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6

Markets stabilise in August

ASIAN MARKETKEY FOCUS FOR GERMANY

ExpANdING TOMEET dEMANd

AIR FRANCE ANdAIR SEYChEllESbOOST TRAdE

NEW INITIATIVESAT FRANKFURT

The weekly newspaper for air cargo professionals

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AIRFREIGHT markets stabilised in Au-gust after two months of decline, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports.

Volumes measured in freight tonne ki-lometres (FTK) rose year-on-year (YOY) by 0.2 per cent. This was up on July when FTK fell YOY by 0.6 per cent. Figures var-ied from region and were lead by airlines in the Middle East, where FTK grew YOY by 10.4 per cent. Africa saw a YOY in-crease of 2.3 per cent, while Europe saw a YOY rise of 0.7 per cent. There was bad news in Asia Pacific, North America and Latin American, as the regions saw a YOY FTK fall of one per cent, 3.3 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

IATA’S director general and chief ex-ecutive officer, Tony Tyler, says total volumes are down two per cent com-pared to the end of 2014. Tyler notes earlier weaknesses remain: “Downgrad-ed growth expectations in emerging Asia...the rebalancing of the Chinese economy toward domestic consumption – are still there. Even though world trade volumes have....picked up, the indus-try will have to work hard to match the strong finish to 2014.”

A new cargo carrier will soon be serving the Chinese market focusing on e-commerce after United Star Express Airlines was launched.

The express airline is a joint venture between Okay Airlines, Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), Vipshop and two other parties. It was announced at the Fourth Annual China Air Finance Development Summit on 24 Septem-ber. It will be established pending approval by related government parties and plans to com-mence flight operations sometime in mid-2016.

United Star Express will principally serve rapidly growing express air cargo demand driven by e-commerce growth in China and sur-rounding countries. From 2010 through 2014, the partners say the express market has been growing at an average of 30 per cent per year.

United Star Express Airlines is registered in Tianjin’s free trade zone (Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone), with a capital of 400 million ren-minbi ($63 million). Okay Airlines will provide the largest share of the capital.

The partners explain: “Express air services in China now rely mostly on excess capacity in the belly of passenger aircraft. Fewer than 120 all-cargo freighters operate within China, and only a small portion of those serve express markets.

“The growth rate of China’s e-commerce markets exceeds that of the air express market. United Star Express will provide third-party express and charter aircraft services that cover the country and surrounding Asia regions to domestic and international express companies.”The joint venture partners say gradually, the

carrier will add medium and long-distance cross-border express and cargo charter ser-vices that cover the European and the Americas regions.Within the first year of operations, United Star Express expects to have six small and midsize freighter aircraft, including Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 (pictured) aircraft.

Cargolux set to boost fleet and Chinese operations

Cargolux Airlines Inter-national is looking at buying up to five more Boeing 747 Freighters as it considers whether

to launch a Chinese airline based in Zhengzhou, under the project name Cargolux China.

At a media event at Luxem-bourg Airport attended by Air Cargo Week on 29 September, Car-golux president and chief executive officer, Dirk Reich (pictured), told journalists that talks with share-holders have been going well and a decision should be made by the end of the year. He says the carrier had a very good board meeting with Chinese shareholders in China to discuss contracts, which Reich hopes will be finalised by the end of the year.

Reich says: “We will start with three 747s then expand to five aircraft. We know the air-craft [Boeing 747]. It has to be decided

whether it will be a -400 or an -8.”Reich explains he hopes the ven-

ture will not go the way of Jade Cargo International, a joint ven-ture between Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo and DEG, a sub-sidiary of German bank, KfW. Jade ceased operations in December 2011 and its 747-400 Freighters are to be auctioned off.

Reich says Cargolux is consider-ing whether to bid for the aircraft but says: “The probability of pur-chasing them is very small.”

He says one of the three 747-400s to be auctioned off is missing an engine and they have been mothballed for a number of years so it would take a lot of work to

get them airworthy again. “We are looking at Jade as an example. Some of the reasons it failed are it had a joint venture with a com-petitor as it was competing with Lufthansa,” Reich adds.

