TNT adds Venice freighter call

Parcels carrier TNT is launching a five-times a week B737-400 freighter service between Venice and its Liege air hub in Belgium, aimed at exporters and importers trading with north-east Italy. The morning flight from Liege arrives at Venice Airport Marco Polo (VCE) at 6:00 am and continues onto Ljubljana (Slovenia) before returning to Liege. Five weekly flights...

Continue

Transaero Launches cargo service to Beijing

Russia’s leading carrier, Transaero Airlines, has launched a freighter service to China. Transaero delivered 22.4 tonnes of mail on the first flight between Beijing and Novosibirsk using one of the airline’s pair of new Tupolev Tu-204C aircraft. The year old aircraft will be regular performers on the route. The airline...

Continue

IATA figures find fair weather for freight flow

IATA’s November Airlines Financial Monitor finds good news for much of the air cargo sector as freight volumes continue to expand steadily and load factors improve on the back of growth in demand. Air freight volumes increased in October compared to September, with recent improvements driven by progress in Asia Pacific and North America due to expanding trade volumes,...

Continue

ANA and Lufthansa Cargo JV hauls first shipment

The cargo joint venture between All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Lufthansa Cargo has carried its first shipment. Sent by forwarder Schenker-Seino and booked via Lufthansa Cargo, three pieces of general cargo weighing 153kg were transported by ANA on a direct flight from Tokyo to London. The forwarder was able to receive the shipment approximately 16 hours earlier than by choosing the transfer connection via Frankfurt. On the same day, a Lufthansa Cargo freighter flight carried the first shipment...

Continue

TNT cockpit iPads save 50kg in paper

TNT Airways is to roll out paperless cockpits across its worldwide fleet by using iPad Air tablets as electronic flight bags. TNT’s subsidiary airline, with a fleet of 50 aircraft, has made the move following approval from the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority. Each iPad will replace the 50kg of paper books and manuals carried by crews on each flight. Going paperless...

Continue

Drewry Air Freight Price Index

East-West airfreight rates were for the second month in a row largely unchanged in July with Drewry’s East-West Air Freight Price Index only moving up by 0.8 points to 102.4 points. The small increase in pricing brought the index up to within 1.4 points of April’s high and an impressive 8.2 points above last year’s level, indicating the strength of the recovery in...

Continue

Asia Airlines Capacity and Cargo Traffic

  Overall, airfreight demand in freight tonne kilometers (FTK) grew by an encouraging 4.7 percent compared to the same month last year. The average international freight load factor rose for the second consecutive month, by 0.8 percentage points to 66.1 percent in June, on a 3.4 percent growth in offered freight capacity.  Source: Association of Asia Pacific...

Continue

European Airlines Freight Traffic

This is the monthly year-over-year percent change in overall freight traffic and Asia-Pacific freight traffic for European airlines. Asia Pacific fell in June 2014, and overall increased. Source: Association of European Airlin...

Continue

Two Decades of Lufthansa Cargo

Lufthansa cargo has spent the last 20 years flying around the world 3.6m times and transporting the equivalent of 9.3m elephant . Lufthansa Cargo is celebrating two decades as an independent business after Deutsche Lufthansa AG pooled its cargo activities into a separate company. Germany's freight flagship carrier states: "Flying cargo has always played a major role at Lufthansa and its predecessors; however, it was not until the founding of a dedicated cargo...

Continue

DHL Supply Chain boosts Chinese logistics investment

DHL Supply Chain (DSC) has more than doubled its commitment to infrastructure investment in China, with a further Euro113m added to the Euro105m committed by the German-owned logistics operator last year.The total Euro218m investment will support the development of DHL’s Chinese network and, in particular, six new logistics facilities scheduled for completion by 2020 in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang, Shenzhen and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone. "By working closely with our...

Continue

New Beluga to fly by 2019

Airbus is to expand its oversize air transport capability with the development of five new Beluga transport aircraft. The future “white whales” will be based on the A330 aircraft, with a large re-use of existing components and equipment. The current five-strong Beluga fleet – now up to 20 years old - is based on the twin-engine A300-600R and can carry a maximum payload of 47 tonnes non-stop over a range of 1,660 km. Said Airbus: “The distinctive looking lowered cockpit,...

Continue

UTi charters B747F to ease US port congestion

US dockside port congestion has prompted UTi Worldwide charter a weekly B747F from Shanghai to Chicago. The global supply chain services and solutions company says that the scheduled service is intended to ease the backlog of goods needed in North America. "Congestion at west coast US ports has reached a critical level and we think it will get worse before we see any improvements," said Ed Feitzinger, UTi's executive vice president, global operations Feitzinger added:...

Continue

Paper-less air cargo supply chain facility introduced at Bengaluru airport

Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd (AISATS), a 50:50 joint venture between Air India Limited and SATS Limited, a gateway services and food solutions provider in Asia, has introduced an e-freight initiative at its Bengaluru Airfreight Terminal facility. With this launch, AISATS BLR has taken a step towards IATAs e-freight initiative, building a paper-free air cargo supply chain and replacing it with cheaper, accurate and reliable electronic messaging, AISATS said in a statement. To facilitate...

Continue

Cargolux posts best ever October figures

Cargolux, Europe’s largest all-cargo carrier, posted its best ever October, with its fleet of 22 Boeing 747 freighters breaking records for tonnage, revenue and block hours. Tonnage grew 6.7 percent and net revenue was up 9.9 percent from a year ago, making October the second-best month in the Luxembourg-based airline’s history after November 2013. The carrier said it also achieved the highest daily utilization of all operators of the 747-8F at more than 16 hours a day through October. The...

Continue

Christmas bonus for air cargo as rates soar due to west coast port congestion

Costs for chartering a freighter to fly from China to the US have skyrocketed, with as much as a 100% rise in rates over the last few months. While November lease rates for a round trip might rise, normally, to about $400,000 for a 747F, from $300,000 earlier in the year, one air cargo source familiar with the matter told The Loadstar this month prices have been...

Continue