Silk Way West eyes Japan with Nippon Express

Silk Way West Airlines and Nippon Express Holdings have signed a memorandum of understanding to offer enhanced air freight solutions between Baku and Japan and across the carrier’s network amidst changing supply chains.

The carrier expects to play an increasingly important role in the region’s freight network, with the conditions of the memorandum aligning perfectly with SWW’s growth strategy in Japan. The airline said the agreement strengthens its presence in the Japanese market whilst helping Nippon Express to expand globally by providing cargo capacity across a worldwide network.

Silk Way West Airlines has been serving the Japanese air cargo market since 2018 with weekly flights connecting Baku with Kansai International Airport. The cargo airline started offering regular flights to Narita International Airport in 2021.

UPS Singapore widens capacity at Changi

UPS has expanded its operations hub at Changi Airport in a move that will almost double the amount of packages the facility can process each day. UPS said the expansion, which sees the overall size of its hub extended by 25 percent, will allow the company to process 40 percent more import packages, whilst speeding up delivery times to almost 5,000 additional postal codes across the country

Export processing capacity meanwhile is up 45 percent, with extended pickup cut-off times for all export services. Chika Imakita, managing director at UPS Singapore, predicts the demand for e-commerce and complex healthcare shipments to continue for some time, and to support the sector, the company has installed cold storage solutions at the Changi airport hub, including refrigerators and freezers that can maintain critical temperatures to facilitate the temporary storage of shipments being transported via the cold chain

“Moving forward, Singapore will continue its role as a key part of our Asia Pacific operations. It connects our customers across Southeast Asia and Australasia with our global network, allowing for as soon as next-day delivery to destinations worldwide, including across Asia, Europe and the US,” Imakita noted.

AirAsia resumes cargo flights to China

AirAsia is excited about China’s reopening as the airline is resuming flights to the mainland and along with its belly cargo space through logistics venture Teleport. A total of 18 cargo routes into China are expected to resume in March, with plans to increase to 40 routes by the third quarter this year from Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The digital freight forwarder has gone a long way since 2018 when AirAsia consolidated its belly capacity under a single comprehensive network. Today, Teleport is an air logistics solutions provider with an extensive intra-Asia network. It uses full freighters and the belly space of 205 aircraft to transport shipments.

Teleport moved 1.24 million tonnes of cargo out of China through on AirAsia passenger flights back in 2019, and it anticipates doubling its growth in the Chinese market. The company is bolstering its fleet with one of three A321 freighters expected to arrive this year. It plans to deploy a dedicated freighter to be assigned for China–Kuala Lumpur in 2023, which will allow it to transport specialised, palletised cargo, and dangerous cargo that are restricted on the plane belly.

CSafe elects new sales director in Singapore

Chervee Ho has joined air freight container supplier CSafe as senior sales director for Asia Pacific. In her new role, Ms. Ho will be responsible for further developing CSafe’s active and passive cold chain packaging business in the Asia Pacific market and identifying opportunities to expand into new markets throughout the region. She will also lead the APAC commercial team with local representation in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and India.

Chervee’s last post was with European drug manufacturer Vetter Pharma, as head of Asia Pacific. She started her career 20 years ago with Roche and later at Lonza and Vela Diagnostics with various posts in product and account management.

The new director, who speaks fluent Mandarin, Cantonese, Bahasa Melayu and English, will be based in Singapore and bring her expertise in business development, marketing and product management in the pharmaceutical, biotech and contract manufacturing sectors.