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   Vol. 14 No. 9
Thursday January 29, 2015

Air Cargo News For January 29, 2015
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Doing The Heavylifting

     At FlyingTypers, we’re endlessly thrilled when we hear news of women not just securing jobs in air cargo, but also excelling in them. The news is even more exciting when it involves a pioneering effort, which, in the case of women in air cargo, it often does.
     Last year we applauded the work of Dolores Hofman, who currently works at the Queens Air Services Development office, but who began as a secretary in the Pan Am Cargo office and later became the first female to operate a commercial forklift truck in commercial air cargo service.
     This year, we travel to the UAE, where a young woman named Ayesha Hassan AbdulRahman Al Marzooqi has been launched on a similar career path, albeit in a much different place. Given the special circumstances career women face throughout the world, FlyingTypers is more than happy to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of women in the Middle East especially, as evidenced in our earlier 2013 article, “Women Power Middle East.”
     Ayesha began as a clerical worker in an office, but the 28-year-old Emirati soon set her sights on something far more challenging and groundbreaking—Abu Dhabi Ports’ flagship Khalifa Port. One of the most technologically advanced ports in the world, Khalifa Port is the first semi-automated port in the GCC region and it now boasts an even bigger claim: it holds the first female quay crane operator in the UAE, and she also happens to be an employee of Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) and the manager and operator of the Khalifa Port container terminal.
     Khalifa Port is home to a gigantic super-post-Panamax crane, which weighs 1,932 tons and rises 126.5m into the sky. It is one of the largest ship-to-shore quay cranes in the world, and Ayesha, currently a trainee in the final stages of her training program, works underneath its boom, in a small, transparent cabin where she operates the “spreader,” a specialized tool connected to the crane’s framework. As a trainee, Ayesha works five days a week in four-hour shifts, from 8am-4pm. She is one of only four women in a trainee group of 23 Emiratis. From her tiny eyrie some 60m above the ground, Ayesha manipulates steel ropes that lower the spreader to the top of the ship to lock onto the containers. She then maneuvers the containers dockside.
     “I watched a documentary about a female pilot in the UAE Air Force who truly inspired me,” Ayesha said.
     “Before I started my training at Khalifa Port container terminal, I was given a tour of the port facilities and the ship-to-shore quay cranes really fascinated me. I felt this was my calling and I decided to become a crane operator.”
     Ayesha hasn’t just learned how to handle a Panamax crane, either. She is becoming well-versed in port fundamentals, health and safety procedures, as well as the overall infrastructure of Khalifa Port and its present handling capacity of 2.5 million containers a year.
     “Our comprehensive on-the-job training for Emiratis started two years ago and we are immensely proud that Ayesha Al Marzooqi joined ADT to become the first female Emirati crane operator,” says Senior HR Director, ADT, Eisa Hassan Al Marzooqi.
Flossie Arend Byline     “One of ADT’s top strategic priorities has always been to train and develop Emiratis to join the fast growing ports industry. As a result of this, we have almost doubled the number of Emirati nationals within a year; ranging from senior and middle management to supervisory and practical roles,” adds Al Marzooqi.
     “ADT is delighted that Ayesha has made history by becoming the first female Emirati crane operator. Being an innovative ports operating company, we are dedicated to the development of UAE talent and will continue to create new job openings. It is our continued ambition that our Emirati training program grows each year along with the significant growth of ADT,” says ADT CEO Martijn van de Linde.
     FlyingTypers believes as long as the number of women in the Emirati workforce continues to grow, businesses like ADT will continue to see their profits expand in kind.
Flossie Arend


