Blue Dart adjudged the “Emerging Air Cargo Integrator of the Year”

Blue Dart Express Limited, South Asia’s premier integrated express courier and package distribution company, was awarded the “Emerging Air Cargo Integrator of the Year” at AIR CARGO INDIA 2008.
Blue Dart was recognised as the winner for the pioneering effort that it took more than a decade ago and set up India’s first dedicated cargo aviation infrastructure, for constantly innovating to stay ahead of the curve and for today being strategically positioned as the unrivalled leader in the domestic organised air express space with a market share of 41.7%.
Blue Dart today is the only player in India with a fleet of 2B757s and 4B737s freighter aircraft; the only domestic player with its own ground handling and maintenance capability that recently undertook the first C-Check of B757 in India.
31/01/08 TechWhack (press release)

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Kerala IT firm wins aviation award for its product

Thiruvananthapuram : Technopark headquartered IBS Software, a leading provider of IT solutions to the global travel, transportation and logistics industry, was declared the winner of the "Emerging Cargo IT Systems Provider of the Year" award.
This was announced at Air Cargo India 2008, an international event that concluded at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai.
V.K. Mathews, chairman and CEO of IBS Software, received this award from Michael Proffitt, CEO of Dubai Logistics City, early this week, said a company statement released here Wednesday.
IBS' iCargo, a new-generation cargo management system (CMS), was chosen winner of the award based on factors such as functionality, technology used and the range of business benefits to airlines.
Currently, CargoJet and Northern Air Cargo in the Americas and Avient Airlines in Europe use IBS' cargo management systems.
Other major airlines the firm has signed up include Nippon Cargo Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Air New Zealand Cargo.
30/01/08 IANS/Indian Muslims, USA

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Lufthansa takes cautious stance on mainland, India

Frankfurt: Signs that the pace of growth in Chinese air cargo volumes is beginning to peak and increasing fears about excess freighter capacity in India are encouraging Lufthansa Cargo to take a cautious approach to future main deck operations in those markets.
The German carrier has already switched some of its former China market freighter capacity onto North Atlantic routes and decided to hold back from any possible investment in an Indian all-cargo airline, at least for the time being.
Those were some of the points to emerge from a recent press briefing given by Lufthansa Cargo in Frankfurt. The focal point of the event was a presentation by the carrier outlining general trends in the global air cargo industry, based on the research findings of a variety of organisations, notably German air cargo industry consultancy Aviainform and US group MergeGlobal Inc (MGI).
Overall, said Andreas Otto, Lufthansa Cargo executive board member, product and sales, the worldwide air cargo market was expected to average 5.4 percent growth annually in the years 2007-12 to total 28 million tonnes a year by the end of that period, 40 percent more than the 20 million tonnes achieved in 2006.
"Our expansion in China is now somewhat stagnating because of the poor growth of export air cargo into that market. We have had to do something about that. One of our responses has been to switch some (freighter) capacity from that market to the North Atlantic."
Turning to prospects for the overall Indian air cargo market, Otto said research suggested 2007-12 would see "strong growth" averaging 6.4 percent a year. However, he played down speculation in some quarters that Lufthansa Cargo might invest in an Indian freighter operation, possibly along the lines of its established involvement with Chinese airline Jade Cargo International.
28/01/08 Phil Hastings/Cargonews Asia

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Tatas buy into Quikjet Cargo

Mumbai: The Tata group, which has a 6% stake in New Delhi-based low-cost airline SpiceJet Ltd, has picked up a stake in Bangalore-based cargo airline Quikjet Cargo, according to a person familiar with the transaction, who did not wish to be identified.
The person did not elaborate on the magnitude of the stake or the money Tata Capital Ltd, the Tata group’s private equity arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, the group’s holding company, paid for it.
Quikjet will start operations in April. Executives at the Tata group and Quikjet declined comment.
Movement of air cargo to and from India, and across destinations within the country, is expected to rise even as the economy continues to grow at more than 9% a year.
Aleks Popovich, global head, cargo, of International Air Transport Association, a body that represents more than 240 airlines accounting for 94% of scheduled international air traffic, said the international air cargo market in India (by volume) has been growing at 8.23% a year, next only to China’s 10.8%.
According to Dinesh A. Keskar, vice-president, sales (commercial airplanes) of Boeing Co., which sells passenger as well as cargo planes, the domestic air cargo market is expected to grow at 9.1% a year, but there are just 12 planes serving this market.
28/01/08 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Cargo market on the move

