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A R C H I V E S

(Friday September 5, 2003) Denver International Airport officially opened runway 16R/34L for regular flight operations. The first down the new runway was a United Airlines 777 departure, flight 244 to Chicago at 10:38 a.m. local time.Denver aviation officials are hoping that the new strip is the break the facility needs to attract new business. The runway was built at a cost of approximately $166 million dollars and at 16,000 feet long and 200 feet wide; it’s the largest commercial runway in North America.It is also 4,000 feet longer than any of DEN’s other runways. The extra distance offers fully loaded jumbo jets the length to take off in Denver’s altitude during summer months. While elsewhere they may be wondering about or building for them, DEN’s new runway is here, today, ready to accommodate the new generation of massive airliners, including the Airbus A-380 . . . Consolidated Freightways Corp. which filed for bankruptcy a year ago will now surrender its Oklahoma City terminal at an auction next week. The facility, at 1400 S Skyline, has attracted an opening bid of $1.35 million, a Consolidated spokesman told reporters. The 12-acre property, with 96 loading docks, has an appraised value of $2.2 million. Since filing for bankruptcy, Consolidated has been liquidating its assets to pay off debt. Gone are123 of its 220 freight terminals and more than 30,000 trucks and trailers. National less-than-truckload (LTL) lines such as Yellow Corp., Arkansas Best Corp. and Roadway Corp. were expected to reap a $1 billion windfall in sales when CF filed for bankruptcy last year.But that number was cut by 20%, as regional carriers picked up the service vacuum the CF exodus left. Highly competitive pricing in regional (LTL) and a slack economy has also had the affect of holding the big nationals off. But just when you thought it was safe to go into the water again, here comes FedEx Freight. FedEx Freight just announced that, less-than-truckload freight (LTL) shippers would get the same type of money-back guaranteed delivery service long offered by FedEx Express and FedEx Ground. Effective September 15, FedEx Freight will enhance its superior regional and interregional LTL service with delivery supported by a money-back guarantee at no additional charge. Douglas G. Duncan, president and CEO, FedEx Freight said: “This money-back guarantee is an extension of the industry-leading service and reliability that customers have come to expect from FedEx and will further enhance our ability to offer the peace of mind that comes from choosing FedEx.” Increasingly, customers are looking for a single-source provider to meet their shipping needs. The FedEx initiative seems well timed. But others on the ground vying for the same business are not rolling over just yet. Yellow agreed to acquire Roadway in July for about $1 billion. Other super-regionals” such as Con-Way Express will give FedEx Freight all it can handle, as big Purple attempts to chip away at the LTL business. High fuel prices earlier this year caused some carriers to go out of business, but right now trucking, while rate sensitive is picking up once again. As any trip down an Interstate in the U.S. will attest, flatbed carriers who carry raw goods to manufacturers have been busy and that’s always a good portent of pepped up manufacturing resulting in goods in delivery trucks once again . . . Aeroflot unveiled its new fleet painted in gleaming silver, navy blue and orange under a makeover aimed at modernizing the airline’s Soviet-inherited image. The first plane with the design, which also has a Russian flag draped on each tail fin, a brand-new Boeing 767, “made its first flight to Hong Kong,” an Aeroflot spokeswoman said. But old habits die hard, and while a hammer and sickle may not be found on any public buildings in Moscow, Aeroflot has decided to keep its Soviet-era hammer and sickle logo on the cabin. “The Aeroflot logo has not changed because we did not find the new proposals sufficiently convincing to give up a logo which has been around for 70 years,” Lev Koshlyakov, deputy general director of Aeroflot, said earlier this year. But just in case, the winged hammer and sickle logo on all the planes is a removable sticker. Aeroflot, once perhaps the worst airline in the world, has worked hard to shed its slovenly image as a truly horrible traveling experience. Today its 100 aircraft fleet includes Boeing 767s and other western aircraft. The carrier will begin delivery of 18 new Airbus and lease three other Boeing jets later this year . . . DHL is integrating Airborne’s ground division by folding its truck network into Seattle-based Airborne’s operation. According to one report, 2,870 DHL’s couriers, mechanics and back-office operators across the United States will lose their jobs. The cuts will occur in the pickup and delivery operations previously handled by 169 of DHL’s nationwide service centers, as work will be shifted to couriers currently servicing Airborne’s delivery network. DHL decided to trim itself rather than Airborne, which is bigger, proving once again, that size matters. Although the integration process is barely underway, plans are afoot to drop the Airborne name altogether in a process that will take up to two years to complete . . . World Airways gets at least eight all-cargo flights between Newark, New Jersey and Bahrain during the month of September carrying mail to the troops for the U.S. Postal Service, using DC-10-30F aircraft. World CEO Hollis Harris told FLYINGTYPERS: “We have a long history in serving the air transportation needs of U.S. military working in all corners of the world. I’m proud that we are extending our support to the