FedEx Express announced recently the launch of DoraSorter, an AI-powered sorting robot developed to handle the rapidly growing market demand for e-commerce shipments across the region.
The robot was developed in collaboration with Dorabot, a leading robotics solution provider as part of the company’s strategy to digitize operations and build a smart logistics network. The DoraSorter was deployed at the FedEx South China E-Commerce Shipment Sorting Centre in Guangzhou to handle small inbound and outbound packages from customers in the region.
The 40 square meter robot can withstand up to 10 kilograms of packages, and cover up to 100 destinations simultaneously, with a special drawer-shaped gripper to seamlessly connect with the conveyor belt and a barcode reader to scan packages for destination information.
“With e-commerce taking center stage in the future of retail in our region, the speed with which a parcel can be picked up and delivered to customers’ doorsteps has become a dominant factor in driving the adoption of sorting robots.
Bringing DoraSorter to China as a pilot program is a natural choice for us given it is the world’s biggest e-commerce market with an expected valuation of $3.3 trillion by 2025,” FedEx Express President of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), Kawal Preet said, highlighting that “as we look to build a data-driven, smart logistics network to help our customers thrive in the digital economy, this alliance with Dorabot is part of preparing the network for what is next. AI-powered technology will continue to change how we support customers in the region and enhance supply chains for the future.”
On his part, Robert Chu, Vice President of Operations, FedEx China stressed that “innovation is at our core and is a major factor behind FedEx strategy in China,” noting that “to meet customers’ changing needs, we have been exploring and investing in new technologies to enhance every key aspect of transportation. The rapid rise in e-commerce has led to higher customer demand for timeliness and flexibility in logistics services, creating new challenges and opportunities for the entire logistics industry.”
Chu further revealed that FedEx’s collaboration with Dorabot marks the company’s “latest effort to improve operational efficiencies and build an agile logistics infrastructure through robotics technology that will support the growth of China’s e-commerce industry.”
Freight forwarders are warning of higher supply chain costs as the impact of the invasion of Ukraine disrupts transportation operations.
Agility announced recently its acquisition of more shares in the UK’s John Menzies, bringing its stakes up to 19% following a recent acquisition of $100 million shares in February.
Under the recent agreement, the company’s subsidiary Agility Strategies Holding acquired an additional 5.8% stake in John Menzies for $43 million at the price of $8.23 per share, according to a statement released recently.
The acquisition is set to complement the operations of National Aviation Services (NAS), the airport and ground-handling services provider owned by agility.
NAS operates in 55 airports and manages more than 50 airport lounges across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
The move comes in light of Agility’s strategy to take over enterprises and assets to support its growing operations in the region and beyond, as the global logistics and supply chain sector continues to recover from the pinching disruptions it experienced over recent months.
Emirates is streamlining check-in formalities for its customers in Ajman and the Northern Emirates with the introduction of a new check-in facility.
The facility is in collaboration with the Ajman Transport Authority. The new facility, located in the Ajman Central Bus Terminal, is the first remote check-in facility outside of Dubai and is another way the airline is helping customers reap the benefits of simple and quick check-in closer to home, reducing queues and improving their overall experience across the first touchpoints of their travel journey.
Mohammed Mattar, divisional senior vice president Emirates Airport Services said, “Customers can easily and efficiently check-in, verify Covid-19 related medical records for their destination, receive their boarding passes and board one of the convenient Ajman Transport Authority buses to Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport. Once customers arrive at Terminal 3 and disembark, they can drop of their bags in a dedicated baggage area and proceed directly to immigration and security—ensuring a smoother ground journey through the airport by bypassing the check-in counter at Dubai International. Plans are underway to integrate baggage check-in at the new Ajman facility in the coming weeks.”
Open 24 hours a day, the Emirates check-in facility in Ajman will have four counters and two self-service kiosks for a contactless start to the journey, allowing check-in, boarding pass collection, choosing or changing seats on board, and updating passport and Skywards information. Bus trips from the facility to Terminal 3 will run in parallel with Emirates’ peak operational periods, which include early and late morning scheduled flights as well the late night departures.
Mattar said: “We are committed to continually enhancing every aspect of the on-ground experience for our customers and creating a stress-free journey through quick processing and reduced wait times, especially during the busier peak travel periods. Our latest initiative in Ajman, in partnership with the Ajman Transport Authority will deliver a travel experience that our customers from Ajman and the Northern Emirates can truly look forward to, giving them more control over their journey to enjoy the rest of the retail, leisure and Emirates lounge facilities at the airport before they board their flight.”
