ACW 17 October 2022

Standing strong in a challenging environment

C ar go.o NE UN v EI l S global part NE r S h I p w I th Qatar aI rwayS C argo

Cargo.one

has unveiled a partnership with Qatar Airways Cargo, launching the world’s biggest cargo airline’s ca pacities on the leading marketplace for digital air cargo bookings.

Freight forwarders now benefit from an ideal combination of cargo.one’s real-time booking solution and Qatar Airways Cargo’s global net work.

“The addition of Qatar Airway Cargo to cargo. one means that users will now have the most us er-friendly access to the largest cargo carrier in the world. From now on, booking Qatar Airways Cargo will take five clicks and less than 35 sec onds. That’s a game changer,” Moritz Claussen, founder and co-CEO of cargo.one, said. cargo.one’s global customers can now book Qa tar Airways Cargo’s extensive capacities across many of the world’s most important markets –including North America, Europe, Japan, India and Brazil. The carrier currently offers customers more than 60 dedicated freighter destinations and over 150 passenger destinations, com

prising excellent intercontinental connectivity.

Across its operation, Qatar Airways Cargo utilises more than 250 aircraft (including 32 freighters), now bookable on cargo.one.

For freight forwarders using cargo.one, the launch of Qatar Airways Cargo facilitates 2,000 completely new origin and destination pairs, and 3,000 additional flights per month. cargo. one now delivers quality marketplace booking experience for Qatar Airways capacities.

“Our launch of Qatar Airways Cargo capacities is a significant milestone in cargo.one always delivering the best possible level of choice to freight forwarders”, Claussen said. “We are hon ored to be recognised as an important distribu tion channel within the airline’s omni-channel strategy. Our aim is to deliver Qatar Airways Car go the most customer-friendly way to distribute their capacity worldwide”, he stated.

“There are a number of real synergies between the companies, such as a shared drive for excel lence in the booking process, and placing the customer experience at the centre of every

thing,” Claussen added. cargo.one offers Qatar Airways Cargo unrivalled access to vast numbers of active freight forward ers – both large enterprises and SMEs. As the solution of choice for thousands of forwarding branches worldwide, using cargo.one can typ ically cut the amount of time needed for plan ning and booking air cargo shipments by 50%.

“This is undoubtedly a valuable proposition for the majority of our markets including key mar kets like North America, Europe, Japan, India and Brazil,” Claussen highlighted.

“Qatar Airways Cargo has been one of the top requested airlines on cargo.one. Working with the most important airlines for forwarders is important in encouraging every forwarding branch in all parts of the world to take the step and benefit from the cost and speed advantag es and digital efficiencies. This levelling up in the freight forwarding industry is really possible when forwarders can transfer a more substantial proportion of their general cargo bookings to digital,” Claussen concluded.

Airways has picked up top honours at the 2022 Airline Economics Middle East, Africa

Islamic Aviation

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has been select ed as partner and payments provider

Lufthansa Group.

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groUp SElECtS...

CaNaDa Cargo ExpaNDS AIR Canada Cargo has an nounced that it will expand its freighter network into the United States for the first time, with flights to Dallas and At lanta

groUp aNNoUNCES...

Group has wel comed the arrival of its first Boeing 777F freighter at Shen zhen Bao’an International Airport

FedEx research shows e-commerce opportunities set to grow for SMEs

Etihad Airways takes home top awards from Airline Economics

ETIHAD Airways picked up top honours at the 2022 Airline Economics Middle East, Af rica & Islamic Aviation 100 Awards at the Ritz Carlton, Dubai Beach hotel.

The carrier won the coveted Middle East & Africa Airline of the Year Award, with CFO Adam Boukadida receiving the Middle East & Africa CFO of the Year Award for the second consecutive year.

our fantastic performance over the first nine months of 2022,” Boukadida said.

Airline Economics recognised Etihad for its successful turnaround, which led to the air line posting a record-breaking core operat ing profit of $296 million for H1 2022, with EBITDA improving by more than $600 mil lion to $691 million in the same period. The judges also considered the profit, debt, load

RESEARCH commissioned by FedEx Express shows that both Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) and consumers agree that there’s room for further growth in the already booming e-commerce sector.