Cargolux has a hub in Zheng-zhou, where Apple makes the iPhone. Reich says Cargolux has a good road feeder service in China using local trucking companies. He says about 10 per cent of vol-umes come from Zhengzhou with the rest coming from other regions such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Reich is also unconcerned about the recent problems in China, such as the stock market falling and growth slowing. He notes though

average growth is now nearer the five per cent mark compared to the double digit increases of the past, the hinterland, as he calls areas outside of major cities such as Bei-jing is still seeing high growth. He says: “We will see growth of at least five per cent for years to come.”

On 29 September, Cargolux took delivery of its 13th of 14 747-8 Freighters it has on order (pictured above). To celebrate the carrier’s 45th anniversary it had a special livery designed by Belgian car-toonist, Philippe Cruyt. The aircraft is named City of Redange-sur-At-tert, after the town in Western Luxembourg. Cargolux is expecting to receive its final 747-8 in 2017.

United Star Express Airlines launched in China

Volume: 18 Issue: 39 5 October 2015

NEWSWEEK

3ACW 5 OCTOBER 2015

Pharmaceuticals are one of the key drivers of export growth in India and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Inter-national Airport says the market presents extensive opportunities

for the hub and airfreight operators.The gateway tells Air Cargo Week,

pharma exports are on the rise and a signif-icant portion of India’s pharma exporters are turning to air to move goods. The air-port says there is huge opportunities and potential for air cargo operators to tap into the Indian pharma market.

Delhi airport notes: “Handling of pharma freight has become an important, albeit complex, niche activity at the airport.” The airport is positioning itself as a pharma cargo hub and the gateway aims to grow its pharma volumes over the coming years.

The hub has developed specialist

pharma zones (pictured) to support India’s growth and progress in the pharma and life sciences logistics sector. This includes temperature sensitive pharma areas and a 50,000 square foot facility for cold and pharma handling and processing, which can be expanded to meet more demand.

Growth in the market is set to continue, and Delhi airport says the Indian pharma industry is already the world’s third larg-

est in terms of volume (10 per cent share) and tenth largest (2.1 per cent share).

“Exports are growing at a very rapid pace. The prospects look very good.Around $148 billion worth of patent expi-ries are expected between 2013 and 2018 which Indian companies will be looking to tap into. Pharma exports should touch at least $35 billion by the year 2020. Pharma accounts for 4.3 per cent of India’s total exports,” the airport observes.

In May, Delhi airport signed a memoran-dum of understanding with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, aimed at enhancing logistic capabilities. Pharma is a key part of this. Air India, British Airways, Emir-ates Airline, Qatar Airways, Jet Airways, and Turkish Airlines are among carriers reaping rewards the pharma market pres-ents via Delhi.

Delhi positioning itself as a pharma hub

CATHAY PACIFIC CARGO and Emirates SkyCargo have seen significant success by importing and exporting goods through Rickenbacker International Airport, and are ex-tending freighter services by adding additional weekly frequencies to their existing schedules in October.

Columbus Regional Airport Authority operates the airport and president and chief executive officer, Elaine Roberts, says the gateway has experienced unprece-dented growth over the last two years. “These service expansions are great indicators that we are meeting the needs and expectations of businesses who import and ex-port goods through Rickenbacker,” Roberts adds.

Cathay Pacific began scheduled international service between Rickenbacker and Hong Kong in 2014, and will add a fourth weekly frequency to Columbus beginning 13 October. This new Tuesday frequency is a seasonal addi-tion through the end of the year.Emirates SkyCargo began offering a scheduled import ser-vice from Dubai in May and is adding a second frequency beginning 3 October. Emirates plans to continue operating the new Saturday flight, which complements their initial Wednesday frequency, even after peak season.

Freighter boost at Rickenbacker

Skylink gains IAG contractSKYLINK HANDLING SERVICES has been appointed air cargo handler for IAG Cargo at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Skylink is part of the Rhenus Group and has been award-ed a three-year contract, effective from 1 August 2015.

Skylink branch manager, Frans Meerens, says: “We have worked hard to win the three-year contract with IAG Cargo and are excited to welcome them to our expanding portfolio of customers.

“In August, our dedicated team of employees started work with IAG Cargo and the integrated team is now fully operational.”

