Descartes is rolling out is core Bluetooth low energy (BLE) readers at Menzies Aviation’s facilities worldwide.
The deal enables ground handler Menzies Aviation to enhance its cargo-tracking capabilities, as well as enabling Descartes to expand its BLE network, which is ‘used to track international mail, parcel and cargo shipments in real-time.’
Descartes Core BLE readers capture the movement of ULDs that have been equipped with either a Descartes or third-party BLE tag.
Shipments can be tracked with the Descartes core ULD tracking solution, and sensor-based information such as the ULD’s temperature, movement and humidity can be monitored.
Robert Fordree, executive vice president of cargo at Menzies Aviation, commented, “As a global logistics specialist, Menzies is dedicated to embracing new technologies to provide market-leading service to our airline customers.
“By introducing ULD tracking with the Descartes solution, we can offer customers a higher standard of service when it comes to air shipment visibility and ULD fleet management.”
Scott Sangster, vice president, global logistics service providers at Descartes, added, “We’re pleased to help Menzies Aviation ensure their ULDs are in the right place at the right time to meet the air freight needs of its customers worldwide.
“By enabling the visibility of ULDs and ground equipment through automation, Descartes’ advanced IoT and Bluetooth networking technologies help airlines and their partners significantly improve control over the transportation of air cargo from the point of origin to final destination.”
Nallian, the leading cloud-based data sharing platform that is earning high marks in air cargo, recently announced that Brussels Airport’s Cargo Digital Development Manager Sara Van Gelder joined the team as of August.
Within BRUcargo, Sara was instrumental in driving forward BRUcloud, the award-winning cargo cloud initiative of Brussels Airport and the local cargo community. Not only did BRUcloud transform the collaborative processes of the local cargo stakeholders and the airport, it served as inspiration for many airports around the globe that are serious about cargo. Underlying BRUcloud runs Nallian’s Data Sharing platform for Air Cargo Communities, in short the Cargo Cloud.
Besides BRUcargo, fast growing Nallian is rolling out the Cargo Cloud in airports across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific, including forward thinking airports such as Liege Airport, Luxembourg Airport, Vienna Airport, London Heathrow and Dallas Fort-Worth. Sara will be using her deep expertise to help these and future airport communities to get quick and maximum value from these initiatives.
Says Jean Verheyen, CEO at Nallian, “We are so thrilled to welcome Sara in the team. We look very much forward to leveraging Sara’s drive and deep expertise. Not only to help our clients, but also to help drive forward Nallian’s product portfolio so that it becomes even more the leading platform of choice for airport cargo communities. In the end, we want to continue to bring the best possible cargo cloud to the market, as seen from the perspective of cargo communities, airports and shippers.”
“I am more than just excited to join the Nallian family”, says Sara Van Gelder. “As many of you know, I consider BRUcloud as my child. My dream is to see airport cargo communities around the globe adopt similar digital initiatives, so that one day, air cargo cannot just claim back the position it deserves, but also cope with growth without having to double physical infrastructure. That day, air cargo will be operating truly as one. And I believe that the best possible place for me to have the broadest possible impact on realizing this dream is with Nallian.”
SITA, recently made several changes to its executive management team responsible for SITA’s product portfolios. These appointments came at crucial juncture as the air transport industry began the difficult task of restarting operations after a lengthy shutdown due to the COVID-19 crisis.
David Lavorel, previously CEO of SITA for Aircraft, has been appointed to head SITA at Airports and Boarders — SITA’s airport and border solution portfolio. A key focus in 2020 will be to support SITA’s airline and airport customers to implement smart solutions to accommodate new passenger processes required to ensure the health and safety of travelers and employees. SITA is well placed to support the re-engineering of the passenger journey and to manage rapidly changing requirements at the border with the delivery of new solutions such as SITA’s cloud-based, open API platform, SITA Flex.
Lavorel replaced Matthys Serfontein, who retired from SITA after 13 years.
Sébastien Fabre, previously VP Airline and Airports Portfolio, replaced Lavorel to head SITA for Aircraft. As airlines globally began to resume flights, they will increasingly turn to SITA for Aircraft to deliver new operational efficiencies such as faster turnarounds while extracting the full benefit of modern connected aircraft.