According to the World Air Cargo Forecast-2006-2007 report, the market from India and its neighbouring countries constituted approximately 3.9 per cent of the world’s air cargo traffic in tonnage and 4.2 per cent in tonne-kilometres in 2005. Total international air cargo flows moving into, within, and out of the region now exceed 1.4 million tonnes annually.
The report suggests that Europe is the region’s primary air trade partner. It accounts for 33 per cent of all foreign air trade being carried in and out of the region. West Asia (23 per cent), Asia (22 per cent) and North America (18 per cent) are other significant regions for the air cargo industry.
As per the study, India is the leading international freight market in the subcontinent, which also comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Of the total 1.4 million tonnes of international cargo that flew in and out of the region, India moved the maximum with about 8.82 lakh tonnes. The other two important markets in the region were Pakistan with about 2.07 lakh tonnes and Sri Lanka with 1.6 lakh tonnes.
28/01/08 Business Line

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MAS to start Kuala Lumpur-Delhi freighter service

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plans to start a dedicated freighter service between Kuala Lumpur and Delhi this year.
The national air carrier and Acumen Overseas Pte Ltd, its general sales agent (GSA) for north and west India, is undertaking a feasibility study, which is expected to be completed soon.
“A dedicated freighter service to India presents MasKargo a huge opportunity to enhance its presence in the Indian subcontinent,” Acumen managing director Pukhraj Chug said at the Air Cargo India 2008 exhibition in Mumbai recently.
He said the frequency of flights to be operated would depend on market demand. “We are working on two freighter flights per week initially,” he said.
Meanwhile, MAS cargo division, Malaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MasKargo), is considering using Delhi as its cargo transit from Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Acumen is the sales representative for MasKargo in the northern, western and eastern regions of India. It is responsible for selling MasKargo products in its region that includes cargo space. At present, MAS has no dedicated freighter services to India.
28/01/08 Malaysia Star, Malaysia

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India market offers UPS, others crack at growth

Mumbai: Despite its woeful infrastructure, India offers express-delivery companies an English-speaking market of about 1. 1 billion people and 9 percent annual economic growth, with well-educated professionals and cities teeming with entrepreneurs trying to reach overseas markets.
United Parcel Service Inc., FedEx Corp., Deutsche Post AG’s DHL and TNT NV are all seeking to offset anemic growth on their home turf by exploiting opportunities in emerging markets. But UPS of Atlanta arrived in India after its three big rivals and must grapple with some problems they have already addressed or avoided.
Take the airport here, the main gateway for express shipments of packages and documents into and out of India. Each year, for two months at a stretch, it closes its main runway for repairs for two hours every afternoon. For these two awkward months, the world’s largest delivery company must make adjustments, such as shuffling its schedule so that flights from Hong Kong will arrive a few hours early and depart before each daily runway closure.
Then, the UPS planes have to detour to the Middle East emirate of Dubai for a stopover to Cologne, Germany. Each stopover in Dubai costs a few thousand dollars in landing fees. The runway repairs have much less of an impact on FedEx, DHL and TNT because their flights don’t coincide with the closures.
But all the players must deal with India’s inefficient skies. Connelly notes that his planes fly in circles “pretty much every day, waiting for permission to land” at Bombay, where encroaching slums have for years stymied efforts to enlarge the international airport.
Market-share data are hard to find, but DHL appears to be the leader among the four biggest international express-delivery companies here. Analysts say FedEx and TNT are vying for second and third places, while UPS ranks fourth.
In spite of the vagaries on the ground and in the air, UPS guarantees three daily delivery times in India, and each deliveryman handles an average of 40 packages a day — on par with his counterpart in China, where the infrastructure is much better, and only 20 percent fewer than UPS manages to deliver in the more orderly cities of Japan. Worldwide, UPS moves an average of 15 million packages a day.
26/01/08 Bruce Stanley/The Wall Street Journal/Arkansas Democrat Gazette, USA

