ACF2010Review Virgin Cargo: party on!


UK-based Virgin Atlantic Cargo brought a party atmo- sphere to the Air Cargo Forum 2010 event – and it proved to be a very popular addition to the show. Against a backdrop of


tropical trees and with artifi- cial turf underneath the feet of visitors, there was plenty of hospitality to be enjoyed by the guests on the stand, with particular attention being paid to the champagne and a plentiful


supply of ham-


burgers – and the multicoloured cupcakes were gorgeous. No wonder the stand soon became a focal


point of the exhibition halls, especially when Virgin Atlantic Cargo hosted a well-publi-


cised Garden Party event in the early evening of the first day. Even the exhibition aisles outside the


Virgin Cargo stand came into use to accom- modate the throng of guests that turned up.


Damco sees air freight growth ahead Damco, the multimodal Habben-Jansen,


logistics services supplier in the Maersk Group, chose ACF 2010 as the platformfor a media briefing to outline its plans for the future. According to CEO Rolf last year


Damco handled about 60,000 tonnes of air cargo “so, although not super-big, there were a number of things that potentially made us a good player in air freight and different from some of the other suppliers”. Currently comprising 10


a supply chainmanagement background. They are used not just to seeing that ships or airplanes arrive on time, but also that goods arrive on time at destination … and that is relevant to a lot of shippers on the air freight side.” “In the emergingmarkets


you will find us pretty much everywhere,”


Habben-


percent of Damco’s business, air freight generated between US$2.7 and 2.8 billion in revenue this year.Growth to $5 billion is envisaged by 2014, when air cargo is expected to represent up to 20 percent of revenue. He emphasised: “Our people come from


Habben-Jansen: “you will find us pretty much everywhere”


Jansen said. “However, we do not believe that we should offer everything for everybody but rather to con- centrate on various areas.” He noted: “Although we


have 2,000 people in Europe and 1,000 in North America these are not our biggest markets – we have around 7,000 people in Asia…we have our own offices in about 30 countries in Africa … and there are few companies with that type of coverage.”


Exhibiting jointly atACF 2010, BahrainAirport Company, BahrainAirport Services andGulfAir Cargo returned to their home base satisfied that they had been able to highlight the strategic position of Bahrain International airport as a gateway to the northern Gulf region. According toWaleed Fakhro, head of aviation


marketing atBahrainAirportCompany, the airport operator, being in Amsterdam provided the opportunity to “meet our customers and partners and discussmore ways of greater co- operation – especially with DHL andMartinair,Air France, AeroLogic and Lufthansa”. By attending ACF 2010,


Fakhro said: “Wewere also able to make connections with potential new customers such as MNG, UPS, National Air Cargo and a few others.”


Bahrain: keen to discuss ways of co-operation SalmanAlMahmeed, deputyCEOofBahrain


Airport Services, which operates a 18,000m² cargo terminal and offers handling services at the airport, said the company had met with MASkargo during the event andwas able to pro- pose that the Malaysia-based freighter operator utilise Bahrain International airport as an alter- native gateway for operations during theHaj period.


The ability to transit cargo


headed from Saudi Arabia to Kuala Lumpur via the cargo facil- ities in Bahrain would help “ease the carrier’s operations” during the busy period, Al Mahmeed


said.


 With the recent arrival of two new Embraer 190-100s,Gulf Air has grown its fleet by 12 aircraft within the


last 12months. BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS


CENTROS LOGISTICOS Aeroportuarios, SA(CLASA),whichmarkets the cargooffer- ings of Spain’s air gateways including Madrid, Barcelona and Zaragoza, sees ACF as “an international meeting point”, says general manager José Jorge del Castillo Pérez. “We had the chance to see other companies that have similar development plans to our own,” he added.


REPRESENTATIVES fromChina’s Nanjing Lukou International airport were in Ams- terdam to spread the word about its existing cargo services and plans for the


expansion of its facilities. The gateway aims to take its annual freight capacity up from 400,000 tons to 2.2 million tons in the long term, with an intermediate goal of processing 1.2 million tons by 2020.


KEEN TO DEVELOP its potential as a cargo gateway, Kazakhstan’s Karagandy International airport was at ACF 2010 to promote the facility’s cargo potential, its competitive fees, cheap fuel, well-devel- oped cargo infrastructure and its strategic location on a direct route between Frank- furt and Shanghai or Hong Kong.


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29 November 2010


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