IAG Cargo regional manager for Europe, Chris Nielen, ex-plains Skylink will help it provide the high-quality service that customers have come to expect from IAG.

“We look forward to working with Skylink and anticipate that they will enhance our operations at this major Europe-an airport,” Nielen adds.

Representatives from IAG Cargo, which covers cargo for British Airways and Iberia, are now located at the Skylink offices at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

NEWSWEEK

A ir China Cargo’s new freighter ser-vice into Edmonton International Airport in Canada has been given a sparkling official welcome.

The carrier’s Boeing 777 Freighter began landing six times a week (three from Dallas and three from Shanghai) on 3 September 2015 as part of a Shanghai-Edmon-ton-Dallas-Edmonton-Shanghai route.

This service allows the faster and more effi-cient shipping of products between Western Canada and the Asia-Pacific region and Dal-las-Fort Worth International Airport.

Air China Cargo vice president, Patrick Yu, says the route is a key connection between

two economies with high-growth momen-tum and will “help grow the economies of both regions.”

It is estimated the service will generate 31 million Canadian dollars ($23.1 million) a year in gross domestic product for Edmonton. Indus-trial oil and gas products are now being shipped between Edmonton and Dallas. Industrial and agricultural goods are being shipped to China, while high-end electronics can now be shipped directly to Edmonton.

4

UPS has opened a new contract logistics facility in North Warwickshire, in the UK, to meet growing demand from retail and high-tech customers.

The move adds nearly 13,000 square me-tres of warehousing space to UPS’s global supply chain network.

The new facility is in close proximity to the existing package sorting hub at Birch Cop-pice Business Park, and provides access to the company’s global network via the UPS hub at East Midlands Airport.

The site was opened in the presence of member of parliament for North Warwick-shire Craig Tracey, marking UPS’s continued investment in the area.

“We continue to expand our contract lo-gistics reach and capabilities in the UK and Europe to serve the growing demands of our business-to-business and business-to-con-

sumer customers,” says Derek Irving, director at UPS Contract Logistics UK.

“This facility investment demonstrates our continued commitment to supplying our customers in the UK with solutions that allow their businesses to be more competi-tive and reach global markets,” he adds.In addition to its network of package sort-ing facilities, UPS now has more than 500 supply chain facilities in over 120 countries, covering more than three million square me-tres globally.

AMI moves to bigger Sydney base

SWISS WORLDCARGO is now offering the electronic air way-bill (eAWB) ‘Single Process’ after completing a successful four-month pilot phase.

The carrier says it should significantly accelerate adoption of the eAWB throughout its network. It can now accept Single Process eAWB shipments in Zurich (Switzerland), Montreal (Canada), Los Angeles, New York (US), and Copenhagen. The facility will be further extended to six to eight more stations by the end of 2015, and to other airports in the Swiss World-Cargo network in 2016.

Swiss WorldCargo says the eAWB Single Process makes eAWB adoption much smoother for the freight forwarding community, allowing the forwarder to tender all shipments to the airline without a paper AWB, even on trade lanes where a paper AWB is required.

The airline’s manager transportation processes and eAWB project lead, Paolo Tuzzi, says: “Our adoption of the e-AWB Single Process is thanks to the collaborative efforts of our ground handling partners Cargologic, Swissport and Lufthan-sa Handling and during the pilot phase our customers.”

New UK facility opened by UPS

AMI has moved into a new facility in Sydney (Australia) so it can handle increasing business and further growth.

The trade-only airfreight wholesaler will now be based in Hale St Botany at a site double the size of its previous base, a few min-utes’ drive from Sydney Airport’s cargo terminal.

The new facility has more truck doors, a new 20 foot pallet hoist complementing its existing pallet handling equipment, and lifting equipment for heavy and outsize cargo.

Coinciding with the move, AMI has also extended its range of services to include third-party logistics and e-commerce support services, as well as ocean freight. AMI performs cargo terminal collections and deliveries from 03.00h to late daily, using its own vehicle fleet complemented by sub-contracted vehicles to cater for peaks in demand.

AMI acts as the international hub for much of AMI’s traffic to and from its growing domestic network of branches in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin (all in Australia), and Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand.

