Emirates is to operate all of its cargo operations from Dubai International Airport after temporarily suspending operations at Al Maktoum airport from April 1.
Emirates’s SkyCargo freighter aircraft are usually deployed from Al Maktoum.
“The move will help the air cargo carrier streamline cargo operations between its freighter flights and the new dedicated cargo flights being offered on Emirates’ passenger aircraft fleet,” Emirates said in a statement.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic which has grounded all of Emirates’ passenger fleet, the airline said that Emirates SkyCargo is having to adapt, reinvent its operations and its network to transport essential commodities.
Emirates will “support economies and help businesses around the world maintain continuity by keeping global supply chains up and running”.
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It has introduced cargo flights using Boeing 777 passenger aircraft, offering around 40 tons of lower deck cargo capacity.
The cargo-only flights are scheduled to operate to more than 30 destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia.
“As an extremely agile and customer-focused business, we have been able to establish a new network and schedule for our cargo operations within a very short period of time, utilising lower deck capacity on our widebody Boeing 777 passenger aircraft which supplement the cargo capacity we offer on our freighter aircraft,” said Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, cargo.
Recently, the Dubai Government pledged financial support for Emirates with an equity injection into the state-owned company.
The UAE suspended passenger flights for a two-week period starting from March 25 to limit the spread of the virus.
Emirates temporarily reduced employee wages by 25 to 50 percent as part of efforts to preserve cash.
Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan said further details of the government assistance would be announced at a later stage.
Following the directive issued by the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, and the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates to temporarily suspend all passenger services to and from the UAE, Etihad Cargo continues to play a vital role in connecting key cargo markets and ensuring the UAE’s import and export needs are adequately covered in line with current demand.
To complement its fleet of Boeing 777 Freighters, Etihad Cargo is introducing a fleet of Boeing 787-10 aircraft as passenger freighters to operate 34 weekly flights, serving 10 markets initially. Each aircraft will provide capacity for 12 Lower deck pallets and four containers, carrying up to 45 tons of payload.
The passenger freighter network will introduce capacity, subject to permits, into India, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and other places where borders remain open for cargo. On top of that, the current freighter schedule will be enhanced by additional flights into Riyadh, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
By utilizing the Boeing 787 in addition to its freighter fleet, Etihad Cargo will ensure the continuity of vital imports into the UAE including fruits, vegetables, meat, medical supplies, mail and ecommerce.
Abdulla Mohamed Shadid, Managing Director Cargo and Logistics at Etihad Aviation Group, said: “As the national carrier to the UAE, Etihad is working closely with the UAE government to ensure the country is well served and the needs of the people residing in the UAE are unaffected, while continuing to play our role as a facilitator of global trade between the East and the West.”
“In the current environment and as per our leadership’s guidance, it is essential these trade lanes remain open, and with the addition on this capacity we are able to serve those constrained markets that face decreased passenger freight operations, offering a strategic cargo lifeline and supporting the continuity of the global trade ecosystem.”
ECS Group pays tribute to the remarkable work of the teams at Global Services Handling (GSH), a French air cargo handling company based at Roissy Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport in France. Despite the difficulties GSH is facing in this period of unprecedented crisis, ECS Group is highlighting the essential nature of handling and handling teams, without whom air freight forwarding would quite simply be impossible.
“As in all sectors, we need to reorganize the way we work because of the crisis, with one further difficulty: remote working isn’t possible with goods handling. Our staff levels are down by around 25% but we are continuing to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are 100% operational thanks to our extremely hard-working employees. Our priority is still to make sure that cargo leaves and arrives in total safety,” says Pierre Perez, GSH’s Managing Director.
Airlines are doing everything they can to offer more capacity: increasing the number of all-cargo flights, converting passenger flights into freighters, demonstrating greater flexibility, and more – which makes handling agents vital players in ensuring the continuity of the supply chain. Without them, it would be impossible to receive and load cargo, which in turn would also make air freight forwarding impossible.
In addition to the increased risks and greater workload as a result of reduced staffing levels, GSH’s agents also have to tackle the unpredictable nature of flight scheduling. Flight schedules fluctuate from day to day. With extra flights being operated and others postponed, cancelled or delayed for regular flights and even more so for repatriation and all-cargo flights, flexibility and versatility are essential.
But Pierre Perez describes “an amazing sense of team spirit, togetherness and solidarity” among his colleagues. “We’re all pulling together – we know that our work is essential in order to transport goods and keep the local and global economy running. Helping to save lives by transporting medical products is also a real source of motivation.”