The What’s Next in E-Commerce survey polled SMEs and consumers in 11 markets in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region (AMEA) in July 2022 to explore the continuing evolution of e-commerce and identify the trends that could fuel future growth.

The survey reveals that consumers are looking for innovations in personalisation, “shoppertainment” and payment options that enhance their experience, and at the same time, make it easier to discover new brands and make purchasing convenient. With plenty of shopping festivals already in the calendar, consumers are looking for even more seasonal offers. Taken together, the research shows there is plenty of fertile ground for e-tailers to experiment with new approaches that can help build their cus tomer base.

“Covid has accelerated our lifestyles to a pivot point where shopping online has been normalised across all demographics, and there’s no going back. With that, e-com merce is set to take a growing proportion of total consumer spend,” Kawal Preet, presi dent of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Af rica (AMEA) at FedEx Express, said.

“With more people shopping online con sumer preferences are becoming increas ingly sophisticated. As SMEs and e-mer chants evolve their online sales platforms, our research uncovers opportunities for businesses to capitalise on what consum ers want. Customer experience is the driv ing force behind how e-tailers engage with

their customers and how we are innovating our shipping solutions. With an expanded portfolio specially developed for e-com merce businesses, FedEx is well positioned to support the changing expectations of consumers and continuation of e-com merce growth.”

Asia Pacific which includes the world’s big gest e-commerce markets like India, Main land China, Japan, and Korea, will see rev enue from e-commerce sales reach $2.09 trillion this year as 57% of the region’s pop ulation shops online.

Both SMEs and consumers are maturing in their use of e-commerce and both groups agree that the pandemic-driven utilisation of e-commerce is here to stay. Eight in 10 SMEs believe e-commerce will become more important in their business in the next three years and nine in 10 believe they are well prepared for the challenge. 80% of consumers reported that e-commerce had taken a greater share of their total purchas es over the past three years while 71% see fur ther increases ahead.

SMEs in India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam were among the most optimistic about their future e-commerce growth in the next three years; a sentiment shared by consumers in these same markets. e-com merce currently represents less than 6% of total retail sales in each of these markets.

While the future looks bright, 65% of e-tailers reported they were struggling to handle the growing number of orders they were receiving. Amid surging demand, tal ent and recruitment has proven challeng ing for SMEs. SMEs are adopting a dual ap proach in response, recruiting talent from outside their business and upsk illing cur rent staff through training to meet demand.

Now in their 11th year, the Airline Economics Awards are held annually to recognise excep tional businesses, individuals and financial transactions in the commercial aviation in dustry.

“We’re incredibly proud to be named Air line of the Year by Airline Economics, which comes just before our 19th birthday at Etihad Airways. This award goes to our entire or ganisation and stands as a testament to the success of our transformation, in which every member of the Etihad family played an im portant role. This is a great way to celebrate

figures, RPK, orders and routes for the Airline of the Year Award.

The CFO of the Year Award criteria included financing deals over 12 months, consistency of performance and the deals book for Etihad Airways, as well as feedback on the company and finance function from key regional and global counterparties and strategic part ners. In October 2021, Etihad Airways raised a groundbreaking $1.2 billion loan, the first sustainability-linked loan tied to environ mental, social and governance (ESG) targets in global aviation.

Air Canada Cargo expands US freighter network

AIR Canada Cargo has announced that, start ing in November, it will expand its freighter network into the United States for the first time, with flights to Dallas and Atlanta. The addition of these key US markets is a signif icant milestone for Air Canada Cargo and allows the airline to provide dedicated, re liable service to customers in key markets, and allows easy connection to other markets through our global hub in Toronto.

Air Canada Cargo is also expanding its pres ence in Latin America with service to Bogota.

allows us to continue to expand to better serve our global customers and we remain committed to supporting global economies and supply chains with reliable transporta tion moving critical goods,” Matthieu Casey, managing director, commercial, at Air Cana da Cargo, said.

