GermanyReport ACG confirms further changes to be made Munich: emphasis on freight


ACG Air Cargo Germany, the cargo carrier based at Frank- furt-Hahn in which Russia’s AirBridgeCargo (ABC) has a 49 percent share, has announced a number of network changes alongside its already confirmed fleet realignments (ACW, 24 September, p3). This month (October) will


see the freighter operator add a three times a week connec- tion to Beijing, complementing its existing Shanghai services. Plus, its Chicago O’Hare link will be increased from a twice- weekly to a three times a week frequency. This change marks the end of the Moscow-


based ABC’s services to North America, which have now been taken over by ACG and its B747 operations.


The opening of a new building was celebrated at Munich Inter- national airport last month (September), a move that the gateway’s operator said “ensures that sufficient capacity is avail- able to smoothly handle projected gains in air freight traffic”. The new facility offers an additional 16,000m2


of floor ACG has also upped its Mexico City opera-


tional frequency from once a week to a twice-weekly service and confirmed that it expects to launch flights to the comparatively healthy market of South America in the near future.


space for forwarders AHTS, DHL Forwarding, FedEx, Rudolph Airtransfracht and Startrans Air Cargo Logistik to receive, store, sort and forward cargo. Munich airport now offers a total of 76,000m2


of floor


space for freight operations. The new facility has docking spaces for 52


trucks while a separate access road for dolly trains and forklift trucks offers cargo agents additional flexibility. The warehouse was just 10 months in con-


struction and required a 12.5 million euro (US$16.1 million) investment. According to Thomas Weyer, Flughafen


München’s chief financial officer and its execu- tive responsible for infrastructure development: “The days when air freight at Munich airport


It has been a difficult year for the German capital’s airports authority. The postponement of the opening of its flagship Berlin Brandenburg gateway – the new airport will not now open until 27 October 2013 – was a most unwanted development and has caused a massive amount of conster- nation and disruption. Nevertheless, says Torsten


Jueling, senior consultant air- cargo at Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg, the first ten- ants have just moved into the new cargo centre at the air- port. Air Logistics (the general sales agent of Qatar Airways), Cargolux, Lufthansa Cargo are all “on the move”, he explained. He also informs that the capital will be


well prepared to meet new air cargo security regulations that come into force in Germany on 25 March next year. Berlin will have dual- view x-ray machines as well as sniffer


was an afterthought in the shadow of passenger operations are over.” He went on: “Over the years, we have estab-


lished a European logistics hub that can confidently face comparisons with any such centre at the national or international level. “The fact that major international compa-


nies are again choosing our region as a base for their operations can be at least partly attributed to the excellent air transportation links here.” Since Munich International airport opened


for business in 1992, its annual air cargo throughput has increased fivefold, the gateway confirmed.


Berlin Brandenburg opening not before October


screening provided through handler Wisag Cargo Ser- vice, Jueling explained. Meanwhile, cargo traffic


through the currently active Berlin gateways – Schoene- feld and Tegel – was up in August by 26 percent year- on-year. Much of the increase was


Jueling – some reasons for optimism


thanks to strong bellyhold loads on Hainan Airlines ser- vices to Beijing and airberlin flights to New York JFK, Los Angeles and Miami, he observed. Traffic will be further


boosted, Jueling went on, by the start of a new intercontinental flight to Orlando that will be offered by airberlin from 23 March 2013. That operation, he indicated, will also


attract cargo from western Poland (just a two-hour drive away on the new motorway link).


BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS


ACG AIR CARGO GERMANY has confirmed that the pilots destined to fly the two B747-400ERFs (Extended Range Freighters) coming in from Air- BridgeCargo Airlines have already been hired and are currently being trained in ACG “standards and procedures”.


MUNICH INTERNATIONALairport’s recently pub- lished ‘Perspectives 2011’ provided insight into the sustainability-related goals of the gateway’s oper- ator, Flughafen München (FMG). In the report, FMG states that it made significant progress towards carbon-neutral growth.


Page 10


1 October 2012


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