Dubai International (DXB) continues to be the world’s busiest airport by international passenger numbers for the eighth consecutive year after clocking 29.1 million in annual traffic in 2021. DXB’s annual traffic exceeded forecasts for the year by more than half a million passengers, on the back of a strong last quarter.
Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, described an eventful year which, despite the uncertainties of the global pandemic, contained many milestones that demonstrate several bold steps taken by Dubai and its aviation sector to lead the recovery of global air travel, including the successful hosting of the Dubai Airshow 2021, the world’s first major airshow since the start of the pandemic, the return of DXB to 100% operational capacity with the reopening of Terminal 1-Concourse D and Concourse A, and the opening of the world’s largest in-house airport laboratory for fast-track processing Covid-19 PCR test samples for Dubai’s visitors. The airport also welcomed a record number of new airlines connecting Dubai to new destinations and joined the rest of the city in creating a warm welcome for millions of visitors to Expo 2020 Dubai.
Describing DXB’s performance in 2021 as nothing short of impressive, Griffiths said, “Despite unprecedented turmoil affecting millions of people all over the world, we overcame many serious obstacles to the operation of the world’s largest international hub and provided smooth, comfortable and safe travel for millions of people travelling through DXB. This incredible performance by all of our staff and stakeholders was achieved in the face of abruptly changing travel regulations and concerns about new waves of infection. Despite these serious challenges to our ongoing success, we managed to exceed our own forecasts and continue to retain our crown as the world’s busiest international airport.
With the eagerly anticipated reopening of key markets such as Australasia and the further easing of travel regulations around the world, the outlook for 2022 is very promising and we are in an excellent position to continue to lead the world’s air travel sector on the road to recovery.”
Current forecasts indicate that traffic through DXB could reach 55.1m by the end of 2022, but Griffiths acknowledges that if current trends continue, that figure could be exceeded by a significant margin.
DXB welcomed 29,110,609 passengers for the full year of 2021, a year-on year-growth of 12.7%. The numbers were propelled by a robust growth in the final three months of the year during which DXB recorded 11,794,046 passengers, 77% more than in the previous quarter. It was the busiest quarter since Q1 2020, and the first time since the start of the pandemic that DXB’s quarterly traffic surpassed the 10 million mark. December was the busiest month of the year with 4.5 million passengers.
India retained its position as the top destination country for DXB by passenger volume, with passenger traffic for 2021 totaling 4.2m, followed by Pakistan with 1.8m, Saudi Arabia with 1.5m, and the United Kingdom with 1.2m passengers. Other destination countries of note include the US (1.1m passengers), Egypt (1m) and the Turkey (945,000 passengers).
DXB’s top destination cities during 2021 were Istanbul with 916,000 passengers, Cairo (905,000), London (814,000) and New Delhi (791,000 passengers).
DXB is currently connected to 198 destinations across 93 countries through 84 international carriers – significantly more than in 2019 before the pandemic.
The number of flight movements at DXB reached 77,671 during the fourth quarter bringing the annual flight movements to 233,375, a year-on-year growth of 28.1%. The average number of passengers per flight reached 154, down 18.9% year-on-year.
Cargo continued its strong performance throughout the year finishing with 614,834 tons of cargo in the fourth quarter (7.5%) taking the annual freight volume in 2021 up by 20% to 2,319,185 tons.
Etihad Cargo, has achieved record revenue growth of 49 percent in 2021 as it continued to outperform expectations with a 27 percent year-on-year increase in freight carried, contributing towards 55 per cent of the group’s revenue.
“2021 was a milestone year for Etihad Cargo,” said Martin Drew, Senior Vice President Sales & Cargo, Etihad Aviation Group. “The Etihad Cargo team has worked closer than ever with partners and customers to address their demands and allocate necessary capacity, resulting in a record tonnage of 729,200 tons – the highest since 2017.”
In Q1, Etihad Cargo temporarily modified five Boeing 777 aircraft to support cabin-loaded cargo, operating more than 800 charter and scheduled cargo flights in the new configuration in 2021, adding capacity along key strategic routes. By mid-2021, Etihad Cargo had announced the recovery of more than 90 per cent of its network compared to pre-COVID. In total, the carrier operated more than 6,000 passenger freighters throughout the year, with freighter utilization averaging 16.5 hours.
Premium products have also seen remarkable growth: PharmaLife, the carrier’s award-winning pharmaceutical shipment solution, achieved a 85 percent increase in revenue on 2020, while FreshForward, for transporting perishables, increased by 26 percent. With the relaxation of travel restrictions, SkyStable, the carrier’s dedicated equine transportation solution, grew by 28 percent, and SafeGuard, for transporting valuables, increased by 103 percent compared to 2020.
