Ralf Delivers Early Christmas

     Saint Nikolaus may have filtered into Germany from fourth century Turkey by way of Italy and onto Holland, and after that to the New World, but today the spirit of giving is everywhere.
     Last week in Europe origins of the Yuletide season once again returned to focus on the fifth and sixth of December (depending on country—EU has not mandated a single date for the visit just yet) as Holy Nikolaus paid a visit.
     Out at the airport an air cargo observance worth noting was a traditional get together the night of December 5 at “Fasanenhof,” a restaurant near the air cargo heart of Fraport.
     Of course as air cargo here has it, Holy Nikolaus Day is delivered to a mixed bag of airliners, truckers, handlers and cargo agents—as not only gifts.
     You show up for the goodies, you take your chances.
     Naughty and nice takes on some special, if not light-hearted scrutiny here.
     For the “naughty” a public thrashing might be a penalty for charging the wrong cube rate.
     Another punishable offence is telephoning 11 airlines for the same 2000 kilos to Jo´burg.
     But after the mock serious moments, a good natured “roast” amongst friends and business colleagues, the payoff in good food and beer lifted spirits and brought on a unifying moment along the logistic chain here.
     When everyone sang some Christmas songs, the evening was complete.
     Gathering at this time of year is a long held and well respected tradition and also a measure of thanks, and customer appreciation from Ralf Riksen, leisure cargo sales manager in Frankfurt.
     Ralf is one of those people we have the pleasure to know in air cargo today that really does care about the air cargo community and works tirelessly to both lift the form of air cargo while building his business.
     For the past ten years that is how it has been with Ralf, who at Christmas complete with jute-bag passes along the spirit of the season with some fun and a free trip to places where dreams are made.
GFM
Thomas Heiler of Cargo Movers in Frankfurt gets the naughty treatment, but the airfreight forwarder and Harley aficionado seems to appreciate all gain some pain trade off.

Rupert Batstone who has served as Cargo Handling Manager at Etihad Crystal Cargo has been named Acting Vice President, replacing Ingo Roessler who stepped down “for personal reasons” last week. Contact: rbatstone@etihad.ae

TNT Express adds Economy Express (from Europe) to an additional 150 destination countries. Transit times for this day definite service are typically one-to-three days longer than TNT Global Express. Shipments may contain items up to 30kg, with a total maximum consignment weight of 500 kg. Economy Express is day-specific, door-to-door delivery for less urgent shipments for delivery to EU countries within two-to-four days, and to the rest of Europe within two-to-six days. Consignments to the new band of countries will take a few days longer than to European destinations, TNT said.
TNT expansion of Economy Express coverage will continue in 2007 with the extension of the product offering to and from other regions, as well as offering Economy Express inbound to Europe, where these services are currently not offered.

Virgin Atlantic having deferred delivery of A380 while extending leases on B747, resumes daily A340-300 service from London-Heathrow to Chicago-O'Hare next April. Interestingly Virgin parent Singapore Airlines that reportedly said it would not follow Lufthansa into the B747-8 passenger aircraft is sticking by its deal for A380. Meantime Virgin and Singapore signed a codeshare allowing Virgin passengers to use Singapore Airlines services between the UK and Australia.