AMI’s vice president for South Pacific, Geoff Young, says: “Our Sydney business has grown dramatically in the last 18 months. “The new building has been eagerly awaited by several new cus-tomers, and will enable that growth to continue.”Illustrating AMI’s new capabilities in outsized cargo, it handled the shipment of an Agusta VIP helicopter to London, within days of its new facility opening.

Grand welcome for Air China

eAWB use stepped up by Swiss

ACW 5 OCTOBER 2015

ACW 5 OCTOBER 2015 6

Despite concerns about China with its stock market problems, German com-panies are still looking towards Asia as a market for continued growth.

At Berlin’s airports, about 50 per cent of exports is destined for Asia. Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg, which operates the gateways, exported 6,950 tonnes to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, followed by 6,800 tonnes to Beijing Capital International Airport in 2014.

At the start of 2015, Yangtze River Express moved German operations from Frankfurt Hahn Airport to Munich Airport, which was good for the latter but bad for the former. Frank-furt Hahn general manager, Markus Bunk, tells Air Cargo Week (ACW): “2015 didn’t offer a great start for Frankfurt Hahn as Yangtze River Express, decided to leave the airport.”

Bunk says though China is an important mar-ket, the airport will continue to look elsewhere

for growth opportunities. He explains to ACW: “We think it is time to look at other, maybe smaller but interesting markets with a high potential for the future. We keep a wary eye on the present and future developments in these markets.”

Munich Airport saw an 11.6 per cent increase in cargo volumes in the first six months of 2015, helped by Yangtze River Express moving from

Frankfurt Hahn. Airport operator, Flughafen Munich director for cargo traffic development, Markus Heinelt, tells ACW the airport has seen a boom for the Southern German market and Yangtze is an important growth driver.

Leipzig-Halle Airport (pictured) has seen cargo volumes grow by 8.1 per cent up to August this year to 640,000 tonnes and is expecting more of the same for the rest of 2015. Leipzig-Halle’s operator, Mitteldeutsche Air-port Holding head of business development for cargo logistics, Mario Patyk, explains to ACW: “We are expecting a significant increase in the last quarter too. The assumption is based on the growth in export volumes from Germany to China and a spurt at the end of the year in express operations, powered by business at

Christmas time.”Lufthansa Cargo says Asian markets are

proving challenging and it sees Africa as driving growth. The carrier’s vice president area man-agement for Germany, J. Florian Pfaff (pictured), says: “Most challenging is the business on routes to the Americas and Asia, especially China and Japan, whereas Africa and the Middle East are performing quite well. For 2015 we expect a sta-ble development of the market. Africa will most likely remain a growth driver.”

Pfaff tells ACW imports from Asia to Germany are mainly perishables and electronics while exports from Germany consist of machine parts, medical products and automotive parts and equipment.

Fraport Cargo Services (FCS), which handles cargo at Frankfurt Airport, says 2015 has been successful so far, boosted by a contract with China Southern Airlines. FCS general manager, Andreas Helfer, tells ACW tonnage has risen by 12 per cent despite reduced frequencies to Malaysia and Taiwan. He says: “Our major customers, have done well in significantly increasing their vol-umes and market share in Frankfurt, which also reflected that our growth was above mar-ket average.”

Asian market still a key focus for GermanyGERMANY

Leipzig-Halle rising

Developing alliances is a key strategy of air-freight operators in Germany. Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, the opera-tor of Leipzig-Halle Airport, has a partnership with Airports Company South Africa to im-prove trade between Leipzig and O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Mit-teldeutsche also has partnerships with the Chinese airport groups, Shenzhen Airport Group, Shanghai Airport Authority and Henan Province Airport Group. It also has partnerships with the US airports, Memphis International Airport and Cincinnati/North-ern Kentucky International Airport and in Japan with Kansai International Airport.

Mitteldeutsche head of business develop-ment for cargo logistics, Mario Patyk, tells Air Cargo Week (ACW) the firm is in regular contact with its partners, hosting workshops so they can learn from each other. Patyk says: “Delegations from our partner airports in Kansai and Shenzhen have already visited us this year to exchange ideas and explore market potential.” He adds there are no plans to expand or launch new alliances but does not rule it out.

