Earlier this year Kalitta Air acquired the retired fleet of 12 ex-Northwest Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-200F freighters from Delta Air Lines.

     In the big, wide world of USA all-cargo history, few top executives have had the opportunity to be in charge of the fortunes of a great fleet of B747Fs.
     As chief cargo officer of Northwest Airlines, Jim Friedel oversaw fifteen freighters of one of the mightiest fleets ever fielded by a combination U.S. flag carrier.
     Today, he can offer a view of all-cargo operations from a unique “been there, done that” perspective shared by very few.
     It is a probable certainty that unless something else happens, Jim Friedel is also the last master & commander of a great all-cargo resource within a U.S. combination carrier’s fleet.
     Jim Friedel, with the addition of a couple of letters in his surname, might have been Jim Friendly. He has the kind of face that falls easily into a smile and works well with people.
     But there is nothing forced or saccharine about the guy.
     Jim Friedel combines accessibility with rock hard determination, and expresses himself in well-rounded thoughts.
     Jim Friedel joined Northwest Airlines in 1991, moving to the cargo division in 1996. He became President in the spring of 2000.
     Air Cargo News FlyingTypers caught up with Jim at the Amsterdam Air Cargo Forum last month.
     We wondered where he has been since Northwest was acquired and disappeared inside of Delta Airlines, and also, what lies next?
     “I have been on sabbatical now for exactly two years, after having led Northwest Cargo until the end of ’07.
     “Then I did a job called ‘strategy planning,’ which became the NWA/DL merger analysis.
     “When Delta didn’t pick me up, I took some time off, which I had always planned to do.
     “I’d gone from college (where he studied economics) straight to a consulting job with no gap, and onto Northwest with no gap.
     “Now I am 45, and recalling that both my parents died young, decided to take some time off and enjoy the kids while they are not teenagers (kids are ten and eleven).
     “So the past few years, we have taken trips together and I coached soccer at their school; I have never been busier, and never bored.
     “But now, I guess the sabbatical should come to an end.
     “It’s been good, but nothing can last forever.
     “So I am here in Amsterdam at TIACA ACF to discover what has been going on with air cargo and to find out if I can play a role in the industry future, either as a consultant or in some other capacity.
     “I am proudest of the team at Northwest. We were a group of people who felt that nothing was so impossible we couldn’t give it try.
     “So we were early into e-booking for electronic freight and we also went out and continued to acquire and convert freighters.
     “Northwest Cargo worked closely with our customers, including a successful arrangement with DHL Express that was indicative of a group that went out and attacked challenges and was persistent; if something didn’t work one way, we usually found another track to take.
     “We were one of the first airlines on e- booking and moved up to 75 percent; our collections process was quick and effective and all of it was driven by the right group of people coming together at Northwest Cargo.”
     So Jim Friedel is still young and after all his experience, including taking some quality family time off, he has a hankering to get back into cargo.
     “I miss the air cargo business—I know the people and the industry.
     “There are more than a few great personalities in air cargo today and I miss that.
     “There are still opportunities in air cargo, especially in e-freight and other areas, where I feel I can play a role in helping capture important business.”
     But we wonder: is there anything he wishes he might have done differently at NWA?
     “Since leaving cargo, I often wonder if we might have missed some opportunity to renew the freighters.
     “They were B747-200s and we looked at options.
     “At certain times, the company was ash poor, so the options couldn’t be pursued.
     “But more often than not, there really weren’t better options that made better economic sense.
     “Today, the best option that has come along is the triple seven freighter, but that wasn’t on the menu back then.
     “I am not sure that there ever was a solution that Northwest could have afforded.
     “Every once in a while I wonder if we missed an opportunity and still today I am not sure if the answer is yes or no.
     “On paper, the B747-400 did not look much better than our re-engined 200s.
     “The B747-400 conversion definitely was not better and going to airplanes like the A330-200F didn’t make sense because those didn’t exist.”
     Looking at some of the issues of air cargo in late 2010, Jim Friedel thinks on the move to expand CNS, the IATA special interest group based in the USA, into a more global presence.
     “CNS is a clearing house business and, at this point, an annual conference business.
     “The difficulty could be that there are a fair amount of conferences that already exist.
     “When it was formed, the CNS Partnership filled a vacuum.
     “I am not sure the situation today is the same in Europe and Asia.
     “So the people you want to bring into a new agenda already have a fairly full dance card with other conferences, and if you bring them into something, you better do it differently than all the others, to be meaningful.
     “The future as mentioned is full of promise. E-freight is still mostly standing on the starting line.
     “There is a blueprint for e-freight, but not much has been done to come anywhere near the goals that were set so many years ago for the project.
     “Part of the problem is that everyone uses a different IT service provider for the project; for example, if you are a forwarder and one airline wants a direct connection and one wants a TRAXON connection and one wants a Descartes, and one doesn’t even have a connection, then it becomes a Rubix Cube complexity.
     “Taking that one step further: now suppose I have shippers who have to connect to forwarders and sometimes connect straight to airlines, and extend that further to a fourth stakeholder, a handler and a fifth stakeholder known as customs, and the number of links in the web expands geometrically and becomes a nightmare.
     “Air cargo needs to think about a single service provider that all of the stakeholders can plug into on an as-needed basis, and that service provider will connect to all the players.
     “It will have to be different from the current CCS, which is built on the idea that everyone has mainframes that can do timely EDI messaging,
     “Simply put, that is not a valid premise.
     “Air cargo needs to move on to a system that can accommodate varying needs and capabilities for all the stakeholders.”
Geoffrey

