary general of the Global Shippers Forum, said that recent conversations with retailers and automotive, pharmaceutical and electronics shippers mostly only use airfreight when they really have to.
“It’s a distress purchase and if can ship by another mode, they will do it for reasons of cost or sustainability. The airfreight supply chain needs to be so much slicker than it is,” Welsh said.
Airfreight forwarders see pharmaceuticals as a major opportunity, but shippers have told Welsh that the industry is trying to sell a product without understanding the pharma industry’s requirements.
“Road and even rail offer total integrity in terms of temperature control. There are gaps in the air cargo supply chain when it goes from the warehouse on to the ramp. That’s where you get the product failures,” Welsh claimed. But an industry that is highly dependent on airfreight – “or was” – is discovering that suppliers “can’t get their act together”.
Asked if shippers were prepared to pay for better supply chain data, Mellin said a cloud-based IT solution in the next 12 to 18 months was necessary if air freight was to maintain its transportation share. Greater efficiency would “drive cost down, not up,” he said. “But we are part of the problem too. We need to collaborate, we’re not optimising.”
Third-party logistics providers were not happy to let shippers have three-way dialogue, so Ericsson had very little contact with airlines, Mellin said. Astonishingly, he admitted: “The first time I walked through an airport and saw the whole process was last Friday. The 3PLs hate that, because they worry what else I will see.”

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/wcs-shippers-slam-poor-service.html

Continue

FedEx sees peak season bounce

US parcels giant FedEx saw third quarter revenues up four per cent to $11.7bn.
“We had a very successful peak season as volumes grew across all transportation segments, and our profit improvement programs are moving ahead as scheduled,” said Fred Smith, FedEx Corp chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Operating results for the third quarter ended February 28 improved due to volume and base yield growth in all three transportation segments of ground, freight and express.
There was also a “significant net benefit” from fuel, benefits from profit improvement program initiatives, a lower year-over-year weather impact and reduced pension expense.
These improvements were partially offset by higher variable incentive compensation accruals.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/fedex-sees-peak-season-bounce.html

Continue

DHL right in the heart of Texas

DHL has opened a service centre facility in Houston, Texas, mainly to serve the oil and gas sector.
The $2.5m, 28,000 sq ft facility can process more than 2,500 shipments per hour, nearly double the existing capacity and will allow for earlier delivery times and later drop off times.
DHL Express says it has seen an uptick in emergency shipping of machinery parts and replacement tools.
The facility will handle anything from international small parcels to palletised and container freight.
The new facility is to the west of the city centre. DHL Express also has a Service Center north of the city in Humble, Texas, an aircraft ramp at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and its US Customer Finance Support Center.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/dhl-right-in-the-heart-of-texas.html

Continue

UPS extends pharma network

UPS customers can now ship biological substances, dangerous goods in excepted quantities and shipments using dry ice to more than 20 additional international destinations.
The US-based global express and logistics’ operator says that the expansion is a direct response to a growing demand from biopharmaceutical manufacturers, diagnostics companies, laboratories and distributors.  
“The UPS global transportation network has been enhanced to move biological specimens to and from more than 50 countries around the world,” said John Menna, UPS vice president of global strategy, healthcare logistics.
“The expanded programme was guided by our customers to include the locations that are most important to them.”
UPS is now able to pick up and deliver packages under regulation UN3373 (Biologic Substances, Category B, Diagnostic Specimen and Clinical Specimen) as well as UN1845 (Carbon Dioxide, solid or dry ice) in Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Panama, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine.
UN3373 and UN1845 are guidelines issued by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to regulate the safe transportation of goods using air transportation modes.

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/ups-extends-pharma-network.html

Continue

Lieb to quit DB Schenker Logistics

Thomas Lieb, management board chairman of Schenker AG, will leave the German logistics company at the end of this month “by best mutual agreement”.
The 56 year-old will take on new responsibilities outside the German railway parent company, Deutsche Bahn Group.
Dr Lieb has resigned “immediately” as head of business unit at DB Schenker Logistics and as management board chairman of Schenker AG, the company said in a statement, adding that Dr Lieb and DB group had decided this “by best mutual agreement”.
Karl-Friedrich Rausch, member of the management board of DB Mobility Logistics, responsible for transportation and logistics, said: “Dr Lieb achieved a lot for DB Schenker.
“Under his leadership the Business Unit DB Schenker Logistics enlarged its global network of today 2,000 locations in more than 140 countries and became a leading provider of global transportation and logistics solutions as well in future markets.”
In late February, Deutsche Bahn dismissed a claim for damages against three airlines in its billion dollar lawsuit relating to an air cargo cartel between 1999 and 2006.
DB added at the time: “Schenker will continue to pursue its claims against other air carriers and seek damages relating to the air carriers’ anti-competitive conduct alleged in the US cartel lawsuit, based on the legal principle of joint and several liability. Schenker plans to pursue its rights vigorously.”
Until a decision about Dr Lieb’s succession is made, Lutz Freytag, member of the management board of Schenker AG for finance/controlling, will take over the position as  management board chairman of Schenker AG on an interim basis.

Source :  http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/lieb-to-quit-db-schenker-logistics.html

Continue

TNT launches Tel Aviv freighter links

TNT has launched a Monday to Friday B737-400F service between Israeli capital Tel Aviv and the express operator's European hub in Liege, Belgium.
The new service "answers increasing demand" and allows TNT to shorten transit times for express shipments to and from Tel Aviv by one day.
The flight arrives in Tel Aviv in the morning for same day deliveries, and departs in the evening, allowing for close of business pick up and same day export
Martin Sodergard, managing director network operations at TNT, said: "With this flight operated by TNT, our customers will benefit from improved delivery reliability, as well as later cut-off times for pick-ups thanks to improved departure times.
"It also gives us additional capacity to further grow our business in and out of Israel.”
The European Union is the first trading partner for Israel, with total trade amounting to approximately €29bn in 2013. 
Typical TNT shipments to and from Israel include machinery, electronic products, medical equipment and textiles
Under the company’s outlook strategy, TNT is working to combine its European road network with a stronger international air network.
TNT has recently upgraded its road express services to Turkey and the Balkan countries, and added Hannover and Venice to the European air network. 

Source : http://www.aircargonews.net/news/single-view/news/tnt-launches-tel-aviv-freighter-links.html

Continue