As Air & Sea Cargo Americas gets underway this week in Miami, the airport welcomed its first ever SAS schedules on Sunday, October 29. An A330 touched down after completing what will be a weekly Sunday flight from Stockholm.
      MIA Deputy Director Ken Pyatt (center), SAS General Manager-Americas Max Knagge (left of center) and Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau President & CEO Bill Talbert (right of center) were at the arrival ribbon-cutting ceremony.
      Whether the weekly flight will be added to the carrier’s bio-fuel schedules (United operates far and away the most biofuel flights in U.S.) is yet to be determined.

The One & Only

      We are gazing at another picture. This one includes Ram Menen (left), Bill Boesch, and Prakash Nair (right) taken almost 15 years ago at the high point of Air Cargo Americas (ACA) in 2003. The event feted Mr. Boesch with the prestigious ACA Award for “Outstanding Contributions To Air Cargo.”
      Each time we look at these three guys (although they are not at ACA much anymore) we also remember some people who have been active from the beginning, or along the way making this event great, including (in no particular order) Bill Spohrer, Daniel Fernandez, Joe Smith, Chris Mangos, and Eric Andrews. We relish the time spent with the great people who are always part of an event that, for Latin American air cargo, is the biggest of its kind.

      Air Cargo Americas (today correctly titled Air & Sea Cargo Americas, although the show is mostly air) is the Grand Wazoo of American industry gatherings—a wide, open, lusty, and frenetic couple of days of warmth and Latin fellowship and spirit.
      Yes, the event can also be a bit wild and even rough around the edges, especially when the party gets going on the trade show floor at 12 o’clock, or as the time is known there, high noon.

      The old and young who network here are always larger than life, representing the heart and soul of this American air cargo industry.
      We have always thought that the location of the ACA venue—just off the main runways of MIA—offered great access for an event.
      For certain, ACA is not as polished as some trade shows, but dig a little deeper and embrace all of ACA, from its pipe rail booths to the bigger, slicker display stands.
      This year, the ACA tradeshow floor opens at noon with scheduled sessions taking off each day (Wednesday and Thursday) at 0900.

      A tip of the hat goes to Charlotte Gallogly, President of the World Trade Center Miami, who has been at the helm of this event since it began twenty-four years ago.
      Miami International Airport gets a nod as well.
      No other airport in the world has a biennial cargo event of this size and dimension that has lasted as long, nor greeted more members of the air cargo industry.

      Thinking about all the things we do while employed in air cargo, making friends from all over the world is better than anything else.
      A curious thing occurs when we gather at air cargo events—sooner or later, our humanity takes over.
      The “mission” gets pushed back and we become much more than the voices and faces and thinking of what passes as air cargo today.
      This is our life, this career in air cargo. These are our friends who are there for us, like touchstones, whether in Atlanta, Istanbul, Basel, or Rangoon.
      What a great example of international relationships these air cargo trade shows can be!
      People from all over the world, connected by the desire to advance the speed of international commerce, meeting in Miami, Florida, for a couple of days in November, under the warmth of the sun.
      Just when the cold slap of the arctic express is ruling out any hope of one more languorous day up north, we join the birds down south.
      Don’t miss it.
Geoffrey

     “2017 has been an excellent year for United Cargo thus far, and it looks like the final two months will continue that trend,” declares United Airlines Cargo President Jan Krems.
      “Our team spent 2015 and 2016 ‘building the base’ in terms of quality performance, product enhancement, and customer relationships.
      “As global trade and air freight demand has increased throughout 2017, the standards of reliability and efficiency we established have resulted in strong growth for our business.”

Moon Over Miami

      “We have a solid contingent of United Cargo team members attending Air Cargo Americas, led by our VP of Americas Sales (Bodacious) Jim Bellinder and Latin America Senior Regional Sales Manager  (Nonstop) Maddy Marrero.
      “What I hope customers realize about United Cargo is not only do we have the people, products, processes, and capacity to be a valuable contributor to their success with current or near-term business, but we also have the type of visionary thinkers who are eager to hear any new ideas they have.
      “Our most valuable strategies arise in response to our customers’ wants and needs, so we want to be challenged to create new solutions.”

Can't Touch This

      “We’re anticipating a year of growth and development in 2018.
      United Cargo plans to launch a product organization that will focus on all aspects of new product development, enhancements to our current services, and centralized management of our current offerings.”

Joints Are Jumping

      “We expect to launch phase two of our cargo joint venture with ANA and phase one of our JV with Lufthansa.
      “And because everything begins and ends with people, we have a number of training programs and customer service innovations planned as well.”

The Big Picture

      “Our focus throughout this year,” Jan Krems insists, “has been on investing in improved quality in anticipation of the busy peak season.
      “Based on what we learned in the fourth quarter of 2016, we’ve segregated our import and export operations in our Newark hub to give us more room and more focus on specific processes.
      “In SFO, we now have separate partners handling freight and mail, and this is giving us similar benefits in this hub.
      “By bringing our Sales and Operation teams together to meet with customers, we generate a thorough collaboration with customer partners that enhances our long-term contribution to their success.”