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Rivals force Air India Cargo to drop Mumbai-Paris service

Mumbai: Air India Cargo (AIC) will soon withdraw its cargo operations from the Mumbai-Paris route, and instead, will deploy its two freighter aircraft in South East Asian sectors like Hong Kong and Singapore. AIC had started its Paris operations in June 2007 and will withdraw services due to stiff competition from airlines like Air France and Lufthansa.
Confirming the news, Wolfgang Scholinz, cargo sales manager at Air India, told FE, “Airlines like Air France and Lufthansa offer cheaper rates than AIC for uplifting cargo. The market in Paris has not accepted the product (AIC) due to higher uplifting charges.” It is learnt that the charges for uplifting cargo by the rival freighter aircraft on the Paris-Mumbai route is less than euro 30 per kilogram, which is nearly 25% less then what AIC charges to its customers on the route.
26/01/08 Shaheen Mansuri/Financial Express

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Setting up of cargo terminal at Bajpe Airport in limbo

Mangalore: The Mangalore Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the Customs department are in a fix over the setting up of a cargo terminal at the Airport.
The AAI has proposed to establish the cargo terminal at the existing airport once the construction of a new terminal near Kenjar completes.
But unless the Customs department utilises provisions under section 8 of Customs Act 1962, AAI will not be able to handle any cargo from Mangalore Airport for international destination.
The ball is now in court of the Customs department and has to declare the airport as Customs Airport for handling of cargo, sources stress.
But the Customs department insists that the AAI has to undertake custodianship for cargo clearance. Incidentally, AAI has no provision to undertake custodianship.
Under `Customs Law Manual’, Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is the final authority to approve Cargo Terminal for an airport in India.
24/01/08 Vinobha K T/Newindpress

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Indian belly freight feeding DLC growth

Dubai Logistics City, part of the world’s first truly integrated logistics and multi-modal transport platform within the giant Dubai World Central (DWC) urban aviation community being built in Jebel Ali, Dubai, will be looking at key prospects from India’s globalisation process, at Air Cargo India 2008 in Bombay, from 24-25 January.
India, which has been projected to be a world economic superpower by 2020 by analysts globally, as revealed that its exports will touch US$150 billion by 2008-09 – a significant opportunity for Dubai’s trading hub proposition.
“After the liberalisation of its economy in 1991, India followed with the opening up of its markets to global players and went on a fast track economic boom with an eight-nine per cent GDP growth per year,” said Michael Proffitt (above), chief executive officer, Dubai Logistics City.
“With 50 per cent of the world’s air cargo still being transported in the aircraft belly, India’s air cargo and aviation sector growth is linked to the Middle East’s economic boom,” said Abdulla Al Falasi, DWC’s director for marketing and corporate communications.
23/01/08 Air Cargo News.net, UK

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BA to christen Menzies Indian operation

Menzies has been awarded its first contract for Bangalore, with the arrival of British Airways’s daily B747-400 service.
Menzies is opening a new 13,000 m2 cargo facility at the Indian airport in March.
Paul Smith, director, Asia Pacific for Menzies Aviation, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this prestigious contract in India, our first for Bangalore business. Successful conclusion of this agreement demonstrates the readiness of our cargo operation in Bangalore and also the close and strong relationship between Menzies Aviation and British Airways. We are looking forward to further developing this long and mutually beneficial business relationship.”
22/01/08 Air Cargo News.net, UK

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Air cargo companies spreading wings to tap ‘business of future’

