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A
R C H I V E S
N
E W S
UPS tops FedEx
as big winner getting first ever fifth freedom (non U.S. originating traffic)
rights through Hong Kong, to hook up both its new hub at Clark
Field in the Philippines with SAR and its hub at Cologne
with Asian traffic via 18 weeklies after approval (more or less) from the
U.S. Previously FedEx as the result of its Flying Tiger takeover
held five of the available eight all-cargo beyond rights. But now with a
new bi-lateral signed last month between the USA and Hong Kong, Fed Ex has
also applied for another dozen flights to do about the same thing as UPS,
connecting its Europe (CDG Paris) and Big Purple’s Philippines
(Subic Bay) with SAR. But about more or less—before either Big Purple
or Big brown go out and pat themselves on their collective backs for their
new good fortune, Polar, Northwest, Kalitta (Ned Wallace’s
new best friends) and even ATI (BAX Global) all have applications
in for a slice of the ‘fifth-freedom via SAR’ pie. By the third year of
the new bilateral there could be as many as 56 weeklies. Expect the Washington
lobbyist operatives for this crowd to go into hyper-drive getting politicians
to put the big squeeze to DOT on behalf of their clients .
. . The China Way—Express and courier operators were told to give
up their free business rights to the government-controlled China Post,
their major competitor or lose the ability to do business with Mainland
China altogether. So as deadline hit Thursay (Nov 7) it should come as no
surprise that protectionism alive and flourishing in China forced an en-masse
filing for ‘entrustment’. Represented by the Conference of Asia Pacific
Express Carriers, that organization proved powerless to do anything
in the dispute that has raged for several months. You have to wonder how
China expects to sell itself as an even playing field to do business and
then insists that domestic and international couriers must compete with
an organization that has the power to regulate them. So much for topic of
networking and conversation at the next convention .Express accounts for
about 33% of China Post’s total bottom line . . . When National Airlines
shuttered the airline, it grounded 18 leased B757s and put its 1,500 employees
out of work November 7th. Even National’s website was shut off. “An airline
disappeared like a thief in the night,” was one reaction. Even though B757s
are not known for their cargo ability National’s coast to coast frequencies
added flexible lift to the market which added up to a welcome alternative
for quick connections at a reasonable price. Under the seasoned hand of
Jack Zembeck, the old cargo pro, with Don Lamy, Ernesto
Schimmer and others, National Cargo operated through the past two years
of financial turbulence performing well, while in other areas of the carrier,
business slowly slipped away. Now all of that is gone. For passengers America
West, ATA, Frontier and Alaska stepped up to honor
tickets as standby. Elsewhere air cargo will find new wings . . . No matter
what they tell you, it’s what happens on the ground that counts the most
in air cargo. In fact, the truth be told, most air cargo is delivered or
fails to get to its destination on time based on the last mile to and from
the airplane.Vatry International Airport, down in the Champagne
district of France, an hour outside of Paris has been slowly coming
up as a cargo airport, billing itself as an alternative for Charles de
Gaulle International. Now with runways that stretch to the horizon,
new handling facilities, 24-hour operations and an ever ready management
team willing to do whatever it takes to accommodate new business. Vatry
has added that last important link, a new interchange access point to the
main French highways of A26 and A4. Vince
Chabrol who heads up Vatry marketing in the USA said from his office
at JFK
Vince Chabrol |
International Airport
in New York: “Vatry is quickly being recognized for its great location,
less than two hours from Benelux and less than a day from 75% of
all the important industrial centers of Europe. The field has plenty
of room to grow as well.” Recently Prologis, a leader in facility
development announced a major building project at the airport. S.E.V.E.,
which is operating the airport under contract until 2020 has been mandated
by the French government to develop Vatry as an air cargo airport to lighten
the load at CDG by spreading the word that from Vatry, shippers can position
themselves at the airport of tomorrow. “We are ready. Maybe more importantly,
we are ready to make it easy for companies to decide that Vatry is a right
fit today and tomorrow.” . . . How about that edict, that all the air
agreements hammered out since 1934 between the USA and our European
trading partners are no good, according to the European Union?
Can those EU commissioners really expect that one to stick? Talk about
trial balloons. In the first place what this is really all about, is the
desire of some European mega-carriers to toss in their deals in a bid
to get even bigger, at the expense of the recently financially weakened
American flags. “We want to negotiate air agreements with America
as an 18-nation bloc, not one deal at a time,” says the EU. Huh? Says
just about everybody else. Stay tuned . . . American Cargo closed
eight stations, six in the U.S. and two in Canada in an
economy move October 31st. Priority Package Service (PPS) and mail
services are maintained at the closed stations of Memphis-Tennessee,
Moline-Illinois, New Orleans-Louisiana, Portland-Oregon,
San Diego-California, Springfield- Missouri. Calgary
and Vancouver, Canada also are closed for general cargo acceptance.
