keynote feature
to a component of it or accompanying pieces. “Generally, we transport
heavy or outsize goods which happen to have a dangerous goods element to them. On occasions, though, we are asked to carry cargo specifically because it is in the dangerous goods category and we have many years of experience in handling that type of shipment,” he added. Many international scheduled
service airlines, particularly those which operate freighters as well as passenger bellyhold capacity, offer products targeted specifically at the dangerous goods sector. German carrier Lufthansa Cargo, for example, claims its Care/td service can handle all IATA classes of dangerous goods, including explosives, gases, flammable liquids and solids, corrosive substances, toxic, infectious and radioactive substances, and miscellaneous dangerous items such as vehicles.
Goodisman notes that a lot of his shipments contain hazardous goods
big international firm that was actually dangerous goods that weren’t declared,” reported Larry Coyne, chief executive officer of international cargo airline Coyne Airways. “Sometimes, though, shippers just don’t know that their shipments are dangerous. We once had a customer dealing with explosives who had no idea as to what he could and couldn’t do with his goods.” The need for the air cargo
MAIN CHALLENGES The main changes contained in the new 52nd edition of IATA’s DGR, which came into effect on January 1 this year, were outlined to Air Logistics China by Dave Brennan, the association’s head of cargo safety and standards and a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Dangerous Goods Panel which formulates the ICAO Technical Instructions subsequently incorporated in the IATA regulations. “The most significant changes in the latest edition of the
industry to meet the challenges presented by hazardous goods is made more pressing by the fact that such traffic is a major source of business for many forwarders and air cargo carriers around the world. That point is illustrated by Ruslan International, the joint
Coyne: “sometimes shippers don’t know their shipments are dangerous”
venture company which manages and markets the AN-124 freighter fleets of owners Antonov Airlines and Volga-Dnepr Airlines. “I would say in excess of 95 percent of our flights will have some dangerous goods on them,” stated Michael Goodisman, Ruslan’s business development manager. Matthew Thear, Ruslan’s customer service manager,
explained that sometimes a whole item is classified as dangerous goods, while on other occasions that only applies
DGR involve a complete restructuring of the packing instructions. The significance lies in the fact that those instructions are the key safety element which allows dangerous goods to be transported with the lowest possible risk,” he stated. “In fact, the latest amendments probably represent a once
in a generation level of change. They have removed a lot of inconsistencies and ambiguities in the regulations which had developed over the time since the ICAO Technical Instructions first came out back in 1984.” The latest DGR also include some further “fine tuning” of
the rules covering the transport by air of lithium batteries, a subject of continuing worldwide concern because of the fire risk posed by such items. It is also an issue of obvious importance to China’s air cargo industry due to the large number of its export products powered by such batteries. “We had already previously done a huge amount of work
regarding the regulations for transport of lithium batteries and the resulting changes came into effect in 2009. The 2011 amendments are more in the way of fine tuning to remove some of the uncertainties and make certain points a little clearer for people,” explained Brennan.
AIR LOGISTICSCHINA 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32