Dubai Technology Partners LLC (DTP), the region’s leading systems integrator for the aviation industry, announced that it has joined forces with Xovis, the leading provider of people flow monitoring solutions, to help improve operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH).
Serving 24 million passengers per year, AUH is one of the fastest growing hubs in the world and it is anticipated that the annual passenger throughput will grow to 45 million passengers within the next 10 years. Integrated with DTP’s desk planner solution, the Xovis Passenger Tracking System (Xovis PTS) will allow Abu Dhabi Airports, the operators of Abu Dhabi International Airport, to improve passenger flow and reduce waiting-time in critical areas like check-in, security, immigration and baggage-claim, dynamically manage airport resources and ultimately increase capacity and passenger satisfaction.
Commenting on the decision to partner with DTP and Xovis, Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, Acting Chief Executive Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports said, “This project has been key in meeting the growing challenge of balancing the increased volume of passengers and operational efficiency. With the implementation of this smart technology solution provided by experts such as DTP and Xovis, the team will be able to anticipate and respond to traveller flows for better real time and planning decisions. The intelligence that the system is delivering has already proven its value by providing actionable information and real time inputs during recent Low Visibility Operations.”
After a successful trial at a check-in area in Terminal 3, DTP, using Xovis’ Smart IoT Technology, has deployed 455 Xovis 3D sensors in 19 sites in T1, T1A and T3. “DTP was in charge of the turnkey project management, including sensors installation, provision of infrastructure and integration between the Passenger Flow Management solution and different airport and airline’s operational systems. We have designed and implemented a Desk Planner module that enables the airport to forecast “desk demand” for security and immigration areas. Moreover, we analyze and layout the collected data and KPIs on interactive airport maps to allow the airport operations to react with necessary measures against any challenges in the passenger flow that might arise, in a timely manner. Finally, we have provided several business intelligence tools that empower airport managers to monitor SLAs and performance of different teams (Operations, Airport Services, Security and Immigration) that are involved with the passengers’ flow,” explained Abdul Razzak Mikati, managing director at DTP.
The installations at AUH strengthen Xovis’ position as leading provider of people flow monitoring solutions in the region. “After Dubai and Doha, we welcome Abu Dhabi to the Xovis family. To be part of AUH’s growth strategy is a great opportunity to show what we are best at – helping airports bust queues and boost passenger satisfaction. We look forward to working together on future projects, with our esteemed partner DTP, in this rapidly growing region”, concluded Andreas Fähndrich, Managing Director, Xovis Airports.
Kuehne + Nagel and Zebraxx, a leading application service provider of logistics solutions, have entered into a strategic partnership to provide innovative last mile shipment visibility for Kuehne + Nagel’s customers, further enhancing Kuehne + Nagel’s eTouch capabilities.
The partnership will bring the two companies into closer collaboration, accelerating innovation technology with delivery execution tracking solutions. Kuehne + Nagel customers have enjoyed the benefits of Zebraxx for several years; in 2017 almost 10 million transactions have been handled by the system. Now, the growing alliance will strengthen Kuehne + Nagel’s capacity to offer additional methods for collecting and sharing delivery information, such as real-time vehicle location, photographic evidence of the state of consignments and delivery confirmation, IoT validation or electronic proof-of-delivery (ePOD) – independent from backbone systems and carriers used. Customers will be further integrated in the data exchange; enhanced functionalities on mobile devices, like alerts or ePOD via social messengers, will improve the seamless interaction along the supply chain.
Working with KN Login, Kuehne + Nagel’s monitoring and visibility platform, customers will benefit from a standardized single source for all delivery information, which further enhances the customer proposition and supports wider geographic roll-out.
Gianfranco Sgro, member of the Managing Board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, responsible for Contract Logistics, “We are seeing an increasing need for improved visibility solutions to service our customers. As our environment becomes more and more digital, customers are demanding greater flexibility and options in the solutions we can offer them and all at a lower cost. Zebraxx has demonstrated a willingness to embrace innovative and imaginative ideas and transform them into valuable solutions for our business and our customers.”
Bernd Heymanns, Managing Director of Zebraxx: “We are in a long lasting working relationship with Kuehne + Nagel. This formalisation and commitment to partnership brings our companies closer and provides the platform for us to work on some exciting projects together, enhancing last mile shipment visibility for the customers worldwide.”