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“These additional routes allow us to expand the reach of our freighter network to key US markets, and conveniently connect cargo in the USA to Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific with our freighter service.

The additional growth of our freighter fleet

In addition to the eight converted Boeing 767 freighters already announced, Air Can ada Cargo continues to expand its freighter fleet, with two factory-built 767-300F that will enter service in 2023 and two Boeing 777 freighters that will enter service in 2024. WFS currently provides cargo handling services for 16 international airlines at Heathrow, han dling over 425,000 tonnes of freight, airmail and express shipments through seven ware house facilities.

NeWS

World Air Cargo Awards returns live at air cargo Europe 2023

EFW and Turkish Technic to collaborate on A330P2F conversions

The collaboration will see Turkish Technic becoming the first MRO company to provide third party conversion solu tions for the proven and technologically advanced A330P2F programme by EFW. The first A330P2F conversion for EFW is planned to be carried out at Turkish Technic’s facility in Is tanbul in Q3 2023.

“Through our collaboration with Turkish Technic, which has deep experience in maintaining Airbus aircraft, we will ensure meeting our customer commitments in a robust manner,” Jordi Boto, CEO of EFW, said.

“As the air cargo sector is experiencing extremely strong and steady growth, conversions have become an efficient solution to meet operator’s needs, thus creating an oppor tunity for aircraft manufacturers, MROs, airlines and leasing companies,” Turkish Technic’s chairman of the board Profes sor Dr Ahmet Bolat said.

EFW’s A330P2F program is developed in collaboration with ST Engineering and Airbus, with EFW holding the Supplemental Type Certificate and leading in the over all programme as well as marketing & sales efforts. The A330P2F programme comes with two variants – the A330200P2F and A330-300P2F – which are both equipped with advanced technology that offers airlines additional opera tional and economic benefits.

To meet the rising demand for freighter conversions, ST Engineering and EFW have set up new conversion sites in China and the U.S. in the last one to two years to ramp up total conversion capacity for all their Airbus P2F programmes comprising the A330P2F, A320P2F and A321P2F.

Air Cargo Week is delighted to announce that after a three-year hiatus, the World Air Cargo Awards will be held live and in-person during air cargo Europe 2023.

Considered to be the global air cargo industry’s most prestigious recognition of excellence; the cer emony will showcase ten specific industry categories as follows: Air freight Forwarder of the Year, Air Cargo Handling Agent of the Year, Air Cargo Charter Broker of the Year, Airport of the Year, Air Cargo Gener al Sales Agent of the Year, Air Cargo Industry Customer Care, Air Cargo Industry Achievement, Information Technology for the Air Cargo Indus try, Air Cargo Industry Promotional Campaign and Cargo Airline of the Year.

The Awards will be in two stages – a nomination stage and a vot

ing stage. Nominations open on Monday 17th October 2022 and will close on Friday 9th December 2022.

Nominations can be made for any air cargo sector organisation around the world by any person or organisation, using the official nom ination form on aircargoweek.com. Companies are permitted to nomi nate themselves, however, they will not able to vote for themselves.

A shortlist in each category will then be drawn up and published online at aircargoweek.com on Monday 9th January 2023.

Voting will open on Monday 9th January 2023 and will close on Friday 24th March 2023, with the awards ceremony held on Wednes day 10th May 2023.

Further details will be announced soon at aircargoweek.com.

Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH (EFW) and Turkish Technic have announced a new collaboration in A330 pas senger-to-freighter (P2F) conversions.

Zongteng Group announces its first Boeing 777F

ZONGTENG Group has welcomed the arrival of its first Boeing 777F freighter at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport

Partnering with Central Airlines, the first flight from Shenzhen to Riyadh was successfully operated on 30 September, 2022. This freighter will ta fly from Shenzhen to the Middle East and Europe three to four times per week. The acquisition marks a new milestone in the globalisation process of Zongteng Group.

The B777F has a range of 9,200 kilometres and a maximum load capacity of more than 102 tonnes. This freighter combines excellent range capability and outstanding efficiency with lower carbon emission, making it the world’s larg est and longest-range twin-engine wide-body freighter.

