At O’Hare International Airport, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a new “Northeast Cargo Center” to be built in three phases on approximately 65 acres of undeveloped property at the gateway.
     A $130 million investment by developer Aeroterm LLC and more than $62 million in airport funds will fund the project.
     The lease agreement between the City of Chicago and Aeroterm that was selected by RFP to spearhead the development still needs City Council approval.
     The fully realized Northeast Cargo Center, which planners hope will be up and running in some manner by 2013, would add 840,000 square feet of new air cargo operations at O’Hare.
     "It will be largest airside cargo development built in the last decade at a U.S. gateway airport," said Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino, “approximately doubling O’Hare’s cargo capacity.”
     City officials say the construction will be completed in three phases while Mayor Emanuel promises the project will create many thousands more jobs during the next decade.
     "Let's say the Northeast Cargo Center was up, running, 1,200 people working there.
     “That supports—based on economic analysis—another 10,000 jobs in the transportation, distribution, logistics, as well as facilities moving goods and services through this airport," Emanuel said.
     The Mayor also said that city colleges would begin training students to work in the air cargo industry.
     If true, that revelation would also be a first of its kind in USA.
     Emanuel declared that investing in the new cargo center “will keep Chicago as the leading gateway for air imports from China.”
     Erin Gruver, Aeroterm’s Vice President of Development, noted:
     “In concert with the City’s focus on ‘Green’ initiatives, we have set a goal that our facilities will qualify for LEED certification.
     “We believe this to be a first for privately developed air cargo buildings of this scale in the U.S.”
Geoffrey

     Reductions in capacity on Asian lanes are gradually improving carrier yields, according to one leading airline executive, who predicts demand ex-Asia will improve later this year.
     John Cheetham, Regional Commercial Manager of IAG Cargo Asia Pacific British Airways World Cargo, tells FlyingTypers that the Far East market is still “depressed” and exports demand “poor.” And, while year-on-year volumes are at least now “flat-lining instead of contracting,” this is mainly due to the low base of 2011 with “market volumes still poor.”
     “A certain amount of capacity has left the market, people are not sweating their assets as they have done in the past. So that should improve everyone’s load factors, which is positive for carriers, but exports are not improving yet.”
     There has also been some realignment of capacity, with freighters shifted away from Europe into Africa or Latin America. “We started an African freighter service to Johannesburg ourselves,” he said.
     “When Asia dips people search for where they can put their freighters. There are always going to be volumes out of Africa, but the yield levels will be driven by capacity fluctuation, which sometimes makes it difficult to justify pure freighter operations.”
     Despite the poor economic prospects many analysts predict for Europe, Cheetham retains his optimism for the rest of the year. He says global hi-tech export demand is improving and garment exports out of Asia, particularly Bangladesh, are showing encouraging signs.
     “The garment demand is for the U.S., where consumer confidence and retail figures are fairly positive,” he explains.
     “Earlier this year, all carriers had a big boost post-Chinese New Year from new smart phones and new hi-tech launches being shipped. Electronics in general are fairly positive.
     “But Europe is still pretty desperate. The Euro doesn’t look good, the UK is back in recession, and consumer demand is weak.
     “Even so, I’m optimistic about the year. There is a low base, so year-on-year comparisons will start to look better. Consumer trends will also have to change. But I think the U.S. is the first penguin off the iceberg—Europeans will have to jump at some point. The UK also has a spending culture addicted to credit.
     “I’m fairly comfortable about the second half of the year. There won’t be a huge spike in demand like there was in 2009, which means carriers won’t be driven to inject capacity or un-park freighters.
     “Load factors are already increasing and yields will follow. I think we’ll see a gentle upward trend.”
     BA World Cargo, under its new International Airlines Group banner, which incorporates both BA and Iberia and their combined fleet of over 300 aircraft, is well placed to serve Asia via its Heathrow hub. The IAG Cargo business is now managed as a single entity, which means that British Airways World Cargo customers in Asia can book freight across both carriers. This has resulted in an increase of capacity in some key markets and “has created a seamless link between Asia and South America,” insists Cheetham.
     Three leased B747-8s supplement the carrier’s global network of passenger services with bellyhold capacity.
     In Asia, the fleet operates five times weekly into Hong Kong and twice per week through Shanghai, offering a range of pick-ups in India and Bangladesh.
     BAWC will also start operating B777s six times per week into Seoul, South Korea, in December, offering ample bellyhold capacity into a market that Cheetham expects will improve as time passes.
     “We’re quite excited about that,” he says. “The Korean market has been through a difficult time. It’s generally quite a good market, but because so few shippers dominate it and they’ve been hit so badly, it has shrunk around 30 percent to the UK. Korea has felt the shock more than anywhere else, but it is fundamentally a strong market and will benefit from any global recovery.”
     He says the one Asian market which has proven consistently strong this year has been Thailand, which was devastated by floodwaters that closed much of its hi-tech and auto industry in the latter part of 2011.
     “They are back at pre-flood levels, doing very, very well,” he says. “It’s just a high performing market; we have daily pax flight in there with a 747 and it’s very strong.”
SkyKing