     “Air Cargo conferences of various stripes are now the hunting ground for the anti-trust/competition agencies.”
     ‘Right now’ anything you say can be held against you!!
     “Wonder what happened in the USA to freedom of speech!”
     Hard to believe the following was written in celebratory tone in a trade publication in February 2008 under the heading:
     “Atlanta to host 2012 TIACA event
     Atlanta has won the bid to host The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) International Air Cargo Forum & Exhibition in 2012 where thousands of top executives from all sectors of the air cargo supply chain around the world will gather to celebrate the event's 50th anniversary.
     For TIACA, the decision means a return to the city that hosted the Association's first ever industry event in 1962. It will also be the first time in 12 years that the forum and exhibition has taken place in the United States following Washington in 2000.”
     And here we are, with this fabled event up next on the world stage of major industry events, with Amsterdam only a memory. There is still time, or maybe not, but it looks as if not many airline cargo top executives will be brave and/or foolish enough to make the trip and visit the Peach state on this momentous occasion given the prevailing stiff wind that has been blowing from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ). For non-US carriers, that is a choice to be made.
     The confidence-shaking trend began in Miami a few years ago when DoJ officials descended for unannounced visits to button down unsuspecting attendees at the cargo conference. That set the tone and the crescendo continued with more and more airlines being fined and some key staff spending time in jail.
     Looking at the promise of the locale, Atlanta is the home address for some big names in this business—Delta Airlines, UPS, World Airways, ‘The Best Air Cargo Association in the USA’ if not the world—the Atlanta Air Cargo Association, Atlantic Southeast Airlines and some shipping heavy hitters including Lockheed Martin, The Home Depot, Georgia-Pacific, Coca-Cola, Porsche (American headquarters).      The list of other major global corporations (such as CNN, Equifax and First Data) is too long to reproduce here. Suffice it to say, Atlanta has been growing as an attractive corporate magnet since the 1996 Olympics.
     All this should actually bode well for the success of ACF 2012, but it could end up like a hit play on Broadway where the stars are missing. The aggressive and unrelenting vilification of airline cargo executives by the DoJ hit another peak with the recent indictment of the Cargolux chairman, Uli Ogiermann, just days before ACF 2010 in Amsterdam.
      Clearly, this is a chilling message, regardless of how the case may conclude.
     No one wants a repeat of Miami and Amsterdam; the easiest way to deal with even the remotest possibility of a spectacle, not to mention the direr sort of indictments or arrests, could well be to vote with one’s feet and stay away in an abundance of caution.
     On the other hand, 23 months is a long time and much can and will happen, the surprising as well as the unexpected. Being that far out, one may tend to speculate on ‘plan B.’ As a known entrepreneurial bunch, air cargo people are often called upon with instantaneous improvisations to get things done.
     Here is one scenario: Atlanta attempts to secure a temporary moratorium from the DoJ for the duration of the ACF 2012. The self-righteous authorities are tough but fair; after all, they cannot be expected to take on someone their own size – OPEC for example – when there is low hanging airline ‘fruit’ around. So on a scale of one to ten, chances for this happening are about minus zero. Even if such an arrangement were possible, who would risk it?
     Extreme situations call for extreme measures, ladies and gentlemen! The solution that stands the best chance of meeting the logistics requirements of an event on the scale of the ACF is to charter a luxurious and large enough cruise ship and sail just outside US territorial waters! Novel idea – a ship offers intimacy, yet large enough meeting facilities and a self-contained forum which includes entertainment and networking opportunities aplenty. Where we need your help is how to find a way to shuttle the dignitaries without running afoul of the authorities. We are taking suggestions and will publish them as they are received; for all I know, we may even hold a raffle for the winningest proposal. We can’t wait!