Norwegian children’s quality furniture and equipment manufacturer Stokke has contracted with GEODIS in China to establish a pan-Asian warehousing and distribution platform to facilitate its rapid consumer market growth via retail stores and e-commerce.
GEODIS has been contracted to support the Norwegian manufacturer in what has been a rapid and successful market growth for Stokke. GEODIS has established two warehouses in the Shanghai region and will implement a specially designed IT solution to organize packaging, labelling, quality inspection, inventory control and palletisation of the imported products. GEODIS will also organize the distribution of orders to retail outlets in over twenty cities throughout China.
The growth potential of the Chinese middle-income market is underlined by the increase in quality products being imported from Europe. The Norwegian headquartered Stokke AS, established over eighty years ago, has been producing premium children’s equipment, including highchairs, strollers and nursery furniture, for nearly fifty years and exporting to China for the past ten.
Lars Myrup, Managing Director Stokke APAC, comments, “We are experiencing a surge in orders for our ergonomic and nature-respecting products from the increasingly discerning Chinese consumer and required a supply chain service provider with a flexible approach to serving a dynamic market. After an extensive tender process, the solutions provided by GEODIS combined with a respect for the environment in line with our own, convinced us of their suitability.”
“GEODIS is delighted to be extending the relationship with Stokke that began some five years ago,” comments Onno Boots, Regional President Asia Pacific. “We pride ourselves on meeting the logistic challenges faced by our customers. In the case of Stokke we have been able to design an IT platform that seamlessly coordinates the inventory control and value-added services we provide at our Shanghai warehouses with efficient road delivery to outlets across China. This solution will also be able to facilitate e-commerce orders in the future.”
The partners potentially plan to extend their cooperation in due course to allow the distribution of Stokke products into developing markets in other parts of the Pacific Rim, including Korea, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
One of UPS’s 747 jumbo jets dedicated for long-haul international use is sporting a modified paint scheme highlighting the company’s role as official logistics partner for Expo 2020 Dubai.
UPS has only modified the livery of an aircraft four other times in the airline’s 30-year history. Each of those times signifies a major news event – this time, it’s to mark UPS’s unique role in delivering one of the world’s most complex logistics challenges at the upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai.
Millions of visitors from around the world are expected to attend the Expo in the United Arab Emirates. During the event’s six month run, UPS will manage all of the logistics of the event, using a team of nearly 1,000 employees and a dedicated 290,000 square-foot warehouse.
June 04, 2018: Parcel delivery giant DHL Parcel has added POST Luxembourg as part of the DHL Parcel Europe parcel network. Both the companies have entered into strategic partnership on cross border parcel shipping.
The mail and telecommunications company will become part of the DHL Parcel Europe parcel network, which offers a standardized parcel service throughout Europe, with new functionalities for parcel deliveries and returns. Parcel Connect is the name of this service, which is being offered by DHL Parcel in cooperation with other parcel service providers in Europe and orchestrated by DHL Parcel.
In June, POST Luxembourg will become the official partner for Parcel Connect in Luxembourg.
Initially, the services offered will only cover delivery of parcels from Europe to Luxembourg (import). The cooperation with POST Luxembourg will allow the DHL Parcel Europe network to benefit from improved transit times to Luxembourg and to gain access to the country’s largest network of service points and parcel stations.
In a second phase, POST Luxembourg will also offer export services from Luxembourg (Parcel Connect Export).
“With POST Luxembourg as a new strategic partner, we are able to offer a service for Luxembourg that is even better tailored to the needs of B2C e-commerce customers,” says Achim Dünnwald, CEO of DHL Parcel. “This extends our proven ‘Parcel Union’ partnership model to ten partners in 14 countries, in its third year of existence. In other markets too, we are continuing to work on gaining ‘local heroes’ as partners and on expanding our harmonised Parcel Connect service throughout Europe.”
As Hjoerdis Stahl, deputy managing director of POST Luxembourg and director of POST Courrier explains: “On average, around 9,000 parcels from Europe arrive at our national sorting center. Thanks to Parcel Connect, we are able to offer our customers an even better service and hope to further increase this volume,” she continues.
