NewsWeek as the carrier


TURKISH CARGO will offer bellyhold cargo capacity on a daily B777-300ER passenger flight between Istanbul and Los Angeles International airport, following the inauguration of the route on 28 March.


INDIA’S JET AIRWAYS inaugurated a four times a week service from Delhi to Dammam on 17 March. The airline also flies to the Saudi city from Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.


THE FREIGHT CLUB, a select group of independent freight forwarders, will hold its14th Annual General Meeting in the Polish capital Warsaw from 6 to 9 May.


WITH AN 87 PERCENT record, London City airport has been named by the UK Civil Aviation Authority as the country’s leading airport for on-time performance in the fourth quarter of 2011.


INDIA’S CASH-TROUBLED Kingfisher Airlines is to sus- pend its Delhi - London Heathrow service from 11 April as it struggles for survival. The carrier’s Mumbai - Heathrow service has already stopped operating. See also Virgin Cargo returns to Mumbai story below.


JAPAN AIRLINES (JAL) received its first B787-8 ‘Dreamliner’ on 25 March. The aircraft will be deployed on the first ever direct service between Tokyo-Narita and Boston, which the carrier plans to launch on 22 April. JAL will later introduce the all-new aircraft on another new route, connecting the Tokyo gateway with San Diego.


Virgin flights return to Mumbai


HAVING previously served the route from 2005 to 2009, Virgin Atlantic Cargo is to return to Mumbai, India’s thriving commercial centre on 28 October. The daily A330 passenger


and cargo service from Lon- don Heathrow airport will provide a welcome capacity boost for customers in one of the world’s most buoyant freight markets, a statement from the carrier said. Served by daily flights, the


Indian capital Delhi has been one of Virgin Cargo’s top per- forming routes over the last 12 years, while the country is forecast to continue to grow at a faster annual rate than other traditional cargo markets. John Lloyd, director of


cargo at Virgin Atlantic, said: “Returning to Mumbai is a real bonus for our cargo busi- ness and our customers. “The air cargo market in


India is already very strong for us through New Delhi and with Mumbai’s buoyant com- mercial centre and industrial


MORPHO Detection is col- laborating with Cargobox, the producer of secure air cargo containers, to integrate its explosives detection systems with the intelligent units. “Morpho Detection is


strong in passenger security, and we are now looking for


26 March 2012


Lloyd notes “Mumbai’s buoyant commercial centre”


infrastructure we expect to eas- ily fill our capacity with cargo connecting to and from points across the Virgin network. “For example, the schedule


has been designed to offer excellent connections to the USA. In terms of passenger traffic Mumbai is Heathrow’s 12th-busiest long-haul route and we expect to see equally high demand for cargo space in both directions,” Lloyd concluded.


Morpho and Cargobox partner up


ways to apply our technology to cargo,” said Brad Buswell, president and CEO. “Our explosives detection expertise, combined with Cargobox’s advanced shipping containers, will help revolutionise the way air cargo is packaged, secured and shipped.”


Page 3 Lufthansa Cargo gains market share


LUFTHANSA Cargo had its second-best year in terms of operating profit in 2011, the German freight carrier con- firmed in Frankfurt last week. Making 249 million euros


in profit (US$327.8 million) was a “very respectable result”, according to chairman and CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt – especially in what he described as a “very eventful year” with many challenges. While the operating result


fell by 19.7 percent when compared to 2010, this was no surprise given the downturn in the air freight market in the second half of last year. More- over, revenue rose by 5.3 percent to reach 2.94 billion


euros ($3.87 billion), while the volume of freight carried increased year-on-year by 5 percent to 1.9 million tonnes. Cargo traffic as measured


in tonne-km increased by 6.5 percent, capacity by 8.6 per-


cent, so the load factor fell by 1.4 percentage points over 2010 to 69.5 percent. Nevertheless, Garnadt was


reassured by the fact that Lufthansa Cargo increased its market share while qualitative


measures such as punctuality also improved. Key to success was the car-


rier’s ability to switch capacity flexibly between geographical markets, he explained. Freight space was taken out of the Asia market – particularly main- land China and Hong Kong, but also South Korea and India – and strengthened on routes such as to the US. Things may well get


tougher, however. On 4 April, Germany’s highest administra- tive court in Leipzig will give its ruling on a possible long- term night-flight ban at Frankfurt, and it seems likely that the judgement is not going to be a favourable one.


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