Chuckles For January 28, 2015


Arno van der Kooij and Eyal Zagagi
   CAL’s Global GSA Conference in Belgium this week confirmed several exciting new announcements. Not only will CAL be picking up the service slack for customers in Cyprus (left by since-liquidated Cyprus Airways), but CAL Cargo airlines is also teaming up with ATC, which will act as CAL’s GSA in Holland, effective February 1st. With this partnership, ATC will become CAL’s 56th GSA partner worldwide.
   “Strengthening our presence in Europe with a new GSA is a great way to start the year," said CEO CAL Cargo Airlines Eyal Zagagi.
   “We already work with the ATC team in the U.S. and Austria, so it seems a natural fit to further expand our partnership to Europe. We found ATC to be one of the most dedicated and professional GSAs in Holland and we look forward to working with them in close cooperation.”
   “The GSA agreement we signed this week is a great opportunity for both CAL and ATC to grow," said Arno van der Kooij, country manager of ATC, Benelux (above left with Eyal Zagagi, right).
   "CAL's expertise in non-standard cargo complements our customer portfolio, and their ‘can-do’ attitude means customers always get the answers they are looking for.”
Flossie

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Sir Maurice Flanagan  Emirates would be valued at $40bn if it went public, said founding CEO Maurice Flanagan when addressing Dubai’s Capital Club recently.
  According to the publication Arabian Business, Mr. Flanagan told the group:
  “I think Sheikh Mohammed doesn’t like the idea,” he said.
  “It would be good in some ways because if EK went public they would have to publish more statistics, but actually Emirates is one of the most transparent companies in the industry.
  “But if it went public, it would be very, very clear that Emirates is not subsidized and there are no advantages from the government.
  “It's treated just like any other airline that is in Dubai.
  “That would become rather more clear,” he said.




t’s that time of year again. Awards announcements, nominations, and events are flooding websites and email boxes all over the air cargo world. Trade publications (most in conjunction with trade shows) and industry organizations are all promoting awards-related solicitations, whether it be for votes, sponsorships of awards, or dinner seats for the actual awards ceremonies.
     There are awards for company of the year, person of the year, most influential, and lifetime service.
     The idea of recognizing and awarding exemplary effort is nothing new; in fact, handing out awards is as old as organized business itself.
     First of all, everybody appreciates recognition for a job well done . . . and there are plenty of deserving efforts that should be recognized.
     But we believe that there are too many awards.


Vote For Me Advertising
?

    It really gets thick when companies run “vote for us” advertising as an integral part of their marketing campaigns. Since when did soliciting for votes equate into bonafide excellence in service?
    One vaguely off-putting result of the race to awards is winners running full-blown advertising programs of their awards with organizations that gave them the honor in the first place.
    Forgetting everything else, isn’t there something a tad less believable going on here?
    Advertising programs, event sponsorships, and tables to attend a gala sold as part of an awards package are a set up, period.
    The guys on the street here in New York City would call it payback, pure and simple.
    Hard working companies and people in air cargo don’t need that kind of grief at what should be a moment of enlightenment and reflection for a job well done.


Search For Other Candidates

     A highly placed air cargo executive who asked to go unnamed thinks that awards committees need to look a little closer as they go about the business of recognizing true winners:
     “We think too much of our senior teams and not enough of the people making it happen every day at the terminals, sales offices, and GSA locations.
     “Air cargo needs to recognize the great job all our people do to make this industry successful.
     “Maybe there should be some new award categories to include a broader spectrum of people and businesses.
     “There are plenty of other categories that could and should be considered outside of the aforementioned ‘narrow band’ of award recipients as the industry gears up for 2015.”
     Another top executive in air cargo (unnamed) thinks awards should come in part from customers with some benchmarking:
     “Performance should be based on profitability and the views of our customers.
     “They should decide who is performing best and we should use more analytical methods, such as Cargo 2000 or other industry resources, to measure performance.”
     We think that the best reward is telling the story, because the words bring out the people and thoughts that make a real difference in the industry.

 

Some Winning Perspective

     If we are to believe awards are legit, we think a great deal more openness and transparency is needed in the awards process.
     No doubt that there is plenty of constructive thought out there when it comes to the giving and receiving of air cargo industry awards.