At least two start-up air cargo firms will begin operating in India this year to service demand from customers engaged in high-tech manufacturing and an expanding retail sector. At least two other firms are awaiting regulatory approval to start similar services.
The civil aviation ministry has approved a plan by Mumbai-based Aviation Consultants Pvt. Ltd to start a scheduled cargo service, dubbed QuickJet, with two leased Boeing 737-300 aircraft.
AFL Logistics, a unit of the AFL group controlled by businessman Cyrus Guzder, and Singapore-based Cardinal Aviation Partners, are the promoters of the new freighter airline, which is also backed by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd and Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd.
Flyington Freighters, a Hyderabad cargo airline company promoted by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, the publisher of Deccan Chronicle newspaper, received approval from the government last year and expects to also start operations this year.
Meanwhile, the country’s largest aviation group by passengers, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, and Reliance Industries Ltd, the largest conglomerate by sales, have been considering entering this market with air cargo operations.
And two other cargo-only airlines, Mumbai-based Avicore Aviation Pvt. Ltd and Delhi-based Aryan Cargo Express Pvt. Ltd, are also awaiting government permissions.
16/01/08 Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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UAE' s first all-cargo carrier to take off soon

Abu Dhabi: The UAE's first all-cargo carrier, Midex Airlines, will shortly take to the skies from Al Ain International Airport.
An agreement was signed yesterday by Khalifa Al Mazrouei, chairman and managing director of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), the operator of Al Ain International Airport, and Dr Issam Khairallah, President of MIDEX Airlines.
The airline, which received all required licences for cargo and passenger operations last year, will first start with cargo operations to six major destinations that include Orly in France, Mumbai and Kochi in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Istanbul in Turkey, and Beirut in Lebanon.
MIDEX's fleet consists of six Airbus A300B4-203F and one Boeing B747-200F.
16/01/08 Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates

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Airport cargo security called `meaningless'

The "huge hole" in air cargo security is a disaster waiting to happen at Canadian airports, says the head of a leading cargo company.
"People just have no idea how exposed we are," said Ajay Virmani, president and chief executive officer of Cargojet, which partly operates out of Pearson International Airport.
Virmani, whose company ships 850,000 pounds of cargo by air each day, describes Transport Canada's security measures for cargo as "meaningless." He added his voice yesterday to growing concerns about what Transport Canada has acknowledged is an "air cargo security gap" at Pearson and other Canadian airports.
"The only two airlines that I think X-ray everything are Air India and (Israel's) El Al. I don't think any other carrier X-rays (cargo)," Virmani, whose company owns 14 planes, said in an interview.
Virmani said air carriers adhere to Transport Canada security regulations by conducting two basic checks – they accept cargo only from "known shippers" and they verify that documents are in order.
"We don't X-ray any of it," he said.
There's no way to verify that a shipment wasn't tampered with once it left the known shipper's warehouse, he said.
15/01/08 Sandro Contenta/Toronto Star, Canada

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India gives security clearance to Chinese cargo carrier

Beijing: India has given security clearance to cargo flights by China's Great Wall Airlines to Mumbai and Chennai, which could pave the way for Beijing to allow Indian carriers to commence operations to various Chinese destinations.
New Delhi's move, which came as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh began his official visit to China, is expected to encourage Beijing to grant long-pending clearance to Air India and Jet Airways to launch flights to Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai respectively. Air India already operates to Shanghai.
India had earlier offered Great Wall Airlines the right to operate to Delhi as a point of call instead of the two Indian metros, which was not accepted by the Chinese side.
India had taken the stand in the wake of blacklisting of the carrier by the United States for its alleged involvement in transfer of missile technology to Iran.
As a result of the American decision, the Chinese cargo carrier had folded up operations for six months.
Following denial of Indian permission, China also held up clearance to Air India to operate to Guangzhou and premier private carrier Jet Airways to fly to San Fransisco via Shanghai.
14/01/08 PTI/The Hindu

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HAL, Concor sea and air cargo centre opens today