Sexy Cargo

      “I think cargo is sexy.
      “Miami cargo week is sexy as well.
      “I am always thinking about what I can do to contribute to another day in a world of wonder, discovery, service, and satisfaction that turns me on every day.”
Geoffrey

     Turkish Cargo’s Vice President Cargo Sales (Americas) Mehmet Gurkan is ramping up the excitement as Air Cargo Americas 2017 opens in Miami.
      With dramatic increases in its air cargo business, the carrier appears unstoppable as it continues to build its reputation worldwide.
      Mr. Gurkan declares that all signs lead to major opportunities for shippers.
      “Turkish Cargo,” Mehmet declares, “has been growing 17 percent every year since 2008.
      “This year in 2017, Turkish Cargo is expected to grow by 30 percent, extending our network and fleet.
      “We are offering shippers great flexibility and enhanced opportunity via our heavy lift, long haul B747Fs across our long haul routes to Gateway Istanbul and beyond.
      “The additional freighter capacity has afforded our business partners considerable edge for movement of all kinds of cargo.
      “Our all-cargo long haul fleet currently includes three B747Fs.
      “In 2018, in addition to belly lift offering cargo on every Turkish Airlines flight, our all-cargo fleet will include two B777Fs, nine A330s, an A310, and the aforementioned B747Fs.
      “We currently serve Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Sao Paolo.
      “Mexico City, Bogota, Quito, Toronto, Houston, plus increased main deck frequencies for New York, Chicago, and Sao Paolo are soon to be added.”

Turkish Is Unstoppable

      “The Turkish Cargo offering is also focused on delivering top quality courier and pharma services (certified by IATA CEIV).
      “In the meantime, overall continued investment in hub operations and customer service systems has driven our customer service and satisfaction dramatically upward.”

Ahead To Gateway Istanbul

      We are writers that walk humbly in the shadow of others.
      We are also journalists that have plied our trade for more than 40 years.
      I began my newspaper career at The New York Herald Tribune working in the accounting department. As an office and copy boy I grew to know the writers around me, and as it is said I have never looked back.
      Here at FlyingTypers it has been an honor and a pleasure to reach higher editorially.
      FIATA, the world organization of 40,000 freight forwarders, bestowed the FIATA Fellowship on me in 2016. I was the first “outsider” in that organization’s 90-year history honored with the recognition. It’s an acknowledgment enjoyed only by our humble air cargo publication.
      Across the better part of four decades, we have included the best, most professional writers in the business. For example, we’ve long featured the writings of Richard Malkin, who invented modern air cargo journalism in 1942 and continued writing in our e-Zine until last year.
      Dick Malkin died in July of this year. He was 104 years old.
      The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.
      We have several unpublished manuscripts detailing the life and times of Richard Malkin in air cargo that will be featured in upcoming issues of FlyingTypers through 2019.
      At this publication, it has always been about great writers.
      We follow a grand tradition of journalism and look to share some other stories.
      For you, dear reader, we hope these words we share offer some insight about where we are coming from as reporters, dreamers, and doers in air cargo.
      Here is one of our heroes.

Netflix Features Joan Didion

      We came across a great film of a perennial favorite of ours, the writer Joan Didion. An affectionate remembrance created by her nephew, Griffin Dunne, The Center Will Not Hold is currently available on Netflix.
      A top reporter, Joan gained worldwide fame when she wrote an essay titled “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” describing the hippie scene of Haight-Ashbury in 1967.
      Joan’s powerful words tore through an era:
      “Adolescents drifted from city to torn city, sloughing off both the past and the future as snakes shed their skins, children who were never taught and would never now learn the games that had held the society together,” she entreated.
      A scene in The Center describes the Haight-Ashbury experience as Joan encounters a five-year-old girl, Susan, whose mother has given her LSD.
      “She (Susan) keeps licking her lips in concentration and the only off thing about her is that she’s wearing white lipstick,” Ms. Didion writes.
      Joan Didion is asked in the film what was it like, as a journalist, to be faced with a small child who was tripping.
      Ms. Didion said in the film:
      “Well, it was appalling.
      “I wanted to call an ambulance.
      “I wanted to call the police.
      “I wanted to help.
      “I wanted to weep.
      “I wanted to get the hell out of there and get home to my own two-year-old daughter, and protect her from the present and the future.”
      But then, Didion says:
      “It was gold!
       “You live for moments like that, if you’re doing a piece.
      “Good or bad.”

New Journalism

      Tom Wolfe described the Joan Didion style—also known as “New Journalism”—in 1973:
      “It is possible to write journalism that reads like a novel.”
      We went into business as the first Air Cargo News in the world. We have no connection to the UK publication of the same name, which is still in business today but began in 1983, having appropriated our name.
      Interestingly, our style has remained constant now for four-plus decades and has been unique in air cargo coverage.
      New Journalism seeks to communicate facts through narrative storytelling and literary techniques.
      The style is also creative nonfiction, intimate journalism, or literary nonfiction.

Other Voices

      Rebecca Mead shared perfectly the thrill of reporting in a review of The Center Will Not Hold for the New Yorker Magazine on October 27:
      “What we see (in the movie) is the raw thrill that journalism can deliver to its practitioner—the jolt of adrenaline that one experiences when just the right scene is witnessed, or just the right quote is captured, or just the right metaphor is delivered to the fingertips on the keyboard by whichever of the nine muses oversees the minor art of words written on deadline for money.
      “The Center Will Not Hold,” concludes Ms. Mead, “is worth watching for that moment alone!”
      FlyingTypers begins our 43rd year in air cargo in less than 60 days.
      Thanks for the ride.
      Join us—you can’t beat the experience!
Geoffrey

Vol. 16 No. 87
I Left My Hat in Haiti
Chuckles for October 30, 2017
AFKLMP Ups Bellies
I Got The Horse Right Here
IAG Cargo Up
Lufthansa Cool
American Airlines Cargo #PuertoRicoStrong
Paige Air Cargo For Atlanta