Barbara Dalibard, CEO, SITA, said, “Ensuring strong leadership of our key business areas is especially important as we look to support the industry as it begins to return to the skies. After more than a decade proving themselves highly capable of driving innovation while ensuring continued customer satisfaction, Sébastien and David are perfectly placed to steer the business through the new challenges and deliver solutions that help support the industry’s recovery.”
The new appointments came into effect from June, 2020.
Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Limited (TLMAL), a joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, has appointed Kiran Dambala as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Dambala assumes this position from the outgoing COO Abhay Paranjape, who has retired after 35 years of distinguished service with Lockheed Martin.
A Lockheed Martin veteran since 2002, Dambala will provide strategic oversight to TLMAL’s business and manufacturing activities while ensuring alignment with planned strategies and commitments.
“I am honored to lead TLMAL during this defining period of advancement in India’s defense capabilities. We will continue to support the Indian government’s vision of further developing India’s indigenous defense capabilities under the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ programs,” Dambala in a statement said. “I look forward to building on the great work done by Paranjape and wish him the best for the coming days.”
Established in 2010, TLMAL is the single global source of C-130J Super Hercules empennage assemblies and employs 500 people. In 2018, Lockheed Martin announced that TLMAL will produce fighter wings and this work is currently underway at the Hyderabad facility.
Dambala brings a wealth of relevant experience to TLMAL that spans 25 years across multiple industries. A Lockheed Martin employee since 2002, Dambala was most recently the program manager for modifications and upgrades in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II program. He was the primary contact for all domestic and international F-35 customers on modifications and upgrades to meet customers’ capability milestones.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Dambala worked in Internet start-up, banking, and shipping industries. His responsibilities primarily involved business analysis, planning, product design and development of IT solutions for end-users.
C-130 empennage assemblies produced by TLMAL include the aircraft’s horizontal and vertical stabilisers along with leading edges and tip assemblies. The TLMAL team also previously manufactured sets of C-130J centre wing box components, and is also home to a cutting-edge 4,700-square meter metal-to-metal bonding facility.
The Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) has established a new Advisory Board in its Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region to spearhead its transformation into an end-to-end supply chain resilience organization under the leadership of President & CEO, Thorsten Neumann.
The four Advisory Board members are:
Under its new organizational structure, TAPA EMEA will also retain elected Officers in the roles of Chair, Vice-Chair and Treasurer, namely Marcel Saarloos of HP, Jason Breakwell of Wallenborn Transports, and Ap Boom of Amazon respectively.
Thorsten Neumann said, “COVID-19 has placed more emphasis on supply chain resilience than ever before, and that’s why we are achieving record growth – but we plan to deliver much more. Our new structure retains the outstanding stewardship we have enjoyed from our Officers in recent years and now also injects the knowledge and expertise of highly experienced and respected Chief Security Officers representing some of the world’s biggest brands to inspire, sense-check and spearhead our growth strategy and digital transformation. The willingness of Gilad, Michael, Frank and Paul to join our new Advisory Board in EMEA reflects their personal commitments to achieving the very highest levels of supply chain security and resilience and promises significant benefits for our members as we move forward. We are proud to have executives of their calibre helping to shape our future.”
TAPA was founded in 1997 to help manufacturers and Logistics Service Providers minimize losses from their supply chains. In June 2019, the appointment of Thorsten Neumann as TAPA EMEA’s first full-time President & CEO, after his previous 13 years as Chairman, heralded the Association’s plans to shift from being managed solely by volunteers to a new professionally-led structure. It also signaled its intention to focus on all aspects of supply chain resilience to maximize the value of membership.
In the EMEA region, TAPA is now reporting all-time highs for the number of member companies, incident data and intelligence reports, and certifications for its Security Standards for facilities, trucking and secure parking.
Air France KLM Martin Air Cargo (AFKLMP) has noted an increase in the use of its digital booking services since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The cargo airline group said that in June its online sales percentage reached 60% for the first time. In the US, its online sales percentage reached over 50%, an all-time record.
And visits to its myCargo booking portal have increased by 40% in the last two months.
AFKLMP said that it had also started directly connecting myCargo to its customers’ systems through APIs.
In the future, it is also considering linking into third-party air cargo booking portals.