troops who provide such an important service for our country.” Talk about moving heaven and earth, or in this case moving the earth to get to the heavens . . . Piedmont Triad International Airport (PITA) prepares to begin work on the site of the proposed FedEx Corp. cargo hub and related airport expansion. Changing the landscape on the 1,060-acre project site involves moving approximately 15 million cubic yards of fill dirt, said PTIA Executive Director Ted Johnson. Compare that to say, LaGuardia Airport that needed six million cubic yards when the airport was built in 1939, most of which was dragged by truck to the airport site from the old city dump on Rikers Island. Any way it’s measured, that’s a lot of fill, Phil.But if you can dig it, and smooth out the terra-ferma, like the baseball movie, you build it and the airplanes will come. Already the project is scheduled to surpass any modern commercial development in the region. Currently PTIA awaits a couple of OKs related to water quality and also from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the coming weeks. After that, this fall airport officials want to start initial site work. PTIA is located at the convergence of four U.S. interstate highways serving the residents of Central & Northwest North Carolina and Southwest Virginia. A population of 4.5 million people living within a 90-minute drive of the airport. PTIA is the primary airport for the cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. Although FedEx and other carriers serve the facility, readying the gateway for more business can only add to PTIA’s 84 daily flights. So it’s all out to build in the hope of attracting new business. Preparing the land for FedEx’s fifth national cargo hub, an approximately 2-mile-long new runway to accommodate the hub and relocation of portions of Bryan Boulevard and Old Oak Ridge Road will involve a grading project of a mammoth nature. Using a larger-sized construction site dump truck, it will take 600,000 loads to move the fill to make way for the hub and airport expansion site. The excavation and grading that will be required for the PTIA project dwarfs any other development in modern memory, said Norman Samet, chairman of the contracting firm Samet Corp. (Believe it or not, Mr. Samet, there’s even a bigger project currently underway at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport “When we (at Samet) talk about a building project, 100,000 to 150,000 yards of earth movement is a lot,” Samet said. Approximately 4 million cubic yards will be moved for the 1-million-square-foot hub site itself, 6 million cubic yards for the relocation of portions of roads and 5 million cubic yards for the new parallel runway and related taxiways. The expenditure for cut-and-fill grading is budgeted at $41 million on a project that has an overall budget of more than $500 million . . . Dutch people spell Hank-Henk. But how ever you spell the name, its Henk to-the-bank for AMB Property Corp.’s future as Henk Folmer, moves from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and international freight forwarder Kuehne & Nagel, to AMB Property Corporation (NYSE: AMB) as Vice President of Customer Alliances in Europe. Folmer will work with Europe-based airports, cargo and passenger airlines, third-party logistics firms, freight forwarders and ground handling companies to identify, secure and develop high-speed distribution facilities on and near London Heathrow, Paris Roissy Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Madrid Barajas and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. “Henk’s role is to work with customers who need high throughput distribution centers and cargo terminals at the busiest European airports,” said Steve Callaway, Senior Vice President and Director, Customer Alliances Group. “In addition, Henk will provide AMB’s European customers with real estate solutions for current and future needs at major international gateway airports worldwide.” AMB Property Corporation, one of North America’s largest owners and operators of industrial real estate, recently expanded into Europe and Asia to acquire and develop high-speed distribution facilities near selected airports. The San Francisco-based real estate investment trust owns and operates 96.5 million square feet in 30 markets worldwide. Mr. Folmer joins Frank E. Wade, AMB’s Senior Vice President of International Development, at the company’s office in Amsterdam. The office is located at Prinsengracht 659 hs, 1016HV Amsterdam. The phone number is +31 20 428 2308. We like AMB. They are good people who helped out with warehouse space right after 9/11 here in New York, at no charge. We also like their style. Now if we can only figure out how to get to Henk and some hospitality at Huis Von loon down the road from AMB at AMS on the Keizergracht! . . . American Cargo launches online booking on its AACargo. website early next year. The electronic booking capability will be available on the website to all AA Cargo customers, and will be powered by Global Freight Exchange (GF-X). American joins other U.S. carriers who have hooked up recently with GF-X. “Our forwarder, perishable, courier and other customer groups worldwide have been asking us to add an electronic booking solution on AACargo.com,” said Dave Brooks, President American Airlines Cargo division. “While this is still a people business, our customers are looking for no-cost solutions over the Web to improve their productivity. Online booking, especially when used in conjunction with other features like shipment tracking and proactive notification of shipment status, can have a synergistic effect.” But if you are going to use a neat word like that, Dave, how about “Synergistic FX?” . . .