“The cooperation with DHL Parcel, and as a member of the DHL Parcel Europe network, also emphasises the positioning of POST Luxembourg in the logistics area, in which we see good opportunities for growth.”
Deutsche Post DHL introduced parcel Connect in 2014 to significantly simplify, extend, and accelerate the shipping of parcels in Europe. Today, 26 countries belong to the DHL Parcel Europe network.
Kerry Logistics Network Limited recently announced the acquisition of Shipping and Airfreight Services (Pty) Limited (S.A.S.), a well-established freight forwarding and logistics company based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Established 30 years ago, S.A.S. provides its international customers with flexible logistics solutions. With the takeover of S.A.S.’ air and ocean freight entities, Kerry Logistics expands its service offerings in the South African freight forwarding market, leveraged by a first-class network of agents in Africa. The new Johannesburg office will be managed as part of Kerry Logistics’ Europe division.
S.A.S. freight forwarding unit offers a complete suite of ocean and air freight services, including Less than Container Load (LCL) and Full Container Load (FCL), as well as break bulk services for ocean freight cargoes. The service portfolio for air freight cargoes encompasses direct air freight shipments, consolidation, and charter services. S.A.S. also provides customized warehousing and distribution solutions to guarantee reliable services in the complex African market.
Thomas Blank, Managing Director of Europe, Kerry Logistics, said, “South Africa’s economy has an important standing on the African continent with excellent trade lanes not only to the Chinese market but also the large exporting economies of the European Union. We are pleased about this great opportunity to further develop our business through this trade. We are glad to welcome the entire S.A.S. team into the Kerry Logistics network. Their experience and local knowledge will strengthen our freight forwarding capabilities in Africa.”
Carla Laue, Managing Director of S.A.S., added, “S.A.S. looks forward to joining the Kerry Logistics family and adding first-hand knowledge of the African freight forwarding market to Kerry Logistics’ global network. Together, we will work to bring South Africa even closer to markets around the world.”
As the second largest economy in Africa, South Africa is an important manufacturing hub for the global automotive market. The automotive industry is responsible for a significant amount of South Africa’s imports and exports and will continue to make foreign trade a staple of the country’s economy.
This acquisition is part of Kerry Logistics’ long-term international freight forwarding strategy to expand its coverage worldwide. Over the past year, Kerry Logistics has been growing its network and services under the Belt and Road initiative and expanded its presence in nine countries across Central Asia. In Europe, Kerry Logistics enhanced its footprint with acquisitions in Spain, Germany, Italy, and opening of its first own office in Warsaw, Poland.
Groupe ADP, through ADP Ingénierie, has been awarded a €15m contract to design and supervise the expansion of Sharjah Airport (SA). The airport is expanding to meet the growth in traffic due to the development of low cost airlines in the Gulf region.
At the end of a very competitive tender process, ADP Ingénierie has been appointed by the airport authority that have decided, as part of an overall modernization project, a $410m expansion project for Sharjah Airport.
This project, one of the largest airport developments currently ongoing in the region, consists of increasing the capacity of the existing terminal — from 11 million passengers now to 17.5 million passengers per year over the long term — while enhancing the passenger experience, including flow segregation (departures/arrivals) and additional aircraft parking stands.
ADP Ingénierie plans to maintain the airport capacity and operations at all time during the execution of the construction packages, which are expected to start in 2019.
Sharjah saw passenger numbers grow 5.11% in the first quarter of 2018, to 2.88 million. The average monthly number of passengers traveling through SIA in the period increased to more than 960,000, compared to 913,000 in the first quarter of 2017.
Passenger traffic at Dubai International (DXB) reached 7.6 million in April, according to the monthly traffic report issued by operator Dubai Airports.
The monthly traffic in April totaled 7,613,155, remaining virtually flat compared to 7,622,946 passengers recorded during the same month in 2017, a marginal contraction of 0.1%. The year to date traffic reached 30,354,349 passengers, up 0.8% compared to 30,119,542 recorded during the first four months of 2017.
Eastern Europe was the fastest expanding market with traffic growing 28%, followed CIS (17.7%) and Africa (9.9%). India maintained its position as the top destination country by passenger numbers with a total of 1,027,267 passengers during the month. Saudi Arabia was placed second with 556,640 passengers, followed by the UK with 530,404 passengers and Pakistan with 369,493 passengers.