In 2014 Frankfurt Hahn Airport set up the World Cargo Airports Alliance with Zheng-

zhou Xinzheng Airport in China, which was joined by Novosibirsk Airport in Russia. Frankfurt Hahn general manager, Markus Bunk, tells ACW: “Together with our partners we are presently working on several new and interesting projects.” As it is early days, Frankfurt Hahn cannot say anything more about these projects.

In December 2014, Lufthansa Cargo (pictured) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) launched a joint sales venture to improve trade between Europe and Japan. Dus-seldorf Airport cargo head of sales and marketing, Thomas Schurmann, says he is happy the carriers use Dusseldorf as one of the destinations for the venture. Schurmann tells ACW: “The joint venture develops well. It is a clear sign that Far Eastern business is very important for this region.”

Building global alliances to help trade

Airports across Germany are expand-ing, whether it is new facilities for products to cope with rising demand for products such as phar-maceuticals or even considering

new runways.Munich Airport (pictured) is planning to

build a third runway, if shareholders approve. In July the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig dismissed the final outstanding legal complaints against the runway, concluding the expansion did not violate European guidelines on environ-mental protection and natural habitats.

Airport operator, Flughafen Munich director for cargo traffic development, Markus Heinelt (pictured), explains: “Both cargo airlines and integrators are dependent on attractive slots to satisfy customer requirements and to offer ser-vices requested by the market. A third runway would offer carriers a wider range of opera-tional choices.”

In the meantime the airport is working on a satellite terminal, in partnership with

Lufthansa Cargo, to open in April 2016. Heinelt continues: “The expansion of our infrastruc-tures would give us more capacity for further long-haul routes naturally resulting in more belly cargo capacity.”

Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport in the Sax-ony-Anhalt region of Germany started in the logistics business in 2014 and is working on its cargo area.

The gateway’s sales, media and market-ing manager, Jens Galkow tells Air Cargo Week (ACW): “Next year we will finish the second cargo centre, which will have about 8,000 square metres. The 68 hectare large commercial and industrial is to be marketed.

“It is important to expand the business park and to find new partners in the logistics industry.”

GERMANYExpanding to meet demand

7ACW 5 october 2015

DUSSELDORF AIRPORT CARGO, which handles freight at Dusseldorf Airport (pic-tured), is planning to increase capacity to about 200,000 tonnes in the upcoming years. Dusseldorf Airport Cargo head of marketing and sales, Thomas Schurmann tells Air Cargo Week: “We would be very pleased to mix our belly freight capacity with some weekly freighter capacity. Fur-thermore, we would be pleased if we can welcome a new widebody route next year.”

Dusseldorf has launched DUS Pharma, a pharmaceutical storage facility to cater for ever rising demand. It has 23 temperature controlled storage rooms and can be set between 2 and 25 degrees centigrade.

Schurmann tells ACW: “Many customers have already shown great interest in our

new product and we are glad about these positive responses.”

Schurmann is hoping Dusseldorf will receive International Air Transport Associ-ation Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification by the end of 2015. If it does receive CEIV certification, it will be the second airport in Europe after Brussels Airport to gain this certificate.

Big plans at Dusseldorf

New hangar for Frankfurt HahnFRANKFURT HAHN AIRPORT’S partner, VG Cargo opened a new terminal in September 2014 and HAITEC Aircraft Maintenance is building a hanger due to be completed in 2016. The airport’s general manager, Markus Bunk says: “We are very pleased that con-struction on the new hanger has started.” He adds it will provide benefits to the airport. “We can offer state-of-the-art han-dling and maintenance and are very keen

on working with both landside handling partners HCS [Hahn Cargo Services] and VG Cargo as well as maintenance partner HAITEC in gaining new clients.”

Frankfurt Hahn is developing a business park called ‘HHN Cargo Nord’. Bunk says it will provide more room for logistics and services firms. “We show our business part-ners at Frankfurt Hahn we all work together hand-in-hand – a big plus for all processes concerning cargo operations and flights.”