Mumbai/Nashik: The sea and air cargo centre (SAC) of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Container Corporation of India (Concor), coming up near Nashik, will begin operations from January 14. The centre is a 50:50 joint venture between HAL and Concor.
The centre, which is located near Janori village, about 4 km from National Highway 3, is spread over 48,500 sq m. The total project cost is around Rs 14 crore, which includes a 19,000 sq ft air cargo and a 15,000 sq ft air cargo warehouse.
Initially, the centre will start export operations through custom-bonded trucks via Mumbai. The air cargo service will begin by April. The air cargo warehouse will be also connected to the runway, which is being expanded at Ozhar airport of HAL.
The SAC centre will have a capacity of 500 containers. Empty containers will be provided by Halcon with an average loading capacity of 28 tonne each. Concor will increase the number of containers when the need arises.
14/01/08 Tushar Pawar/Business Standard

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Air India Cargo set to get global footprint

Air India Cargo plans to start freighter operations to Far East destinations like Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong and China from the second half of this year. As part of its major thrust on cargo, it is also looking at Seoul, Tokyo, Dhaka, Dubai, Doha, Amsterdam, Toulouse, New York and some destinations in Australia.
The only international destinations that Air India’s freighter arm caters to at present are Dammam, Frankfurt and Paris. “Eight teams from Indian and Air India are doing feasibility studies in terms of inbound and outbound cargo between India and these destinations. We will add these places as and when the results of these studies keep coming,” said an Air India Cargo executive.
“We are also looking at flexible and aggressive pricing strategies in line with our product standards and competitors,” the executive added.
Based on the study, the destinations are slated to be added from 2008 to 2016.According to the industry figures, India ranks among top 30 freighter markets in the world. India saw a 20 per cent growth in freighter load last year.
13/01/08 Business Standard

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Jet Airways Cargo upgrades aircraft

Jet Airways Cargo has upgraded its service on its London-Delhi route by replacing the A340 with the B777 aircraft.
It now operates a total of 27 wide-body flights per week from London to India, 21 of them using B777 aircraft with around 20 tonnes’ capacity.
It has also extended its route network with the introduction of double-daily services to Kathmandu, daily A330s to Singapore, and 4 x weekly services to Dhaka, Bangladesh. The airline is looking to further extend its network to North America, Europe, Africa and Asia as it takes delivery of more of the B777 aircraft already on order.
10/01/08 Logistics Manager, UK

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Perishable cargo export needs more thrust

Coimbatore: Potential for export of perishable cargo such as plants, cut flowers, flowers, fruits and vegetables from Coimbatore and nearby areas is not being fully tapped because of lack of a plant quarantine certification desk at the Coimbatore Airport.
Coimbatore, in spite of being a well-known agriculture economy, has not been able to tap its fullest export potential of the perishable commodities despite the launch of many direct flight services to Singapore, Colombo and Sharjah.
The quarantine certification desk is available in other major airports in the country but not in Coimbatore. The Airport Authority of India has all the logistics for the perishable commodities, including cold storage facility, but is yet to get the quarantine certification desk. Markets in the South East Asian and Middle East (Gulf) countries with a large Indian population require the perishable cargo items on a daily basis, some exporters said.
There was potential for export of close to 300 tonnes per month.
05/01/08 The Hindu

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Greenfield cargo airports may get nod

New Delhi: With more private players keen to enter the airport arena, the Government may allow new cargo airports to come up within a 150 km radius of an existing airport through the automatic route.
At the moment, the Government policy does not allow any airport to come up within a 150 km of an existing airport. However, the thinking in the Government seems to be that any greenfield cargo airport project presented to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after obtaining all clearances from the other authorities should be given the nod.
While details of the report have not been made public yet, official sources said that the proposal for automatic clearance for greenfield cargo airport could be cleared by the Union Cabinet shortly. The acceptance of the proposal would see a new category of airports being created in the country as at the moment airports are categorised as civil or defence airports.
02/01/08 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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