     Boeing may be the world’s largest aircraft maker, but it is up its ying-yang in problems right now, having reported its second consecutive quarterly loss while saying it’s certain there will be no recovery in demand from airlines until 2005.
     Estimates for commercial jet deliveries in 2004 are now put at 275 to 290, from a previous forecast of 275 to 300.
     Boeing said it had booked firm orders for 90 per cent of 2004 deliveries, or about 248 aircraft, and was on track to deliver 280 jets this year.
     But B757 orders are over. With only an 18 order backlog unless something happens soon, that airplane series will come to an end in about 18 months.
     Boeing workforce will be at about 60% of the 95,000 people that worked for the planemaker on September 10, 2001 when another 5,000 people are slashed next month.
     That will be right after a day of atonement, or whatever Boeing CEO is Phil Conduit is peddling as Boeing’s remorse for being caught doing some dirty tricks against competitor Lockheed Martin over the Delta USAF missile project.
     Turns out, the allegations say, that a Boeing engineering big shot hired away a Lockheed Martin engineering whiz to come to Boeing for big bucks and bring along as many Lockheed secrets as possible to Boeing.
     The USAF found out, went nuts, and now has cancelled any further Boeing military contracts for the missiles, including taking some contracts away from Boeing and handing them over to Lockheed Martin.
     Air Force says that Boeing is toast until it shows remorse and promises never to do that again.
     Thus the Condit led en-masse “stand down”, for all 78,000 employees left at Boeing, who in addition to other humiliations were made to bear a day of ethics training Wednesday July 30.
     Are these people serious ? How can a company as big as boeing seem so rudderless?
     Are the lunatics running the asylum at Boeing?
     The workers were not the problem, it was the bosses out to get business at any cost.
     Maybe the Air Force should find some other contractor to build its stuff.
     Strictly personal here...We all put up with the lousy business climate and uneasy, uncertain future.
     But if there is one thing that we are sick and tired of right now, it’s one more story about crooked bosses, and half-assed cosmetic “fixes.”


     Hyundai World Rally Championship (WRC) team recorded a top speed of 550 mph as Emirates SkyCargo lifted its entire stable and crew halfway around the globe, for the Telstra Rally Australia.
     The Hyundai team gave EK the nod to move four purpose-built vehicles and 11,500 kilos of spares, including Hyundai’s latest rally-racing crown jewels: two high-tech, latest-generation Hyundai Accent WRC3’s.
     No this is not the $7,000 USD, econo-box Hyundai.
     Interestingly, team driver Freddy Loix, or “Fast Freddy” as he is known in his native Belgium, (and we suppose to the local traffic cops) has a house in Dubai.