This remarkable work not only plays a crucial role in transporting goods, but it also ensures the continuity of the supply chain and maintains the air freight ecosystem on which all stakeholders are totally interdependent.
Kerry Logistics Network Limited has donated its services to deliver 5,000 pairs of compression socks, given by Glasgow-based online travel retailer Trtl (pronounced turtle), to frontline health professionals across Scotland.
Kerry Logistics distributed the socks to National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Dundee last week, with 5,000 more planned for delivery in London in the next seven days.
The 10,000 compression socks, worth GBP250,000, were originally designed for passengers on long haul flights, will help acute nurses in six hospitals across Scotland fight fatigue as they face 12-hour shifts on their feet.
“We cannot thank the team at Kerry Logistics (Glasgow) enough for their support in helping to deliver our donation to the NHS,” said Allison Milligan, Supply Chain & Logistics Lead, Trtl.
“The relationship between Trtl and Kerry Logistics is very new and still developing, however when I contacted them to enquire if they could deliver the socks to the hospitals, they not only agreed but offered to deliver to all sites free of charge, a very generous offer.
“As we needed to deliver as soon as possible to the hard-working NHS staff, our planning had to be quick and Kerry Logistics supported at every point, discussing the best way to accommodate our requirements in a short timeframe.
“With only a few hours’ notice they collected and delivered to Dundee, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, all in one day.
“I think that given the current pandemic it is an excellent example of not only companies but people pulling together for the greater good.”
She gave a special thanks to Kerry Logistics team members Lee Woodward, who was the driver on all deliveries and who has also volunteered to drive to London, and Martin Thomson, Business Development Manager, who also supported in the planning.
“It is great to be able to support our customer and ultimately help the healthcare teams, who are on the frontline every day,” said Martin Thomson.
“Teamwork is important in challenging times and this an example of how, by working together, we can help each other.”
Trtl had stockpiled thousands of the socks in advance of its peak summer season, but with sales stalling because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corrigan decided to use them to support frontline nurses in his home city, across Scotland, and in London.
“Nurses across the UK will be tested as never before in the coming weeks and if we can do something to help make the time they spend on their feet more comfortable, we must,” he said.
“I couldn’t just see these socks sitting in a warehouse when they could be helping people saving lives. That’s what’s important, and nurses need all the help they can get just now.”
time:matters, the expert in high performance and special speed logistics, concluded 2019 with €114.8m in revenue. The company recorded its second-best business result to date within a challenging market environment associated with the slowdown in the global economy.
In 2019, time:matters focused on building its international activities and continuously invested in the expansion of the network, the digitalization of core business and solutions for sustainable air transport. The company’s global Sameday Air network grew to include a total of 11 stations in a number of countries, including China, Japan, Singapore and Thailand. Subsidiary time:matters International Freight Forwarding Ltd. based in Shanghai was founded specifically for the Chinese market. 16 stations in Africa were also added to the Global Express Airfreight network. time:matters has been flying to these destinations via its new hub in Brussels since August. The services portfolio was also expanded in 2019 to include the global express transport of dangerous goods.
The main growth sectors for time:matters in 2019 were in particular the medtech, life science, aviation & aerospace, and high-tech & semicon segments as well as the airmates On Board Courier platform, with which time:matters has been setting industry standards since 2017. It was able to double the number of accompanied shipments in 2019. Cell and Gene Therapy Logistics is another growth area in which time:matters is investing.
The company’s continued focus on sustainable business processes was another milestone in 2019, particularly in respect of airmates, which became the world’s first carbon-neutral onboard courier service within the context of a long-term offsetting initiative with myclimate, a renowned non-profit organization.
“We took the right decision in 2019 to continue investing in expanding the global network, in spite of difficult global business conditions, and our customers have rewarded us for this,” explained Alexander Kohnen, CEO of time:matters. “2020 brings further challenges with the COVID-19 outbreak. As an emergency logistics provider, we are well positioned despite the currently very dynamic changes, as we have already set up comprehensive measures at an early stage on that we are constantly reviewing and adapting according to the situation. The last few weeks in particular have shown that we can still offer our customers the right transport solutions, tailored to their needs, in spite of the dynamics of the current situation and the limited air freight capacities – something they extremely appreciate. This is made possible by our expertise as well as our very broad partner structure of more than 500 global partners and airlines. Depending on how the pandemic progresses, we plan to further expand our business this year in Europe, Asia and the USA.”
time:matters was again recognized for its outstanding performance in the logistics sector in 2019. After receiving its fifth John Deere Achieving Excellence Award in a row, the logistics specialist also made it into the John Deere Hall of Fame. In addition, time:matters was honored with the elogistics tool award from AKJ Automotive for airmates, its digital On Board Courier platform. ISO9001:2015 certification underlines the consistently high level of the time:matters GmbH management system and ensures transparency and security for customers along the entire transport chain. The high level of customer satisfaction was again reflected in a superb Net Promoter Score of 76.