London was the top destination city with 315,979 passengers, followed by Mumbai (202,981 passengers), and Jeddah (185,017 passengers).
Flight movements at DXB totaled 34,244 during the month under review down 3% compared to 35,285 in April of 2017. Year to date flight movements totaled 136,359 compared to 140,613 recorded during the first four months in 2017, a contraction of 3%.
The average number of passengers per movement during April remained high at 230 compared to 225 during the corresponding month in 2017, an increase of 2.2%.
Cargo volumes in April totaled 216,333 tons, down 0.7% compared to 217,881 tons in April 2017. Year to date freight volumes totaled 832,187 tons compared to 854,359 tons handled during the first four months of 2017, down 2.6%.
Air Arabia PJSC recently reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2018 as the Middle East’s first and largest low cost carrier continued to deliver solid commercial and operational results.
Air Arabia reported a net profit of Dh110 million for the three months ending March 31, 2018, an 8 percent increase compared to the corresponding 2017 figure of Dh102 million. In the same period, the airline posted a turnover of Dh877 million, an 8 percent increase compared to the first quarter of last year. More than 2 million passengers flew with Air Arabia between January and March 2018, in line with the record number of passengers carried in the first quarter of last year. The airline’s average seat load factor – or passengers carried as a percentage of available seats – during the first three months of 2018 stood at an impressive 80 per cent.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohamed Al Thani, Chairman of Air Arabia, said, “We are glad to see Air Arabia’s record 2017 financial results continue with the solid earnings registered in the first quarter 2018. The strong financial performance for the first quarter is a reflection of the robust business model that we operate and is driven by our clear strategy for growth. The strong passenger demand combined with the solid cost control measures that we took in driving cost margins lower continue to positively impact the financial performance of the carrier.”
He added, “As we continue to witness strong customer appeal for our services, we remain committed to investing in innovative and value added products that will provide our customers with unmatchable value while traveling by air. We remain optimistic about the prospects of low cost air travel in the wider region and our ability to continue to report sustained profitability and achieve solid growth margins across our network”.
Air Arabia added three new routes from its hubs in the UAE and Egypt in the first three months of 2018, with flights commencing from Sharjah to Moscow Sheremetyevo in Russia and to Jeddah and Kuwait from Sohag in Egypt. This was followed by the announcement of new flights from Sharjah to Qabala in Azerbaijan; Izmir and Bodrum in Turkey staring June 2018 and to Grozny in Russia starting April 2018.
Emirates Engineering has successfully accomplished the first complete replacement of landing gear on A6-EDF, the first Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft to have its entire landing gear system replaced at one time.
Comprising five sets of landing gear – two under the wings, two under the body, and one nose landing gear, the work was planned and executed in-house, at the Emirates Engineering hangars in Dubai.
Every Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft has a landing gear system with a total of 22 landing wheels. In addition to the wheels, the landing gear mechanism of the aircraft includes the gear extension and retraction systems, braking and steering controls, and other monitoring systems. The landing gear of the world’s largest commercial aircraft can support a weight of close to 570 tonnes on take-off and over 390 tonnes on landing.
The process of changing all the landing gears was completed in 14 days with the Emirates Engineering team clocking thousands of man-hours during this period. For the duration of the work, the entire aircraft was lifted on jacks to support the body of the aircraft.
“The first complete replacement of landing gears on our Airbus A380 aircraft is an important milestone for us. This and other similar achievements by the Emirates Engineering team reflects the degree of planning, preparation and expertise that go behind the successful execution of complex projects such as this one,” said Mohammad Jaffar Nasser, Emirates Senior Vice President, Engineering Maintenance. “By extending our services to third party airlines, we share our expertise and enhance engineering procedures globally,” he added.
Two additional Airbus A380 aircraft from Emirates’ fleet are scheduled to undergo a complete change of landing gear systems over 2018. In addition to investments in infrastructure and facilities including specialized tools, the Emirates Engineering team worked closely with a team of suppliers – Airbus, Field International, UTAS and Safran to plan and execute the landing gear replacement.
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