     Actress Sally Field immortalized the acceptance speech in 1985 when she was awarded Best Actress in the film Places In The Heart.
     Ms. Field (who is again nominated for an Oscar in 2013 for her role in the movie Lincoln) gushed, "You like me! Right now you like me!” Those sentences became a punch line around the world.
     Billy Wilder, the great German-born movie director whose 100th birthday was celebrated in 2007, (he died in 2002 at 95), uttered the best quote ever about awards.
     Among the masterpieces Wilder directed are "Some Like It Hot", "Sunset Boulevard", and the equally great and somewhat overlooked "One, Two, Three".
     Wilder said:
     “Awards are like hemorrhoids: once in a lifetime every asshole gets them.”



TIACA Hall Of Fame Finds Winners

     There is one award that has long legs in air cargo history, and that is the TIACA Hall of Fame.
     Whether you agree with who has won that recognition (and there seems to be a requisite number of recent winners who are also supporters of the organization), the TIACA HOF is a one of a kind sanctuary for some air cargo builders who have done some truly great things and otherwise might have been forgotten to history, like the wonderful Walter H. Johnson, Siegfried “Siggi’ Koehler, Robert Arendal, Ram Menen, Bill Spohrer, Joseph Berg, John Emery, Jr. and others.
     The most appealing aspect of the TIACA Hall of Fame is that the inductees are chosen from the people attending almost every air cargo industry gathering, including TIACA events.


Time To Recognize Women

     Of course a gaping overlook in the TIACA HOF scheme (and everywhere else) is that, to date (in TIACA’s case), not a single woman has made it to the HOF.
     But that said, hope for equality, or at least balance, springs eternal, as does a long list of excellent choices at the point TIACA gives women the vote.


Grand Trophy Would Be Welcome

     We close our annual awards tirade raising one more point:
     Why not bring back some vestige of the triumphant and beautiful grand trophies that were awarded during the first generation of aviation? It might make some of these awards worth winning.

Great Trophies of Aviation
  Pictured left to right—The Harmon Trophy came into being in 1926 when Clifford B. Harmon, a wealthy sportsman and aviator, established three international trophies to be awarded annually to the world's outstanding aviator, aviatrix, and aeronaut.
  The Harmon Trophy—the aviator's award—is given for the most outstanding international achievements in the preceding year, with the art of flying receiving first consideration.
  The Bendix Trophy for cross-country races, sponsored by the Bendix Corporation, begun in 1931. The award was established to encourage aviation progress. Winner of the first race was Major James H. Doolittle who flew from Los Angeles to Cleveland, Ohio at an average speed of 223 miles per hour.
  The PulitzerTrophy, established in 1920 by American publishing magnate, Ralph Pulitzer, who created a speed contest to encourage U.S. designers to build faster airplanes.

     The Bendix, Harmon, and Pulitzer Trophies are magnificent works of art and testimonies to the beauty of the Art Deco period. Gorgeous honorariums, they were given to the likes of Doolittle, Lindbergh, and later to others who advanced aviation.
     Air cargo should create a grand award that is beautiful, believable, and passed on from year to year to the next generation in the industry.
     There is no doubt the air cargo awards trend will continue. P.T. Barnum, the great American showman who made the Circus and sideshow freaks famous 100 years ago, once said: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
     Surveying the manner in which the industry creates winners and losers out of hardworking air cargo companies and people, and in some cases even expects folks to pay for that honor, strikes us as just too dumb to be believed.
     Maybe there should be an award for the award givers: “Best Presenter of Dubious Distinctions.” Your move.
Geoffrey Arend


If You Missed Any Of The Previous 3 Issues Of FlyingTypers
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Vol. 14. No. 6
Black Wings Pioneered Flight
Chuckles For January 20, 2015
Oliver Evans By Richard Malkin
FT012315
Vol 14. No. 7
Auto Show News
Dream And False Alarms
EMO Transitions
Chuckles For January 23, 2015
CAL To Larnaca
IAG Art Of The Move

Publisher-Geoffrey Arend • Managing Editor-Flossie Arend • Associate Publisher/European Bureau Chief-Ted Braun
Film Editor-Ralph Arend • Special Assignments-Sabiha Arend, Emily Arend • Advertising Sales-Judy Miller

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