Despite the ongoing operational challenges imposed by new variants of the COVID-19 virus, the UAE national carrier also maintained a Delivered As Promise (DAP) rate of 84 per cent through the past 12 months and an on-time performance (OTP) of 84 percent.
“It is testament to the hard work and commitment of the team that, despite the challenges of the pandemic, Etihad Cargo has achieved its operational targets while meeting and exceeding customer expectations,” said Drew.
Over the past year, Etihad Cargo continued to facilitate critical COVID-19 vaccine distribution which contributes to 30 per cent of its pharmaceutical shipments. Jointly with its partners at the HOPE Consortium, over 250 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been handled to over 40 countries. In addition, several initiatives have been launched to facilitate the distribution and to position Abu Dhabi as a pharmaceutical and live science hub including establishing the first pharmaceutical distribution corridor between Abu Dhabi and Belgium. The corridor will facilitate the quick delivery of vaccines and meet future life science needs. The carrier is also working in tandem with UNICEF to transport aid globally following the signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the UN agency’s Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative.
Investing in digitalization has continued to be a key enabler to success. Augmenting customer service was a key focus of 2021 and Etihad Cargo’s new online booking portal was developed following extensive customer workshops to address their requirements, reducing the booking time to just 45 seconds. Since its launch in October, the company has recorded 36% increase in online bookings within three months of launching the new portal. In addition, the carrier has announced exploring a proof of concept with SPEEDCARGO for using Artificial Intelligence to measure cargo dimensions and optimize space planning, which will in turn allow Etihad Cargo to improve capacity planning.
Alexandria (Alex) Marren is expected to join the airline in late March as Chief Operating Officer, following a 36-year career in senior operations, customer, cabin crew and airport leadership roles at United Airlines and Hertz Corporation. Alex is currently the President of ABM Aviation in Atlanta, USA, where she has been leading a team of over 11,000 to help airlines at airports across the US, UK, Ireland and the Middle East navigate through the Covid pandemic.
Alex’s extensive operations experience has ranged from responsibility for ground operations at 46 airports with oversight of 3,500 flights per day to 260 cities, to leadership of 23,000 staff at Hertz’s North American rental car operation. Alex replaces Air New Zealand’s current COO Carrie Hurihanganui, who will take on the Chief Executive role at Auckland International Airport Limited in February
Alex Marren holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Liberal Arts and American History from Harvard College and has completed the Advanced Education Program at The Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Mike Williams recently took on the new role of Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer, leading the delivery of the airline’s strategy and be responsible for its alliance partner relationships.
Mike has been with Air New Zealand since 2016 in senior commercial and strategy roles and was Group General Manager Commercial, Alliances and Strategy. Before joining the airline, Mike worked with the Boston Consulting Group in Australia, Finland and the US working with clients in the aviation, technology and retail sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and a Bachelor of Business Management from RMIT University, Melbourne.
Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran says both appointments further equip the airline’s executive team with the skills and experience to help the airline emerge strongly from the pandemic and deliver improved results for customers and shareholders.
“Alex will bring firsthand experience of operations at scale in highly competitive markets across North America. She has a track record of delivering operational performance and results that delight customers and staff, and we look forward to welcoming her to Air New Zealand.
“Mike is one of our most talented senior leaders, has a deep understanding of our business and the sector, supported by a sharp strategic ability that served Air New Zealand well as it established key alliance partnerships. Having helped develop, and more recently led the review of, our Kia Mau (Get Ready) strategy, Mike will lead the transformation program to look at our ways of working to support the delivery of our strategy.”
Prior to Alex’s arrival, the responsibilities of the Chief Operating Officer will be undertaken by members of the executive team.
Chapman Freeborn, the global air charter specialist and leading provider of aviation support solutions, and part of Avia Solutions Group, has appointed Kari Bigot as Vice President of Passenger Sales for the Americas.
Kari joins Chapman Freeborn with over 30 years of experience in the business travel industry bringing a diverse perspective, and depth of sales and marketing knowledge. She began her career with Northwestern Business Travel, and later managed ground transportation at Carlson Wagonlit Travel before joining Advantage Travel Management as Vice President Business Travel Solutions. In her most recent role Kari led the North America sales team in the execution of effective sales strategies as Vice President, Head of North American Sales for leading travel management company, ALTOUR.