ACW 5 OCTOBER 2015 8

American Airlines Cargo (AAC) sees sought after French commodities like perfume as providing a wel-come boost to cargo traffic during the traditionally busy Thanksgiving

and Christmas holidays.AAC’s regional cargo sales manager in West-

ern Europe, Kathleen Lesage, tells Air Cargo Week: “These busy seasons provide us with even greater opportunities due to the festivi-ties and preparations surrounding the globally celebrated events. Our optimism remains high, particularly in France, as French products are always in demand as seasonal gifts, such as clothing and perfumes.”

According to Lesage, the outlook for AAC to the end of this year and into 2016 is positive. “We are looking to exceed expectations at an ever greater level as the winter capacity kicks in and exports of perishables increase out of

France,” she says.“In general, the commodities we ship have

remained stable over the last 12 months. French fashions and cosmetics are always fairly high up on the list of items being sent overseas and, interestingly enough, demand for these remains consistent and unaffected by external factors.”

Aerospace shipments consistently take up a large part of AAC’s inventory and is an export the company expects to continually increase

- especially with the opening of a new Airbus factory in the United States.

“This historically stable, now growing com-modity will lead to more business opportunities for the French market in this field, both inbound and outbound,” adds Lesage.

AAC’s ExpediteTC, a temperature-controlled product, also continues to perform well in the French market with both active and passive shipments increasing year over year.

The opening of pharmaceutical space in Philadelphia is giving the AAC new business opportunities. “These wouldn’t have been pos-sible without a dedicated facility and the staff needed to ensure sensitive shipments make it to the end user in the same, effective condition as when it left its point of origin,” explains Lesage.

Looking forward, her team is keenly antici-

pating the introduction of the Boeing 777-200 aircraft for both AAC’s Paris-Miami and Paris Dallas routes this winter. “Both stations are very important gateways for the team in Paris, partic-ularly with the majority of our aerospace traffic being destined for Dallas and the greater Texas area and, through our Miami gateway, onward to Latin America,” she says.

“Our new trucking service to London is also proving popular with customers. Launched at the beginning of September, it’s an option that enables us to move shipments to destinations not served directly by air from Paris-Charles de Gaulle. We simply use the efficiency our truck-ing partners can provide from our station here to London, taking advantage of capacity from Heathrow to other destinations across the glob-ally expansive American Airlines network.”

Since its merger with US Airways, AAC’s extended network has provided new and chang-ing opportunities with more capacity to a larger number of destinations.

“With eight daily departures to American hub cities and a vast number of trucking opportu-nities to European gateways, we have greatly increased the number of opportunities available to our customers.

“In general, American has been focusing on employee engagement - making sure our teams have the tools and technology needed to do their jobs well,” adds Lesage.

French commodities boosting American’s trafficFRANCE

New business opportunities

BILATERAL trade between Seychelles and France is likely to benefit from a codeshare agreement between Air Seychelles and Air France from the end of this summer.

Air Seychelles chief executive officer (CEO), Roy Kinnear, says trade between the two countries was worth $229 million in 2014 - would likely be further improved under the deal which makes 60 tonnes of cargo bellyhold capacity available each week on the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Seychelles service.

The codeshare agreement between the two national carriers Air Seychelles and Air France will enable easier connections to the Seychelles from six major cities in France and also from regional points in Europe such as Germany and the UK.

Air Seychelles started a three times a week non-stop service between the Sey-chelles and Paris in July and part of the codeshare agreement will mean Air France offering more connections between the Eu-ropean continent and the islands.

Air Seychelles’ ‘HM’ code will be added to Air France’s domestic flights between Charles de Gaulle and Bordeaux, Lyon, Mar-seille, Montpellier, Nice and Toulouse, as well as to the carrier’s regional services to other

European cities including Athens, Berlin, Dublin, Düs-seldorf, Frankfurt, Munich (Germa-ny), Geneva, Zurich (Switzerland), Man-chester (UK).

In return, Air France’s ‘AF’ code will be used on Air Seychelles’ non-stop service between Paris and Seychelles, as well as on domestic flights between the main island of Mahé and Praslin, the archipelago’s second-largest is-land, home to the coco-de-mer palm forest of the Vallée de Mai.

Air Seychelles’ HM code will appear on 157 domestic and regional Air France flights each week, and Air France will offer 18 inter-national and domestic codeshare flights per week operated by Air Seychelles.