With a planned annual cargo capacity of over 25,000 tonnes, the B777F en ables Zongteng Group to form a connection with global cargo collections, line haul transportation, fulfilment warehouses, and distribution centres, which fur ther consolidates the company’s end-to-end supply chain infrastructure.

The acquisition of this wide-body B777F is key to the group strategy of pro viding premium logistics services to the e-commerce sector. By upgrading its intercontinental air freight capability on routes from Asia to Europe and Ameri ca, the company will gain greater control over the entire supply chain, and thus significantly enhance stability and efficiency beyond the standard e-commerce parcel delivery services.

Lufthansa Group selects Worldline as global payments provider

WORLDLINE has been selected as partner and payments provider to Lufthansa Group. Worldline builds on its strong heritage in the airlines & travel industry with compre hensive solutions tailored to fit the needs of some of the largest and most complex air lines.

The Lufthansa Group aims to build a robust payment platform which will provide a co hesive and succinct payments offering to their group, where all group members can take advantage of the services available. The partnership will give Lufthansa Group the possibility to onboard a selection of World line solutions, from payment methods to consolidated reporting capabilities and in tegration with their core platforms. World line’s vast experience in acquiring for airlines

and its expertise in the travel industry will also help ensure that Lufthansa Group is best placed to offset and mitigate the risks and challenges that have emerged in recent years across the sector. Worldline will also establish the necessary payments infrastruc ture to meet Lufthansa Group’s objectives and position it well as the industry starts to enjoy a rapid growth phase once again. The deal will see Worldline processing glob ally for Lufthansa and its sister operations, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Edelweiss, ensuring the group can take advantage of Worldline’s continued investment in in novation, new markets and airline-specific ser vices including Billing and Settlement Plans (BSP) and Accounts Receivable Con version (ARC).

S TAnD In g S T rO n g In A CHALLEng In g En V IrO nMEn T

Etihad

Cargo, the fast-growing cargo division of Etihad Airways, is on a mission to cement itself as the industry’s leading air cargo partner. As the world returns to a more normal environment, Etihad Cargo is determined to emerge from the pan demic stronger than ever, with a customer-focused approach and sustainability firmly woven into every element of the business.

With a booming global air cargo market, the carrier is determined to seize the moment to expand its operations and offerings to customers globally, capitalising on growing markets and opportunities as it seeks to surpass its regional and international competitors.

Cargo key to strong profits

In June, Etihad Airways announced record-breaking results in its half-year 2022 results, as it secured a core operating profit of $296 million in the face of rising fuel costs. Increased focus on cargo operations played a key role in that, as they saw a 6% year-on-year improvement bringing in $802 million in revenue to the airline despite reduced capacity as travellers re turned to the air. This improvement in Etihad Cargo’s operations meant the division was re sponsible for 35% of the airline’s total operative revenues between January and June.

“It’s continuing to be a key pillar of our group. As you know, during the pandemic, air cargo played a crucial lifeline for all airlines,” Tim Isik, vice president – commercial, said. “We currently have 79 cargo destinations across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas.

“We are a medium sized carrier, which can make it challenging,” Isik admitted, “But we are agile, and we like to deploy our aircraft where we can. We work very closely with customers and partners to really understand regional flows of demand and we try to adjust our network and schedules to meet that demand.”

increased focus on pharma logistics

Etihad Cargo takes pride in its ability to facilitate the shipment of pharmaceuticals via its PharmaLife product. After all, it was the first carrier in the Middle East to be awarded the In ternational Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification in Pharmaceutical Logistics.

“We’ve increased our PharmaLife performance by 46% over the last year and have tripled PharmaLife volumes in less than two years,” Isik said, hinting at future expansion plans coming in the future. “We are in full alignment with the UAE government’s vision to position Abu Dha bi as pharma and life science hub in the region. It’s a great bridge between, not just Asia and Europe, but also the US and Africa.”

Partnerships in this sector have been key for Etihad Cargo to offer premium options for phar maceutical and life science shipments across the airline’s network. In less than 12 months, we have increased our PharmaLife premium segment’s volumes of advanced container leases five-fold.