On the brighter side AA Cargo is now the only U.S. flag carrier accepted
for IATA Cargo 2000 certification. The IATA special interest group
of the 29 largest airlines and forwarders in the world to this point has
only accepted six carriers for certification. “We are proud,” Dave Brooks,
American’s President air cargo told aircargonews.com. American’s IATA
2000
Dave Brooks |
certification for New
York (JFK), New Jersey (Newark), Miami, Chicago,
Los Angeles and Boston includes gateways that deliver 40%
of AA’s transatlantic cargo. Other international routes will be phased in
to Cargo 2000 compliance, AA said. The cargo division commences Phase 2
testing this month, working toward meeting customer-defined requirements
through application of the Cargo 2000 system . . . United Worldwide Cargo
gets onboard some new flights from Washington D.C. (IAD) to Buenos
Aires (EDE) with continuing service to Montevideo (MVD) Uruguay.
IAD also gets United flights to Sao Paulo (GRU) Brazil. Both
operations utilize cargo friendly B767-300 aircraft. That recent announcement
that UAL gets major concessions from its pilots still leaves maybe $4 billion
in other money, the embattled company needs to find before anyone can think
that the great airline is anywhere near out of the woods in its struggle
to right itself and avoid bankruptcy. On a lighter note, those of us who
collect aircraft models should know that the last 1,500 collector quality
DC10F aircraft models in United Cargo livery have been put up for sale at
$29.95 a copy at http://www.ezgift-center.com. Christmas is coming, the
goose is getting fat. Let’s hope some of that excess reaches our beloved
airlines as well . . . Equation, the Air France Cargo product
for urgent shipments of 70 kilos max to 300 kilos per shipment, expands
itself from a dozen destinations served by AF in the USA to 81 more served
by its SkyTeam partner, Delta Logistics. Now two daily aircraft
with code share flight numbers depart CDG Paris arriving in Cincinnati
and back the other way daily. Air France http://www.afcargo.com, in case
you had not looked lately is now the fourth biggest air cargo carrier in
the world. With its brilliant hub at Charles de Gaulle which is easily the
Euro-airport destined to be the busiest for the 21st Century, AF Cargo with
a stable full of hi-tech equipment including B747-400Fs is en route to bigger
and better . . . How about that announcement from Deutsche Post that
it will fold its logistics operations into DHL in a cost savings
move. The end of a separately identified Danzas /AEI, although the
names will follow the DHL brand somewhere in the title at least for a while,
ends a better than 100-year name tradition in forwarding, and later total
transportation solutions. But this is the new century and DP saddled with
debt and sinking fortune with big money to come up with, connected to other
deals, has to combine and reduce costs somewhere. In the near term Danzas
HQ remains in Basel, although staff will be cut. Here at home, look
for the great Guenter Rohrmann to continue at office in Darien,
Connecticut. “I’m never leaving Connecticut,” GR said recently. Speaking
of Darien, once upon a time two great freight forwarders, AEI Wings and
Wheels and Emery Air Freight (Wilton) were based in Connecticut.
Both built the first ‘freight forwarder on airport’ terminals in the world
next to each other at Idlewild Airport (JFK International Airport)
in New York. Good to remember these things as the rush to tomorrow
and business pressure changes everything. One thing that should have changed
already, is any feeling of market security by UPS and FedEx.
DHL with its superior international operations and great combination which
will surely develop with Danzas, is not about to give anything up to the
two big American-owned integrators. DHL which is now 75% owned by
DP will afford the aforementioned the run of their life, head-to-head for
all the business everywhere . . . It has been an ongoing battle. But Tuesday
November 5th it was all smiles as Englishman Sir Richard Branson
sporting a flowing native-American headdress and a ceremonial peace pipe,
while surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women in war paint, “buried the
hatchet” with Sydney Airport Manager Tony Stuart as both announced
the end of a dispute for gate space at the airport for Mr. Branson’s low-cost
airline entry, Virgin Blue. The carrier has been struggling to get
proper gate space so that it can take off where Ansett failed. With
six gates at the airport, Virgin Blue will operate from a refurbished Ansett
terminal in a 17-year deal that could change the landscape of Australian
aviation. Virgin Atlantic will apply to fly routes from Hong Kong
to a couple of major Australian cities next year. That service coupled with
Mr. Branson’s stated objective of eventually capturing 50% of the Australian
market will open “the Kangaroo route” between London and Australia,
a run dominated since the beginning of time by British Airways and
Qantas. “Now Virgin Blue is a real airline. We will apply to serve
a dozen and a half destinations around the Pacific-rim including Bali,”
Sir Richard said. “People are safe in Bali. In fact I plan to vacation
there next year.” Sir Richard hots things up wherever he goes. While no
one was quite sure what a native-American Indian had to do with the airline
business in the South Pacific, no one seemed to mind an event, all
in good fun. Come to think of it, when was the last time anybody witnessed
an airline chief and a bunch of his squaws having a good time? Let’s hope
that Mighty Sir Richard—Captain of the Clouds is heralding the rolling of
good times for everybody . . .
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