     After a period of prolonged hibernation, the ever under-construction Multi-Modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), located in the center of the country, has once again aroused interest among air cargo stakeholders. MIHAN is a mega project spread over 4,354 hectares and comprises two parts: the international airport that would act as a cargo hub and a Special Economic Zone. The airport is being planned on 1,364 hectare. A parallel runway, 60 meters wide and 400 meters long, is being built to facilitate landing of large cargo and passenger planes. The airport terminal will have the capacity to park around 100 planes at a time. Once the international airport starts operations, it will handle 870,000 tons of cargo and cater to 14 million passengers a year.
     The boost to the project has come from a rather unexpected source: the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai (incidentally, Nagpur, like Mumbai, is also in the state of Maharashtra. In keeping with the tradition followed by the British when they governed India, Nagpur sees the winter session of the State’s legislature around November-December every year.)
     In 2010, the U.S. government decided to focus on Nagpur along with two other Tier-II cities of Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Chandigarh in the north as part of its National Export Initiative. The initiative’s aim is to double exports to the USA by 2015 and was taken up following a directive from the White House to explore markets in Tier-II cities of the country. The cities were chosen after their economic growth was gauged. The U.S., according to consulate officials, expects trade with India to cross the $50 billion dollar mark in the current year, a small leap from last year's figure of around $48 billion.
     Nagpur has assumed importance as a destination for investments in logistics and pharmaceuticals: in fact, the U.S. consulate in Mumbai is projecting the two sectors to American companies for future investments. According to Robert Carlson, U.S. Consul for Political and Economic Affairs, who was recently in Nagpur with Richard Rothman, U.S. Commercial Consul from Mumbai, Nagpur’s geographical position and the fact that MIHAN was under construction were reason enough for pharma units to set up manufacturing plants.      According to the Economic Survey for 2010-11 of Maharashtra, the MIHAN project will attract investments worth $20 billion in the next five years and generate 120,000 direct jobs.
     The city could become the pharma hub in the near future. In a recent move, pharma major Lupin has been allotted land in the MIHAN-Special Economic Zone. Carlson was reported saying that the proposed cargo hub could be ideal for shipping low volume, high value goods like pharmaceuticals. Drugs could be transported by air through the air cargo hub and that would help the sector grow in Nagpur. In addition, there were moves to set up cold storages in the area.
     Lupin has already started the process for setting up a new state-of-the-art formulation manufacturing facility. Commenting on the location for the Greenfield project, Lupin’s Shamsher Gorawara, Head – Corporate Communications, said that Nagpur was chosen “specifically because of its strategic proximity to key metros as well as international aviation routes. We are happy to be here at MIHAN and to be able to contribute to the development of the local economy.”
     The U.S. officials’ interest in Nagpur’s MIHAN project came after the visit of the British Minister for Trade Investment and Business, who led a business delegation to the city in 2009. The minister, Mervyn Davies, pointed out during his visit that Nagpur was one of the engine rooms for India’s growth. “UK firms should look beyond the obvious destinations of New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore and explore the potential of emerging cities such as Nagpur.”
Tirthankar Ghosh

RE: GrandMaster Issa Baluch

Hi Geoffrey,
     I am thrilled to read about Mr. Issa Baluch, who is my role model in my career.
     In fact I had an opportunity to meet him while he was Chairman of Swift Freight some years back.
     He is a person that we should not miss as I believe he has a lot to share.
     Thank you, Geoffrey, for the wonderful gift of yours, creating the avenue to meet our leaders who are inspirational for those of us in the industry.

Kind regards,
Gashaw Haile (Mr.)
Mgr. Ethiopian Cargo Planning & Route Management
Ethiopian Airlines, Headquarters, Bole International Airport

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     Here’s a quick look at the 19th Hole, as Atlanta Air Cargo Association (AACA) duffers chow down after a stimulating round. The AACA Annual May 2012 Golf Tournament teed off at Orchard Hills Georgia last week on a beautiful day in May at the lovely links just south of HJIA.
     Here Warren Jones, HJIA Cargo Guru, announces no winter rules or gimmes allowed on scorecards.
AACA May Golf was well attended by over 240 members of the Association working for airlines, freight forwarders, customs brokers, and many others.
     Multiple sponsors had tents at each hole around the golf course, which provided ample opportunities to network, talk shop, socialize, and imbibe.
     The tournament ended with a dinner around 5pm that had the AACA board busy recognizing sponsors and managing the raffle prize drawing, its many winners, and the famous 50/50 tickets.
     Money raised from this event goes towards the AACA scholarships and other charities, with $500 donated to Aimee Copeland, the Georgia graduate student fighting for her life against a rare flesh-eating disease.
     Looking at the picture, it is safe to say AACA May Golf was a Hole In One for everybody and a complete success all around!
Ted

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