Air France CEO, Frédéric Gagey, (pictured) says. “It provides our customers with new travel opportunities and underlines our com-mitment to strengthening air connectivity in the Indian Ocean region,” he says.

Air France and Air Seychelles boost trade

France has experienced tough times since the global finan-cial crisis five years ago and is still fighting hard to recover with operators such as Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo (AF-KL-MP) maintaining market share and pin-ning hopes on pharmaceuticals and e-commerce growth.

Despite an increase in passenger numbers, freight traffic across Europe remained largely stagnant in July, according to figures released by airport trade body, Airports Council International Europe in early September.

Last year, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Paris Orly Airport handled a total of 2.2 million tonnes of cargo, of which 2.1 million came through CDG which benefits from an extensive bellyhold airline network of over 136 airlines with the world’s six largest freight forwarders operating from there.

“We know activity is very much related to the world economy and that of our country,” says Aurélie Skowronski, cargo project manager for Aéroports de Paris, which builds, develops and manages Paris’ three airports.

“The competition is tough also in this field and we are aware we must act to consolidate the hub, invest to strengthen in the quality of service and commit to further simplify procedures.”

Skowronski explains that Aéroports de Paris is working closely with associations representing the interests of cargo operators to strengthen partnerships and improve operations.

“We are working hard to improve cargo ground transfers within the airside area and are pleased leading freight operators have reaffirmed their commitment to Charles de Gaulle airport by

strengthening their presence in 2015,” she says.

These include SODEXI, which introduced a new express hub (left) this year with a capacity to handle 55,000 tonnes annually, DHL Global Forwarding which inaugurated a new 16,000 square metre secure infrastructure to

optimise operational performance in specific industry sectors such as pharmaceuticals, and Bolloré Logistics which introduced 40 ,000 square metres of new buildings.

“These signs of commitment to Aéroports de Paris for cargo in the long term consolidate our deep conviction of the strategic stakes and capacity of growth it represents for our airports,” says Skowronski.

Aéroports de Paris has welcomed three new cargo companies at Charles de Gaulle in 2015 - Emirates SkyCargo, Saudi Airlines Cargo and China Southern Cargo. Operators like AirBridge-Cargo Airlines and Qatar Airways Cargo have also increased weekly frequencies.

Air China is to run a new route from January 2016 between Chengdu and Charles de Gaulle.

The Airbus A330-200 bellyhold flight will introduce bellyhold cargo options on three times a week flights between the French and Chinese cities. After Beijing and Shanghai, Chengdu will be the third Chinese city which Air China has chosen to link with France’s capital.

It seems France is stablising and emerging from the airfreight slump it has experienced and on track for growth.

Tough times in France but better results ahead

9ACW 5 OCTObeR 2015

FRANCE

AIR FRANCE-KLM-MARTINAIR CARGO (AF-KL-MP) and China Southern Cargo (CSC) signed a cargo domain agreement mid-September to give customers access to an extensive network in the Asia Pacific region. CSC oc-cupies a strategic position and in Europe, Africa and the trans-Atlantic regions, where AF-KL-MP is one of the larg-est operators.

The agreement offers a combination of widebody and main-deck capacity on the Europe-China leg and access to an extensive network of unique destinations from their respective hubs.

AF-KL-MP will serve cities in Australia and supply main-deck capacity to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City (both in Vietnam) from the hub at Guangzhou (China). Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport or Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will provide CSC with access to capacity to the North and South Atlantic markets and capacity to Africa, to Lagos.

The partners will also intensify their cooperation on express and mail premium products in response to the substantial increase in e-commerce trade between Asia and Europe.

AF-KL-MP tells Air Cargo Week airfreight is performing well so far in 2015: “The French market is evolving pretty well in a context of capacity decrease for AF-KL-MP and more aggressive competition. Despite capacity loss, AF-KL-MP is maintaining a market share at 29 per cent in revenue terms.”One of the key influences on AF-KL-MP’s business is over capacity, especially on Europe to Asia routes, which is driv-ing competition and leading to a downward trend in prices. AF-KL-MP is midway through a capacity adjustment on its freighter fleet while focusing on filling bellyhold space and enhancing pharma, express and mail and transporting ‘live’ goods.