Profits Clobbered At China Southern

     In August 2002, China Southern Airlines was eagerly awaiting more airplanes to fill the skies above Mainland China as its business continued to build.
     But that was before SARS, and war, and the general malaise and world downturn, bit too deeply.
     But latest figures released last week show the carrier with a $120 million loss for the first six months of 2003, a 21% drop in revenues, in what amounts to a complete about face.
     Speaking of face, undaunted executives at the carrier are saying better results will be reported when full year figures come in.
     It better get better or China Southern might soon be the carrier of many new faces.

     Maybe you noticed what Air Transport Association (ATA) numbers confirmed, that airplanes in June and July were about as full as no other time since before deregulation in 1978.
     Here are American Airlines and United Airlines, at 82 percent full in July, the highest percentage since the ATA began collecting statistics in 1970.
     What it all means, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is that traffic is finally jelling around the world.
     People we talk to in air cargo see the same thing, although maybe not a wished for many happy returns.
     So for a moment forget the big guys with their big problems. When you are medium sized, results are critical, as the battle for survival and downward pressure is unbelievable.
     We spoke to Tony LaRusso Cargo Manager North America at Finnair Cargo, JFK International New York.
     “We saw summer numbers come back nicely to the point where our year on date figures were matched or a bit ahead. While others around us are also doing better, our performance minus the freighter, which is off-line right now, indicate that once again the market has a pulse, and that our maintaining service levels is a strategy that works.”
     Others we spoke to indicated the kind of cargo business levels that usually are a portent of better passenger numbers coming soon.
     Discount carriers serving the U.S. domestic market have reported incredible traffic increases suggesting those extraordinary big trunk U.S. load factors have not resulted in desired revenue.
     Delta Air Lines, said traffic slid 2.7 percent last month after it cut its capacity 3.5 percent.
     Northwest Airlines traffic fell 3.9 percent after a capacity decrease of 7.5 percent.
     Recently bankrupt US Airways traffic dropped 3.5 percent after it cut its capacity 9.5 percent. American, said its traffic dropped 0.4 percent last month on a capacity decrease of 6.9 percent.
     With more than 500 aircraft in the desert, while traffic continues to dip and what’s left being clipped off by the new low-cost carriers, the airlines of America, most with seventy five years of proud heritage of service and profits to boot wake up in 2003 in the third inning of a new ballgame with new rules.
     “We have to become profitable, but as to when, we are not prepared to say,” said Northwest Airlines President Doug Steenland.
     “The challenge is going to be for the network carriers to get their costs in line so that they can be fully price-competitive with the low-cost carriers,” he said.
     US Airways executive David Siegel sent out a straight talk memo to his employees:
     “What matters is not how many people are in the seats, but how many dollars are on the airplane.”
     United which it is said, will report a substantial third quarter turnaround in its fortunes, has followed a pattern that utilizes the size of the airline, the brilliance of its people, and severe cost-cutting as it awaits business to normalize.
     Better numbers at UAL will be felt industry wide.

     In Hong Kong The Conference for Asia-Pacific Express Carriers (CAPEC) want U.S. Customs to establish a one hour deadline for paperwork to be submitted before airport arrival on long-haul flights, rather than the four hours in Customs proposal.
     True that the four-hour deadline, is better than the “Strawman” proposal that was set to throw air cargo back to wild west stagecoach closeouts of eight and 12 hours prior to departure for express products and general cargo, respectively.
     CAPEC told Customs:
     “Although the new rules are more workable in the commercial environment, several aspects would be highly detrimental to the express industry, to the broad range of industries reliant on the express industry, to the U.S. and the global economy.
     “The proposed requirement of data at wheels up for short-haul flights presents serious problems for the express industry and would disturb a large volume of commerce.
     “CT-Pat carriers are partners with customs and undergo rigorous and continuing review to ensure the highest security standards,” CAPEC said.
     “The express operators, in particular, maintain dedicated facilities designed to customs specifications and, for years, have provided customs with pre-arrival data. As CT-Pat participants, they should be permitted these shorter reporting time frames.”
     The thing that makes the Asia market flashpoint for these rules has to do with the fact that USA to Asia is the top volume international cargo lift going on with America right now.
     Whatever is decided, look for the closeout timing deal to be done by November, with the rest of the wide world of air cargo doing business with USA to fall into line with similar regulations.