Business – Page 149
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News
US west coast port strike settlement
The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union today announced a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract covering workers at all 29 US west coast ports.The deal was reached with assistance from US Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Deputy Director ...
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All-in wrestling
ALL-IN rates have gained another convert, with IAG Cargo’s discreet announcement to customers.Less of a tidal wave of carriers deciding to drop fuel surcharges, but more of a steady drip.Emirates SkyCargo made the first move, swiftly followed by Qatar Airways, with IAG, the cargo arm of British Airways and Iberia, ...
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Late surge lifts air cargo market at last
The airfreight industry ended 2014 on a “positive note” said IATA, after releasing its full-year cargo data.The figures showed 4.5 per cent demand growth in freight tonne kilometres (FTKs) compared with 2013. “That is a significant acceleration from the 1.4 per cent recorded in 2013 over 2012,” said the global ...
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Fuel for thought in the desert
IT MAY not be long before jet-fuel comes from desert shrubs.Boeing and research partners, including Etihad Airways, have made what seems to be a remarkable breakthrough in sustainable aviation biofuel development by discovering that desert plants – fed by seawater – produce biofuel more efficiently than others.Since 97 per cent ...
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How to survive the air cargo Christmas party
HERE’S a warning about the seasonal dangers, which can leave air cargo managers with a nasty financial hangover –long after the decorations have been taken down.The festive period poses a number of risks, ranging from health and safety issues to selective or group amnesia.According to research, with their mix of ...
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Can Tiaca make Seoul music?
THE 27th Air Cargo Forum and Exhibition is planned for October (7-9) this year, hosted by Seoul’s Incheon Airport.Good luck to organiser TIACA which, on its website, modestly describes the beanfeast as ‘the world’s largest and most prestigious air cargo event of its kind’.It will be the 27th time that ...
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The elusiveness of air cargo quality
THE biggest single problem with the airfreight industry is not so much low yields or overcapacity, but poor quality.Poor quality is when customers (whoever they are) do not receive value for money.Lost and damaged shipments, misdeclarations, missing documentation, tautly stretched deadlines, broken promises . . these are just a few ...
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Will TIACA join the real world?
WHAT’S going on at TIACA?First there was the abrupt and unexplained departure of Daniel Fernandez, the organisation’s secretary general for the last 14 years. Then there are rumours that the sudden resignation of committee man and retired freight forwarder Issa Baluch was not all done with sweetness and light.Apparently, opinion ...
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Who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?
IT SEEMS crazy to me but, in the hardbitten commercial world of air cargo, there is one subject that practically nobody wants to talk about any more.Price has become a taboo subject now that people and companies have been prosecuted the world over for alleged price-fixing arrangements.Just comparing notes on ...
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The bear necessities
READING my esteemed colleague Thelma Etim’s informative round-up of the latest animals-by-air innovations in this issue (see pages 10 and 11 of Air Cargo News 17 June 2013 - Issue No 754) got me to wondering if whether, anytime soon, humans might be treated with as much respect and dignity ...
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This airfr(e)ight business
CARGO used to be a dirty word in the airline industry.Not so long ago, well before today’s belated introduction of paperless transactions, and the recognition by planemakers that belly capacity is actually an important contributor to the economics of flying expensive aircraft around the world, airfreight departments were the unheralded, ...
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Its a doddle doing this job..
SEPTEMBER is going to be an unbelievably busy month for me and my editorial colleagues at Air Cargo News.If you thought that being a journalist consisted of lounging at a bar, eavesdropping some salacious gossip, and regurgitating mundane press releases, then think again.Firstly, I’m off to Hong Kong for a ...
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How DIMwits measure up
YOU don’t need to be a mathematician to be an airfreight forwarder, but it helps.Forwarding is clearly for DIMwits, because calculating the chargeable ‘dimensional’ weight – the DIM factor of any individual shipment – can be a complex affair and usually makes the difference between profit and loss.Over many years, ...
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Find a niche..raise quality
NICHE market exploitation is the name of the game right now. With reducing amounts of general air cargo about, sharp organisations are looking instead for yield-retention opportunities.Not for them the horizontal, pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap business model redolent of the past three decades.Over a number of years, some of these clever operators ...
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One marriage made in heaven
THE announcement that Lufthansa Cargo and Chapman Freeborn Airchartering are to work closely together in a unique marketing and operational alliance is of particular interest.In the air cargo business, it’s not often that one can exclaim: ‘Now THAT makes sense’.Although vastly different organisations, both companies share some of the same ...
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Air cargo faces a sex change
HAVE you noticed that women are – at last – making a significant invasion of the upper ecehelons of air cargo management.In this past 12 months, we have been delighted to report the appointments of around a dozen or so women into senior air cargo-related roles, all around the world ...
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Comment
WAS it naïve to think airlines, shippers and forwarders could come together in the spirit of co-operation and right the industry in one jolly fellowship?Over a year on from the birth of GACAG and at the World Cargo Symposium in March, held in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), the delegates – voting ...
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Argentina seizes US’ ‘illegal’ weaponry
ARGENTINA seized cargo from a US military freighter flying into Buenos Aires in February claiming that it was smuggled weaponry. Two weeks later the issue has still not been resolved threatening US-Argentine relations and trade flow.Facing international criticism for its actions, Amado Boudou, Argentina’s economy minister, said he found it ...
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India seizes UAE aircraft for illegally carrying weapons
A UAE Air Force C-130 Hercules on its way to China was detained at Kolkata (Calcutta) airport for illegally carrying weapons.The aircraft was stopping overnight to refuel en route from Abu Dhabi to the northern Chinese city of Xianyang. It had all the necessary clearances to land in India, but ...
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Legal tangle leads to seized IL-78
A CARGO plane impounded at a Michigan (US) airport is at the centre of a legal, administrative and immigration row.The Ilyushin IL-78 (like the one on the right belonging to the Russian Air Force) was blocked with a snowplow and sanding trucks at Sawyer International Airport by the local sheriff’s ...