Neel Shah Departs Delta Cargo

     Flying Typers learned that Neel Shah, Senior Vice President & Chief Cargo Officer for Delta Air Lines has unexpectedly left the carrier, effective immediately.
     Reached in London, Mr. Shah confirmed that he has indeed left the carrier.
     Sources told Flying Typers that Tony Charaf (below left) who has served at Delta since 1996 at various posts including VP cargo, will move back to cargo as top executive from his current post at Delta as President Technical Operations.
     On November 14, 2001 as Senior Vice President-Air Logistics, Mr. Charaf helped implement the U.S. Joint Sales Venture, the U.S. export arm of SkyTeam's Cargo alliance and served as Chairman until September 2004.
     Neel surprised many, when in 2008 he jumped from United Airlines Cargo where he served as VP Cargo Sales & Marketing to Delta as that carrier’s top air cargo executive.
     Widely recognized, as he energized and directed Delta Cargo from an office complex headquarters for the carrier in Atlanta, Neel led the integration of two different cargo organizations when Delta announced its acquisition of Northwest Airlines.
     Prior to United, Neel held management consulting roles in the global consulting firms of Arthur D. Little Inc. and Beddows & Company.
     Neel is Chairman of the Air Transport Association's Executive Cargo Council, a member of the IATA Cargo Committee, a board member of TIACA, a member of the CNS Advisory Board and a member of the SkyTeam Cargo Executive Board.
     “I moved into cargo by absolute circumstance—actually, I was at the part of UAL that was focused on “new ventures”—doing business development like Orbitz-Hotwire and other ventures,” he told FT.
     “I knew nothing about cargo, but I tell you, I just fell in love with this business because unlike the passenger business, air cargo is a high concentration of repeat customers and relationships that are critical to success.
     “I was immediately blown away by the difference, but also by the opportunity.”
     In 2010 in a story FT published titled ‘Billion Dollar Baby,' Neel Shah proclaimed:
     “My goal for Delta is to raise cargo revenues to one billion dollars by the end of 2012 as a belly-only carrier, while driving a powerful amount of net-revenue back to the corporation.”
     In his Delta bio online we learned that cargo business at Delta had indeed reached one billon dollars annually, well ahead of that Neel Shah prediction.  
Geoffrey/Sabiha

     (Miami Exclusive) Today—Monday, July 30 —is a red-letter day for Michael Vorwerk, President of Cargo Network Services (CNS). Four months ago during the CNS Partnership Conference, he announced that he was stepping down to return to Frankfurt and Lufthansa Cargo.
     We spoke to Michael on Friday, who was upbeat and said:
     “I am on ‘workation’—still in Florida. We are packing, and on Monday the movers are coming to pick up our stuff to ship it to Germany.
     “I have handed over all tasks and responsibilities to Des Vertannes, the IATA Head of Cargo, this week.
     “It was agreed that effective August 1, 2012, on an ad interim basis, Des Vertannes will assume full responsibility for CNSC until my successor is appointed.”
     Apparently Michael, always an action guy, will hit the ground running almost as soon as he returns home.
     “August will see me return to Lufthansa Cargo in Germany to take on new challenges.
     “I will be returning to Frankfurt to take over as Head of Sales Development Germany, the most important market for Lufthansa Cargo.
     “I will additionally assume responsibility as Board Representative Air Cargo Gateway Frankfurt.
     “In that function, I am responsible for the strategic project ‘Home base Frankfurt,’ one of the key elements of the future strategy ‘Lufthansa Cargo 2020.’”
     But Michael indicates that he also has come to realize that these past few years of his life have enriched his experience and opened up new avenues, friendships, and an understanding of things that eclipses the long hours and very hard work that were included in taking up the reigns of the CNS Presidency.
     “I am most grateful for the opportunity to have spent time here in Miami working with the teams at CNS, C2K, and IATA.
     “Their knowledge, dedication, and enthusiasm for our business made it a pleasure to be here, despite it being a period of significant change both internally and externally.
     “My thanks to all of them.”
     Time at a position of leadership and direction-building in the air cargo business, which very few of this industry have ever experienced, has definitely left an indelible impression on Michael as to what air cargo can do to better itself.
     “It is rather direct and not too complicated.
     “The industry needs to continue to work toward heightening awareness to the rest of the world about air cargo in general; in other words to promote the value of air cargo more, while working on achieving a solid unified approach within the business toward efficiencies, automation, safety, and security.
     “Air cargo can rightfully present itself to the world at large as an attractive industry, where talent rises to the top; as a place where people like to work to build and drive all of us to the next level in the years ahead.”
     As he says goodbye to public service in air cargo, he remains quite determined, albeit understated, and deflects taking credit for much, but we recently learned of an educational outreach that has just come forward from CNS during his tenure that offers air cargo companies up to $1,000 of subsidized training for employees.
     CNS, in partnership with Broward College in Miami, has been approved by Workforce Florida to provide cargo training under a state-funded grant, entitled Quick Response Training (QRT).
     The grant is designed to help subsidize air cargo training in the State of Florida, with the intent to help bolster international trade and export opportunities.
http://www.iata.org/html_email/car1002655/car1002655-fwd.html.
     “I hope to see everyone soon in Germany.
     “Auf Wiedersehen,” Michael Vorwerk said.
Geoffrey/Flossie

     Cargolux announced that Frank Reimen has resigned as President and CEO of the all-cargo airline following his appointment as High Commissioner for National Protection by the Luxembourg Government, effective August 1, 2012.
     But sources have told FlyingTypers that the Reimen move away from Cargolux may be more of an ouster driven by Qatar Airways that owns 35% of Cargolux and wanted their own man leading the company.
     According to sources, Richard Forson, CFO at Cargolux is set to take over Reimen's post.
     Forson previously worked as CFO for Qatar Airways between 2003 and 2005.

     London air cargo gets a boost as Scottish Widows Investment Partnership’s Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust (AIPUT), which recently completed a rebuild of the Servisair Cargo Center at Heathrow (Building 51) that was destroyed by fire in 2010, says it now has a deal in place with Dnata as anchor tenant, as it creates Heathrow’s largest off-airport cargo center in recent memory—a 141,500-square foot opus warehouse on Northumberland Close.
     The first phase of the development “should start later this year,” AIPUT said.
     AIPUT also said that there is property enough on the site (3.5 acres) to develop an additional 70,000-square foot warehouse.

FT072512