When Snow Is A Four Letter Word

     Although as you read this, the weather is getting a bit milder, last week’s early winter wonderland dusting of snow and freezing temperatures caused wide-ranging flight cancellations across Europe.
     In the UK, Gatwick Airport re-opened Saturday after being closed for the previous two days, with cargo and passengers facing further delays and cancellations.
     Rail and bus services also experienced massive disruptions and hundreds of schools and businesses closed.
     In Britain, the government has ordered an inquiry as to why such a small amount of snow and unusually cold temperatures brought the country to a stand still.
     In Germany public life in southern and central parts of the country nearly stopped due to steady snowfall and harsh frost.
     In some places, the thermometer went below 15 centigrade – the lowest temperatures ever experienced at the end of November/beginning of December since recording started more than 150 years ago.
     Trains got stuck in snow banks and large parts of the national Autobahn system were blocked by snow and ice, becoming impassible for hours and leaving thousands of people stuck in cars, buses, or trucks.
     Aviation was hit by the extreme weather conditions with similar ferocity.
     Rhein-Main airport, Germany’s main gateway, recorded hundreds of flight cancelations.
     Consequently, feeder traffic to Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Paris or Vienna trickled steadily and then came to a total halt.
     “Since our entire flight schedule was extremely disrupted, last Monday evening we decided to stop all our domestic and European operations in Frankfurt to enable at least the long-haul flights to depart and arrive,” explained Lufthansa speaker, Thomas Jachnow.
     Ever since then, the situation improved step by step, although many parts of central Europe are still hit by partially heavy snowfall.
     De-icing of the aircraft proved to be “absolutely insufficient,” LH said.
     “We very much regret that passengers anew had to suffer due to Fraport’s mismanagement,” LH criticized in an official complaint made public last Friday.
     The carrier claims that the airport operator guaranteed to de-ice as many as 50 aircraft per hour, even if weather conditions were extreme. But they fell far short of that mark.
     Presumably, this issue will have some repercussions since the airline is a ten percent stakeholder of Fraport AG, making it one of the influential proprietors of Rhein-Main.
     While air traffic in central Europe was aching under the snow avalanche, Spain’s aviation was fully paralyzed for reasons not falling under ‘acts of God’. Air traffic controllers opted for a sudden walkout late afternoon last Friday. It was their second strike this year after the government increased their working hours and cut their average wages last spring, from €350,000 euros to €220,000 annually.
     Due to the walkout, most airlines cancelled all flights to and from Spain, leaving an estimated 600,000 passengers and large amounts of cargo stranded at the airports.
     The closure of all Spanish airports, including the main gateways Madrid and Barcelona, has led to an estimated loss of €250 million euros, reports said.
     Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba claimed the air traffic controllers were trying to protect “unacceptable privileges.”
     ”Despite their wage cutting earlier this year, Spanish tower watchdogs still earn twice as much as their colleagues in the UK or Germany.”
     The spontaneous walkout ended Saturday evening and Spain’s airspace was reopened early Sunday morning after Madrid’s government had declared a “state of alarm” for the very first time since the Franco dictatorship ended in 1975.
     Most controllers returned to work, but Spain’s transport minister, José Blanco, said that air traffic is only expected to get back to normal after 48 hours.
     His state belongs to the ailing euro economies with rising national deficits, soaring borrowing costs and increasing unemployment.
     Because Spain received no bailout and financial rescue from other members of the euro zone, Madrid was forced to impose a stiff austerity program on the country.
     This includes general cost cuttings, the increase of working hours of public servants and the privatization of state-owned property.
     Directly affected are the air traffic controllers that have been ordered to spend more time on their jobs, and Madrid intends to partially privatize the loss-generating national airport authority AENA, by selling up to 49 percent of the shares.
     Elsewhere, China has also been dealing with old man winter, as its northern regions of Heilongjiang Province and Inner Mongolia experienced non-stop snow and heavy weather late last week.
     All of this has left one busy traveler planning alternative routings as Saint Nicholas Day arrives December 6 and Christmas 2011 moves into full swing.
Geoffrey/Heiner/Flossie

If You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
Click On Image Below To Access

FT112910

FT120310