AF-KL-MP looks to Asia

ACW 5 OCTOBER 2015 10

YUSEN LOGISTICS has opened a dedicat-ed Pharma Gateway at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

This new operation represents the launch of Yusen’s good distribution practice (GDP) compliant global pharma airfreight services, the latest step in the company’s develop-ment in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

The opening ceremony saw president of Yusen, Hiromitsu Kuramoto, joined by colleagues in welcoming guests including customers, airport officials and customs

authorities at the inauguration event.Kuramoto says: “This opening represents

the next step in the realisation of our global healthcare strategy, with this strategic Eu-ropean operation at its very heart. Yusen Logistics Europe is playing an outstanding and important role in leading our global business in this sector. I am very much hon-oured to be here today, on the occasion of this key milestone.

“We shall work to support and maintain our strong relationships with our pharma-ceutical manufacturer customers into the future, as they continue to develop ever more sophisticated products.”

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Cargo di-rector for business development, Bart Pouwels, says: “We are delighted that they have added to Schiphol’s collective pharma capability with this significant investment.”The operation links Yusen’s Antwerp im-port/export consolidation centre in Belgium and European central warehouse with its Schiphol air operations, and the facility was built in close consultation with customers who wanted this synergy.

Yusen opens Schiphol pharma facility

CEIV certificate for BCUBEBCUBE AIR CARGO has been awarded the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Center of Excellence for Indepen-dent Validators (CEIV) pharma certificate for operations at Milan Malpensa Airport (pictured).

The cargo handler has received the certification at the gateway, where it rep-resents, through its subsidiary Malpensa Logistica Europa, a key cargo player in the Italian airport market. This is the second CEIV certification for BCUBE air cargo, as it also obtained the IATA CEIV certification in July for work at Rome Fiumicino Airport.

The company says it is devoted to han-dling pharmaceutical products at Malpensa

and hailed its new infrastructures and high-ly-qualified processes at the main Italian hubs, and highly-specialised ground han-dling services at each gateway.

There are now 16 firms CEIV certified.

LUFTHANSA CARGO is working on a range of new developments to further enhance services on its pharma traffic Cool/td product.

Two of those, reports the German carrier’s head of temperature-sensitive logistics, Chris-topher Dehio, involves expanding the passive packaging options and generally upgrading its IT capabilities relating to the proactive moni-toring of shipments in transit.

He explains that “passive packaging has become so good that pharma shippers are using that with general cargo services for some of their traffic”.

However, continues Dehio, they are also ask-

ing for some additional features to be tagged onto those services.

“So we are looking to develop an additional product for pharma shipments where the full force of the cool chain is not really required but where there are some really necessary other requirements such as priority transportation in case of delays, constant monitoring, recov-ery services and so on,” Dehio says.On the IT front, Dehio explains a phased upgrading of Lufthansa Cargo’s general tech-nology platform includes specifically taking into account the varying monitoring require-ments for its Cool/td traffic.

Enhancements planned by Lufthansa

PHARMA NEWS ROUND-UPNew initiatives at Frankfurt

T he Air Cargo Community Frankfurt has launched new initiatives to accel-erate and optimise pharmaceutical shipments at Frankfurt Airport.

These include a pharma trade forum, a conference and meetings with numer-ous logistics managers at firms from across Germany.

Air Cargo Community Frankfurt says the objective of the discussions is to work to develop new ideas and concrete innovations aimed at allowing pharma shipments to be handled even faster and more efficiently via Frankfurt Airport.

The programme opened two weeks ago with the “Air Cargo Community Frankfurt meets Pharma” Forum, when representatives of pharma companies, and the Regional Council of Darmstadt discussed the expectations and future requirements of the industry for an opti-mum air transport chain.

A few days after the forum, a meeting of the International Business Committee of the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry was held at Frankfurt Airport.

Air Cargo Community Frankfurt executive director, Joachim von Winning (pictured below), says the Community picked up some excellent suggestions through the event for the work of its competence teams and able to explain the key strengths of Frankfurt Airport. The Community will now visit other pharma compa-nies and hold direct discussions with logistics managers.

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