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Issue 3 2019 - Freight Business Journal


Big Apple gets its first pharma centre


Handler Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) and Swiss WorldCargo have opened New York’s first GDP (Good Distribution Practice)-compliant pharma facility at JFK Airport’s Building 66. “As the leading cargo handler


at JFK, we are proud to be the first airline handling facility to become GDP certified, which is in response


São Paulo to be Virgin’s first South American city


Virgin Atlantic Cargo is to


launch flights between London Heathrow and São Paulo, Brazil in 2020. A daily 787 will offer several tonnes of capacity on the carrier’s first foray into South America and will give direct access into the continent’s largest import and export market and the largest base city in the Americas after New York for multinational. Virgin expects to carry


regular shipments of car parts, pharmaceuticals, food and


agricultural products. Managing director,


cargo, Dominic Kennedy, commented: “Brazil is the powerhouse of South America and we are excited to be flying to this continent for the first time. Alongside the launch of Tel Aviv services in September, this new phase of growth for Virgin Atlantic means we are giving customers more choice to two of the world’s most dynamic cargo markets at a time when both are enjoying


increasing prosperity, driven by their thriving business and consumer communities.” Virgin Atlantic will take


delivery of the first four of 12 Airbus


A350-1000s during


2019 which will deliver a 10- 22% improvement in lower deck cargo capacity depending on the aircraft’s configuration. The airline will also move to a new cargo terminal at Heathrow, twice the size of its existing operation. The airline also looks


Electric performance for Lufthansa AWBs


Lufthansa Cargo has achieved 74% penetration for electronic air waybills (eAWBs), the carrier announced at its annual results press conference on 18 March. The figure had risen from virtually nothing less than seven years ago, and was set to go on rising further, with 80% penetration expected in 2019. A new charge for paper AWBs


had boosted take-up of the electronic version, Lufthansa added.


Lufthansa also plans to


introduce a fully-automated spot pricing system later in the year, which would be the first in the market while pre- checking of freight, especially dangerous goods would also be modernised.


Indeed, the


carrier’s entire “IT backbone” would be completely renewed, it said. Lufthansa increased its


earnings by €5 million in 2018 to €268m, said executive board


Major move for Turkish Airlines


Turkish Airlines relocated all its passenger flights, including bellyhold cargo, from Ataturk Airport to the new Istanbul Airport on 6 April. However, freighter flights will continue to operate from Ataturk until construction the cargo facility at Istanbul Airport is completed, said the carrier.


chairman and chief executive Peter Gerber. He said the result had been achieved through an improvement in yields, which were up 7%. Revenue was up 8% but volume by only 1%. The challenge for 2019 will


be to repeat 2018’s strong performance, warned Gerber. The US/China trade dispute, the UK’s exit from the EU and potential political instability in the US were all clouding the short-term outlook. Moreover, there were signs, he said, that the boom in airfreight of the past two years was coming to an end at the close of 2018. Lufthansa has however added much new capacity


to growing customer demand for high quality, standardized pharma handling,” said WFS’ executive vice president Americas, Michael Simpson. He added: “We will continue to expand our network of certified facilities, adding to our current list of JFK and Miami in the Americas as well as multiple locations in Europe.” WFS has meanwhile signed a


15-year lease on a new 346,000sq ſt cargo terminal at the airport, the first phase of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s comprehensive Vision Plan. (Pharma report, page26)


forward to becoming the


founding member of a new transatlantic joint venture alongside Delta, Air France and KLM as well as launching new services from London Heathrow to Las Vegas and Manchester to Los Angeles. Delta is to launch two new


services from Boston and New York JFK to London Gatwick next summer, in partnership with Virgin Atlantic. The two carriers will offer up to 13 daily flights between Boston and Europe, including services to Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester from Delta’s JFK hub.