As a founding member of the HOPE Consortium, launched in 2020 to provide a complete supply chain solution to address vaccine transport, demand planning, training, medical staff and digital technology infrastructure, Etihad Cargo has also played a significant role in trans porting over 260 million vaccinations to 60 countries and facilitating end-to-end vaccine de livery with the rapid on-ground deployment of medical and logistics experts, medical staff and equipment.

As a sign of Etihad Cargo’s investment in its pharmaceutical strategy, the carrier recently entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with B Medical Systems to develop and launch the world’s first airline-specific sustainable solution for the transportation of life-sav ing drugs, vaccines and high-value pharmaceuticals.

Etihad Cargo continues to invest in features to enhance its PharmaLife capabilities. “We in creased our dry ice capabilities, with our full freighters carrying up to 13 tonnes of dry ice, five times more than previously and one of the largest amounts of dry ice that airlines are permit

ted to carry. We are also nearing completion of a brand-new pharma centre, which will double our cool chain capabilities. That’s hugely important for any kind of PharmaLife products that we carry,” Isik said.

Flying the flag for sustainability

Etihad Cargo proudly became the first Middle Eastern carrier to join TIACA’s BlueSky sustain ability verification programme in September, reflecting the company’s commitment to sus tainable practices. The first phase of the programme will see the company’s activities assessed against a range of criteria, including decarbonisation, waste elimination and more.

“It’s a natural step for us to do that, as we have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. We saw an opportunity there to work with TIACA as we’re challenging the industry,” Isik stated. “We hope to see other carriers in the programme as well, so we can all work together to make air cargo more sustainable.”

For Etihad Cargo, it’s a core part of their strategy, having declared that they are determined to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. “We do like to partner with organisations that have that commitment to the quality and service, as well as identifying ways of reducing CO2 emissions and pollution,” Isik commented, “which helps us play our part in creating a more end-to-end sustainable supplier pharmaceutical cold chain.”

tackling headwinds hammering the industry

It’s no secret that the aviation sector is facing a challenging time at the moment, with labour shortages, lockdown restrictions and the rising price of jet fuel putting pressure on airlines and other companies linked to the industry.

In the company’s mid-year results, Etihad highlighted how its financial success came in spite of fuel costs soaring by almost 60% when compared with the same period last year. It’s partly the motivation for the purchase of the more fuel efficient A350F but also the airlines overall investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which will reduce costs for the carrier in the long run, while having positive environmental benefits.

“Fuel prices are making it harder for everyone, especially as customers are expecting to see rates come down,” Isik admitted. “Demand is still very high and we’re optimising our capacity in the best possible way.”

“But, also for us, it’s not just the fuel costs. There are supply issues, shortages in the supply chain, border restrictions, particularly in Asia,” Isik highlighted. “We’re really trying to proactive ly figure it out.”

Rebounding rapidly

Etihad Cargo makes no secret of the fact that Asia is a key market for further growth as the region seeks to become a global trade hub. However, unfortunately, the disruption in recent years due to Covid has caused operational and supply chain challenges in Asia that has limited operations.

“We are in full alignment with the UAE government’s vision to position Abu Dhabi as pharma and lifescience hub in the region”

in a show of strength and resilience in the face of a challenging atmosphere, etihad an nounced in September that it had become the first international airline to operate long-haul passenger services to the top three chinese gateways since the start of the pandemic.

“We’ve ramped up our website and launched a portal in mandarin. By having that ready and now being able to fly into china, into multiple gateways, i think it really prepares us for things opening up,” isik said with an eye on the future. the asian market is “crucial” for the cargo sector, isik stated, citing how during the pandemic

there was significant demand for moving medical equipment and vaccines in and out of chi na. this demand has continued with the focus globally on e-commerce, which presents a “big opportunity” for the carrier.

When discussing what the carrier will focus on next, sustainability and digitalisation were at the forefront of isik’s mind, two areas he sees going hand in hand as part of the company’s growth plans. “We want to be the easiest cargo airline to do business with and we want to be the air cargo partner of choice.”