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A R C H I V E S

BREAKING NEWS!

October 2002

European Union okays Deutsche Post's $596 million purchase of 25% of DHL from Lufthansa Cargo as the German Post Office now holding 76% of the San Francisco-based company readies another $400 million to acquire the remaining outstanding shares from investment houses and 1.4% from Japan Airlines. Martin Larson who headed up sales and a staff of 700 for Consolidated Freightways joins DHL as regional VP sales the Americas based in Portland. Now with the number one international package company Mr. Larson will manage all sales, special services, business development, sales planning and administration for DHL in the USA. Endorsement from the Boss DHL, Sr. VP sales and marketing Randy Clark was definite: "I've known Martin for 20 years. We are lucky to have him join the. DHL team." Speaking of definite as DHL challenges FedEx and UPS every where, the company recently launched service from Europe to 12 cities in six countries across the Middle East . . . Air China adds Beijing/Portland twice weekly B747 main deck freighter service October 27. United said that it will suspend service to Caracas, Santiago, Dusseldorf and Milan and it will switch aircraft serving other long-haul destinations to match demand, as the company battles its way back to profitability and a bid to receive a $1.7 billion loan guarantee from the Transportation Stabilization Board . . . Word that charter prices raised for quick transport of goods that might normally have traveled by sea, but have been slowed by the West Coast dock strike that was settled by executive order (see Naked Truth here) may be overblown. Right now is the charter season but just in time consignments that need to fly at any cost are having some impact. When the longshoremen were ordered back to work, less than 200 ships were awaiting unloading. At this point that number has dwindled. A better barometer is a quick look down the aisles of your local department store where most of the goods that are causing the excitement trying to get to the market in question are to be or not to be. In New York City, the big Christmas stores are Macy’s. Right now Macy’s is all decked out with Christmas trees and bows and red ribbons and merchandise up to the roof in every store and almost all of it on sale at 25 to 45% off. Now Macys six weeks ahead of the big Thanksgiving Day Parade when Santa first arrives, may need goods for the holidays, but don’t bet on it. As one smart shopper said: “This year the way to shop is wait for the last minute when everything is in the store and then go out and scoop up the bargains” . . . Emirates Airlines and its award winning Sky Cargo operation is readying start up for service non-stop via A340-500 aircraft from DXB to JFK, ORD and LAX next summer. Advance word is that the high-flying carrier will accompany the launch with lots of media and a real humdinger of a marketing effort. Recently a big international team of media specialists gathered to outline the program, which one insider promises will be the most exciting airline effort in years. Time was when these events were regular. Now they are an exception and even welcome in an otherwise drab and uncertain business climate. But you don’t have to wait to get a taste of the kind of excitement that Sky Cargo brings to the table. Go to skycargo.com and without any effort, sit there and watch a short video about new service which you can sample either in Japanese or Chinese or English depending on where you want to ship something. If you like Internet magic (who doesn’t?) a turn aboard the Sky Cargo web will roll your socks down . . . Remember Walt Atkinson? Once Walt headed up Continental Airlines Cargo taking that cargo operation from nowhere to some respectability. Later, hankering to get back into the left seat, Walt, as director of sales and marketing also occasionally piloted Bill Spohrer’s last B-707 when it served Challenge Air Cargo and the thing would start up. Now comes word that Walt has joined good-guy Jim Hartigan’s Integres Logistics. Welcome back to a renaissance air cargo guy. C’mon Walt, hot things up again around this business . . . Airbus busts Boeing’s stranglehold on Easy Jet winning an order for 120 A319 aircraft with options for 120 more from the low-cost carrier based in Luton, England. First aircraft will be delivered in 2003. Easy Jet which recently took over rival low cost carrier GO currently operates 64 aircraft all of them B737s. Airbus makes wings for the A319 in Wales . . . How about those American Airlines figures? “Terrible” is how the great airline itself described the result. Losses for the third quarter were 475 million before special charges, which if added in, would have brought the loss totals to $924 million. Deferred new aircraft deliveries, parked aircraft with special emphasis on managing its business for the short and long term are the recipe for a business that doesn’t show any immediate signs of getting better, American said. AA Cargo, taking advantage of B777s offering ample cargo lift to international destinations and the carrier’s big route network here at home said that its Expeditefs product has been added to several of its European and Asian destinations this month. Brussels, Madrid and Zurich are accepting Expeditefs as these cities join Frankfurt, London, Manchester and Paris, offering Expeditefs that in some cases includes increased weight and size capability. The service is also available now from Tokyo, Japan and up north from Montreal and Toronto, Canada. But best news is revamp of AACargo.com offering lots of news you can use and actually make sense about and put to work. Check it out. Meantime, as expected the lawyers got into the action, as one firm looking to gain some lift from all of this, filed the obligatory class action lawsuit against Atlas. Stay tuned . . .