including two new 777 freighters, the addition of Brussels Airlines bellyhold capacity and new Airbus A350s that were boosting services based on Munich. Plans to completely


demolish the Lufthansa cargo centre in Frankfurt had been scaled back in favour of a comprehensive refurbishment programme. Lufthansa has also extended


its joint venture with Cathay Pacific to include eastbound shipments from Europe to Hong Kong. The joint operation offers direct flights from Dublin, London Gatwick and Heathrow and Manchester, as well as from Lufthansa’s main Frankfurt hub and other continental gateways. There are now 280 direct weekly flights, covering 15 airports, in the joint network. Space can be directly booked


on all-cargo aircraft, passenger bellyholds and road feeder services. The two carriers also operate joint handling facilities in Hong Kong and Frankfurt and have worked closely together on IT and service enhancements since the signing of the cooperation agreement in May 2016.


News Roundup


MSC is introducing a new weekly service between London Gateway, St Petersburg and Gdynia. The Baltic Loop 11 will offer transit times of five days from St Petersburg and three days from Gdynia.


///NEWS Sea


Claus Hemmingsen is to step down as vice-chief executive of AP Moller – Maersk and chief executive of the Energy division, on closure of the latter at the end of June. Hemmingsen has successfully concluded the separation of Maersk Tankers, Maersk Oil and Maersk Drilling as part of a programme started in 2016 to focus the group on container logistics.


Brittany Ferries is to charter of a third LNG (liquefied natural gas)-powered cruise-ferry from 2023. The ship will be built in China to Stena’ Ro Ro’s E-Flexer design and will be chartered from the Swedish shipowner. Its arrival will bring to three the number of E-Flexer class ships in Brittany Ferries’ fleet following the arrival of Galicia in 2021 and Salamanca in 2022. Brittany Ferries is also constructing another new ship, Honfleur, at the FSG shipyard in Flensburg Germany, with delivery expected in late 2019. The three 42,200 tonne E-Flexer class ships will be among the biggest in Brittany Ferries’ fleet, each with 3,000 lane metres of freight capacity.


US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fully enforced Importer Security Filing from 15 March, reported UK forwarder Woodland Group. ISFs now have to be filed on all ocean shipments 48 hours before sailing from the final port, with fines of up to $5,000, issued to the importer, for each infraction of the new policy. The forwarder adds that up until now, CBP had been lenient and had not consistently enforced the fines until now.


Clydeport director Andrew Hemphill has been elected as chairman of the Scottish Ports Group. He succeeds Lorna Spencer, director of harbours at Caledonian Maritime Assets who has completed two two-year terms.


ABP Humber has sold over 40 acres of land in Stallingborough to car manufacturer Kia Motors. The site is two miles from the Port of Immingham, where Kia has centralised all its UK imports.


Shoreham Port chief executive Rodney Lunn is to step down at the end of the year. During his tenure, Shoreham Port has seen a 75% growth in revenue from £8 million to £14 million, handling around 1,500 commercial shipping movements and over 2 million tonnes of cargo. The vacancy will be advertised from early April at www.shoreham-port.co.uk/jobs


APM Terminals Gothenburg has opened the Gothenburg Gateway this week. The terminal operator says that a container placed on a freight train anywhere in Sweden will be loaded onto a large ocean-going vessel within 48 hours, and will shave up at least a week off the transit time from Sweden to Shanghai. Trains operate from all over Sweden to Gothenburg.


ABP Southampton has appointed Craig Barbour as general manager for landside operations. He joins from the Humber International Terminal in Immingham.


DP World Berbera has commissioned the first mobile harbour cranes at the Port of Berbera, Somaliland.


It will allow the


port to offer shoreside crane support for the first time. The US$12 million investment in the three new cranes will double productivity at the port. In 2017 DP World Berbera introduced container handling equipment, vehicles and systems.


ABP has appointed Martin Bardle to run its Humber International Terminal bulk facility in Immingham. He was previously ABP’s head of compliance.


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