“These awards underscore the excellent services we provide to our customers every day as part of our service excellence and quality strategy,” explained Lars Krosch, COO of time:matters. “We are proud of our ability to continuously build on the high quality of our work in spite of our constant expansion – even in the current COVID-19 situation. Indeed, our primary focus right now is on protecting the health of our employees and ensuring operational performance for our customers. In these unprecedented times, we are proud to play our part and find ways to secure global supply chains as best we can.”
The duration and dynamics of the current pandemic will determine the extent to which the company presses ahead with this year’s implementation of the company-wide digitalization strategy, which includes both customer-centric development of the products and services on offer as well as automated booking capabilities for the service portfolio.
Covid-19 ‘raised its ugly head’ faster and faster in the air cargo industry in March as global cargo volumes fell by 23% versus the same four weeks of 2019.
The decline in demand accelerated week-on-week throughout March, with the week ending 29 March showing volumes were just half of what was moved in the same seven days of last year, according to the latest air cargo market intelligence from CLIVE Data Services.
The ‘dynamic load factor’ for the four-week period of 68% – based on both the volume and weight perspectives of cargo flown and capacity available – represented a decrease of 1.5% points versus 2019 but an increase of 3% points versus February.
“Sadly, there is no getting away from the overall concerning developments we are seeing in the global air cargo market, but there is perhaps a little bit of hope to be found in Asia – which was hit first by the outbreak of COVID-19. In previous data, we reported the step-by-step improvement on the Hong Kong to Europe market and this is continuing. The reported volumes for the last week of March 2020 were 26% higher than before the Chinese New Year started. If this is sustained, it will at least offer some hope for the rest of the industry of the speed with which air cargo traffic can recover after a very difficult time,” said CLIVE’s Managing Director, Niall van de Wouw.
CLIVE’s first-to-market analyses consolidates data shared by a representative group of international airlines operating to all corners of the globe. Based on both the volume and weight perspectives of the cargo flown and capacity available, it gives the air cargo industry the earliest possible barometer of market performance each month.
Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has worked alongside Airbus and Bolloré Logistics to expedite the distribution of two million face masks to health workers in France and Spain to support the live-saving medical teams in both countries battling the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The three companies – all leaders in their respective fields and all headquartered in France – joined forces to support the governmental and healthcare sector response to the Covid-19 crisis. With demand for face masks to help protect healthcare workers, public service employees and the general public from the virus far exceeding supply, Airbus operated one of its own A330-800 passenger aircraft to Tianjin in China to collect the shipment.
Co-ordinated with its logistics partner Bolloré, the Airbus flight returned to Toulouse, where WFS’ cargo handling specialists were ready to quickly offload the cargo and make the necessary preparations for the masks to reach their final destinations across France and Spain. The WFS team broke down the shipment, immediately despatching masks into the healthcare sector in France as well as repalletizing and loading the masks destined to help the relief effort in Spain.
From Toulouse, an Airbus A400M carried face masks to Getafe in Spain, completing the operation on 24 March.
Hugo Rodrigues, Vice President Cargo France at WFS, said, “The critical need for face masks to prevent coronavirus infections has led to a global shortage of this essential equipment. It is therefore vital for the air logistics chain to be able to respond immediately when new stocks become available. With our global network of cargo handling stations, we have teams on the ground ready to ensure these life-saving cargoes reach those who need them within just a matter of hours. This is the power of air cargo and demonstrates the vital importance of the entire air cargo supply chain to the global response to the coronavirus. We will be working with Airbus and Bolloré Logistics on more relief flights carrying urgent medical equipment in the coming days. This is a race against time. I also want to thank the WFS cargo team in Toulouse because we are very proud of the commitment and professionalism they are showing in the current, most challenging circumstances.”
“We want to thank everyone involved in helping to ensure this most urgent cargo reached the front-line medical staff so quickly. It is important that the medical profession helping to treat Covid-19 patients can feel confident that the logistics and cargo handling industry is there to provide all the help and support they need at this most difficult time, and has the ability to act immediately,” added Marc Yorann, Project Manager at Bolloré Logistics.