“We are pleased to welcome Kari to the team as a key part of our ambitious growth plans in the US. She joins at an exciting time for the whole Chapman Freeborn team. Her experience and industry presence will be a great asset to our team as we continue to build upon our strong foundations and target new sectors,” said Nigel Parkinson, Chief Commercial Officer – Passenger Charter Solutions.
Kari is an active member in the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), serving as Program Manager working with the Strategic Advisory Board for WINiT and current President-Elect for the North Central Business Travel Association Chapter Board of Directors. Her accolades include the WINiT by GBTA Top 50 Women in Travel 2021, and the Global Business Travel Association Business Travel Professional Services Award in 2007. Her one minute interview series on LinkedIn received industry-wide acclaim.
Kari resides in Shakopee, MN in the summer and Tucson, AZ in the winter. She enjoys spending time with her husband traveling, golfing, and hunting with her three championship Labrador Retriever dogs.
Abu Dhabi Airports has appointed air cargo stalwart Steven Polmans as its new vice president of business development & regulatory affairs at Abu Dhabi Airports Free Zone (ADAFZ).
In his new role, Polmans will establish an integrated long-term strategic plan for ADAFZ, oversee regulatory affairs and compliance matters and be responsible for new projects from inception to completion.
Polmans is current chairman of Tiaca and also previously worked as chief customer officer at Nallian, was the founder and chairman of Air Cargo Belgium and was director of cargo and logistics at Brussels Airport.
“We are excited to have Steven on board and we are confident his experience in both aviation and cargo would help drive further expansion at Abu Dhabi Airports Free Zone that is a fast-growing business and an increasingly attractive option for businesses that wish to set up in Abu Dhabi and leverage our strategic location, excellent connectivity through three international airports and a wide range of landside and airside facilities,” said Francois Bourienne, chief commercial officer, Abu Dhabi Airports.
Air Transport Services Group, Inc. (ATSG), the world’s largest lessor of freighter aircraft, has committed to a total of 29 Airbus A330 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) conversion slots with Elbe Flugzeugwerke.
The commitment of 29 A330P2F reflects a strategic step by ATSG to diversify its existing in-service fleet of 117 aircraft with the addition of next generation wide-body freighters.
“The A330-300 passenger-to-freighter conversion is a natural next step for ATSG as it is an excellent complement to the Boeing 767-300 medium wide-body freighter, which has long been the freighter of choice for the e-commerce air cargo market,” stated Mike Berger, chief commercial officer of ATSG.
“The availability of feedstock combined with impressive cargo capacity make the A330 a very attractive option for conversion and will enable ATSG to continue to meet the demands for full-capacity freighters long into the future. The customer response to the news that we will have A330-300 freighters available for lease has been exceptionally strong, and we already have customer deposits toward future leases for half of these 29 converted freighters.”
“To have a key market player like ATSG adopting the A330P2F program with such a high commitment is a major milestone for us,” said Andreas Sperl, CEO of EFW. “This is a great sign of confidence in next-generation Airbus freighters and trust in EFW’s competency as a center of excellence for Airbus freighter conversions.”
The A330P2F conversions for ATSG will be performed from mid-2023 through 2027 mainly at EFW’s facility in Dresden, Germany, and also at ST Engineering’s conversion sites in China. Multiple conversions will be carried out in parallel.
With effect from March 2022, Swissport International has successfully finalized the complete acquisition of Belgium Airport Services (BAS).
Between them, the two companies operate cargo centers with a combined capacity of 76,000 sqm in Belgium, about half of which is at Liège Airport.
Swissport also operates a modern 38,000 sqm air cargo facility at Brussels Airport, including a state-of-the-art Swissport Pharma Centre.
“I am very excited about the cooperation between Swissport and BAS at Liège Airport, a world-renowned air cargo hub.” says Jan van Engelen, head of continental Europe at Swissport. “This positions Swissport as an even stronger partner for airlines and forwarders in Liège and in Belgium as a whole. Swissport will continue to invest in developing its cargo business as a strategic pillar in Belgium and beyond. In Amsterdam, for example, we are adding an additional air cargo centre, which significantly increases our capacity at Schiphol Airport.”
With BAS, Swissport gains access to an attractive and well-established customer portfolio of airlines and logistics service providers such as El Al, Turkish Airlines, Hongyuan group and many others.
BAS will initially be run as a standalone business to ensure service consistency for its customers. The operational leadership team of BAS will remain in charge of running the BAS operation, and employment and working conditions will also be maintained.
At a later stage, services will be integrated and consolidated under the Swissport brand.
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