“This direct [API] connection makes it very easy for customers to make bookings and access other services, ensuring great efficiency and optimum time-to-market.
“We are also exploring further connectivity with stakeholders in the logistics value chain, including third party-portals.”
The group also highlighted its on-going network re-build over recent months, following the grounding of many passenger flights due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The airline has now resumed flights to numerous destinations over the coming weeks.
GertJan Roelands, senior vice president of sales and distribution at AFKLMP Cargo, said, “We will keep striving to enhance the service we offer customers, regularly adding new destinations and frequencies to our cargo network and enhancing our range of digital services. Our ambition is to offer an optimum customer experience and to be industry leader in this regard.”
The airline group’s cargo network expansion has reached 534 weekly frequencies to 93 unique long-haul destinations.
Lufthansa Cargo extended its partnership with CHAMP, through which it will be able to continue accessing CHAMP’s Traxon cargoHUB and Traxon CDMP solutions.
Lufthansa Cargo will be able to ‘gain synergies and cargo insights’ through its continued use of CHAMP’s Traxon CDMP, a tool that measures ‘over 40% of the worldwide Cargo iQ airline shipments.’
Additionally, CHAMP and Lufthansa said they are exploring how reporting can be enhanced in Traxon CDMP, as well as in CHAMP’s message improvement program reporter.
The carrier will also benefit from being a part of CHAMP’s air cargo digital interchange community – the Traxon CargoHUB.
“Traxon CargoHUB efficiently links the entire global airfreight community, irrespective of their IT configuration or systems resulting in higher productivity and lower costs,” CHAMP explained. “It improves supply chain quality and completeness; bookings, operations, document handling and customs processes can be executed and confirmed in seconds; it can be aligned with and updated to latest industry standards; it enables standard and custom message processing and conversions.”
CEVA Logistics Mexico has been appointed to operate a new dedicated warehouse to support IKEA Mexico’s operations in the country. This facility opening is an extension of the existing successful global partnership between CEVA and the world’s largest furniture retailer.
The Mexico City IKEA Store will become the company’s first retail location in Latin America and CEVA has been awarded a multi-year contract to operate it.
CEVA will be responsible for all operational activities of the new CEDIS (Distribution Center). CEVA will utilize its Matrix IT platform to manage all the warehouse processes. The partnership between CEVA and IKEA Mexico heralds economic growth in the region and the creation of job opportunities.
This new market is another addition to the expanding portfolio of business CEVA has developed with IKEA globally over the past five years.
Says Dominik Dittrich, CEVA’s executive vice president of contract logistics, North America: “We are delighted to have been awarded this long-term contract with IKEA Mexico. This is testimony to our expertise in customer and retail logistics and to our dedication. Our experienced team members are working hard to get everything in place in time for the official opening and we are excited to support the IKEA Mexico team in this new adventure.”
Vietnam-based forwarder New World Logistics have been evaluated for Quality Management Systems and achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification.
Tony Liem at New World Logistics says, “We are very proud to perfect our management and be appraised with the ISO certification from LDT Co., who is nominated and authorized by the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality of Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology.”
New World Logistics were established in 2003 and have been Cargo Connections network members in Vietnam since 2017. They have a motivated management team experienced in international freight forwarding, multimodal transport, heavy lift and project cargo.
Flights are continuing to operate in and out of Beirut-Rafik Hariri International Airport despite moderate damage to the airport resulting from the massive explosion that happened recently at the city’s seaport.
Lebanon’s main airport is 10 kilometers from the site of the blast, which killed at least 135 people and injured more than 4,000 others. The explosion happened after a fire started at the port and ignited 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in a warehouse since 2013.
But UAE airlines Emirates, Etihad and flydubai are all continuing services to and from Beirut as normal, The National reported.
Emirates operates twice daily flights to Beirut while Etihad flies to Lebanon’s capital once daily from Abu Dhabi.
Lebanon’s national carrier, Middle East Airlines, will operate more than a dozen flights as normal, the airline said, despite the damage to the airport.
A spokesperson for the airline told The National that “no serious damage was sustained to any of MEA’s fleet on the ground”.
Flights in and out of Lebanon resumed on 1 July after three months of lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 68 people in the country.
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