Urgent medical supplies arrive in Frankfurt from across the globe to support Germany’s rapid response to Covid-19
Urgent medical equipment for healthcare workers and coronavirus patients is continuing to arrive at Frankfurt Airport from all over the world, with Frankfurt Cargo Services (FCS) ensuring immediate processing of all incoming shipments to expedite their delivery to frontline medical teams.
In the past few days, FCS – an affiliate of Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) – has provided handling services for flights carrying medical supplies from the United States, China and Mexico, and further aid flights will continue to arrive to support Germany’s healthcare sector.
The latest passenger aircraft to operate cargo-only flights to Frankfurt include two American Airlines Cargo services from Dallas/Fort Worth. The Boeing 777-300 aircraft, which offers 14 cargo positions for large pallets and can carry some 45 tons, transported medical supplies, mail for active U.S. military, telecommunications equipment and electronics. The flights also offer much-needed capacity for the airline’s regular cargo customers.
As demand intensifies for medical equipment, FCS has also handled seven tons of respirator masks from China for the German Ministry of Health, which arrived in Frankfurt onboard Air China and China Southern Airlines’ flights. This equipment is now in use in hospitals across the country. Other life-saving shipments have included respirator masks from Asia, which touched down in Frankfurt on their way to Romania, and medical equipment carried onboard an Aeromexico Boeing787-900.
Claus Wagner, Managing Director at FCS, said, “Alongside our priorities of safety and security, all the emphasis for these shipments is on speed because the faster this equipment reaches medical professionals, the more lives they can save. In these extreme circumstances, our team are using all of their longstanding handling expertise to ensure every flight is unloaded and loaded, and all cargo processed, with immediate effect because we recognize our responsibility to support key workers all over Germany. FCS staff, along with employees across the transport and logistics sector, have been designated as ‘pillars of society’ by the German government to ensure we can continue to perform our vital role as part of Germany’s rapid response to coronavirus.”
As the global repercussions of the unprecedented situation caused by COVID-19 outbreak continues, Turkish Cargo, the global brand with the world’s sixth largest cargo capacity, has started to operate cargo flights with Turkish Airlines’ passenger aircrafts in addition to its flights with 25 high capacity freighters in order to prevent any mishaps in the supply chain and carry the medical cargo that are of vital importance.
Flying the first of the cargo flights operated with a passenger aircraft on 20 March with a B777 type on Istanbul-Kiev route, Turkish Cargo is to operate cargo flights to Bucharest (OTP), Tel Aviv (TLV), Amsterdam (AMS), London (LHR), Paris (CDG), Amman (AMM), Beirut (BEY), and Dubai (DWC/DXB), thus adding an 5 thousand tonnes of additional capacity.
During these times with global repercussions and national challenge, Turkish Cargo continues its mission to act as a bridge that transports the much-needed medicine and medical equipment to Turkey from across the world and from Turkey to the countries that need them. With that in mind global cargo carrier already started to carry the rapid test kits that can give results in 15 minutes to Turkey from China.
In this crucial process, Turkish Cargo added 14.500 tonnes of extra capacity from and to Turkey with additional 167 cargo flights. By adjusting to the rapidly changing situation and maintaining its commitment to provide additional capacity, global cargo carrier will contribute to the continuation of the supply chain while doing its duty during these challenging times by standing with its nation as the flag carrier.
Saudi Airlines Cargo Company has taken proactive steps to ensure the continuity of all cargo and supply operations and the arrival of necessary goods and products including medical equipment, medicine and foodstuffs, said CEO Omar bin Talal Hariri.
The steps come in line with the official decisions, which excluded all-cargo operations from the suspension imposed on other business activities as part of the precautionary measures the Kingdom has taken to prevent a Coronavirus outbreak.
“We have high-level coordination with all related parties as per the recommended precautionary measures the Saudi health authorities have taken, which permitted the cargo operations and the flow of goods to run uninterrupted,” Hariri explained.
All cargo flights to Europe will continue through Frankfurt and Liège stations in addition to Dhaka station. Work at these stations is run as scheduled in order to mitigate the impact of the imposed suspension aiming to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
The decision suspending passenger flights as a preventive measure has made the Saudia Cargo operate a number of additional cargo flights to Dubai and other destinations because all cargo operations on passenger aircraft came to a complete halt.
“The Saudia Cargo staff work around the clock as part of the company’s national responsibility and regional role in enhancing logistics during these circumstances which the whole world is going through,” he said.
The Saudia Cargo, he stressed, always acts based on the official decisions, instructions and directives so that it can ensure an alignment between meeting the humanitarian needs and protecting the public safety. Cargo flights will continue to operate on humanitarian and commercial basis and cover certain key commercial and safe ports and cargo stations around the world.
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