DANX Carousel’s Chief Information Officer, Mohan Palaniandy used the platform of a recent supply chain transparency conference in Birmingham, UK, to urge participants to “break down data silos and embrace new technologies to maximize efficiency.” The reason being the growing demand from manufacturers to obtain full transparency on the transport of their time-critical goods. Data and AI are intended to deliver this, but it can only work if all stakeholders share that data in proper quality and quantity. Manufacturers therefore expect logistics suppliers to further integrate with their operating systems. His speech highlighted the benefits of AI and Data, and outlined the contents of a white paper published by DANX Carousel focused on improving efficiency within supply chains.

Mohan Palaniandy, Chief Information Officer of DANX Carousel, said: “DANX Carousel will continue to enhance its time critical capabilities while reducing waste in the supply chain at every possible step in its operations – full digital transparency between stakeholders delivers both. DANX Carousel is committed to improving transparency in the supply chain and recommend businesses conduct internal training, review service level agreements and key performance indicators, and invest in technological advancements in the final mile, aiming for full integration with logistics suppliers.”

Klaus Rud Sejling, Chief Executive Officer, DANX Carousel, declared: “The logistics industry is undergoing a digital revolution. AI, machine learning, and data are transforming supply chains, improving their transparency, efficiency, and profitability in turn. For time-critical logistics, increased data transparency across the supply chain must be the goal and we should now work across industries to break down data silos and embrace new technologies.”

It was the first Cargo iQ audit for the airline, and it passed it with flying colors: Malaysia Airlines Berhad Cargo (MAB Kargo) is now Cargo iQ certified. The audit examines a company’s entire air cargo operations to establish if it is capable of providing quality air freight services to and from its global published network. To this end, MAB Kargo which has been a member of the air cargo community since 2018, reported 95% of its shipments to Cargo iQ in JUN24, for its first certification audit in Malaysia. The certificate it now holds is valid for the next three years, after which it will again be audited against its Master Operating Plan. Each audit examines an company’s clear objectives, corrective actions, continuous improvement activities, shipment planning, visibility and reporting, and alignment with the Master Operating Plan. “Cargo iQ helps members create a robust quality management framework – part of which is a methodology to plan, control, and measure the movement of shipments in various steps along the way,” the release states.

Zulkefly Ujang, Head of Operations, MAB Kargo, announced: “We are extremely excited to join the distinguished list of Cargo iQ certified carriers. The certification stands as a testament of our unwavering commitment to provide seamless critical milestone tracking capabilities of our customers’ shipments throughout our cargo and airline network. The improved visibility on our service deliveries via CIQ dashboards enables proactive tactical measures to be taken to continuously maintain service consistency for our customers while driving higher performance standards from our handling partners.”

Laura Rodriguez, Manager Implementation and Quality Assurance for Cargo iQ, stated: “The Cargo iQ certification provides documented proof that a member has put quality at the forefront of their planning and strategy, through building a robust quality management framework that follows our principles. We are always very pleased to see members go through the audit process successfully, and even more so when it is their first ever Cargo iQ certification – it is rewarding for all the people that have been part of that process and a recognition of their hard work.”

flydubai Cargo has opted for cargo.one as its first digital sales channel, and its global network will soon be open for General Cargo bookings on the platform. Freight forwarders will thus have access to the capacities of the airline’s modern fleet of 88 Boeing 737 aircraft. The 2012- incepted Gulf airline offers 150+ international destinations across 53 countries in Africa, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Central and South-East Europe, the GCC and the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South-East Asia. “Since the start of 2024, the carrier has expanded its network with the start of operations to Al Jouf and The Red Sea in Saudi Arabia, Basel in Switzerland, Islamabad and Karachi in Pakistan, Kerman and Kish Island in Iran, Langkawi and Penang in Malaysia as well as Mombasa in Kenya,” the release points out, highlighting the airline’s many interline agreements as well as its particularly short transit services in Dubai: “flydubai Cargo offers the reliability and convenience of high frequency services from Dubai to destinations such as Beirut, Colombo, Doha and Salalah. Shipments can be transferred from one flydubai Cargo flight to another in as little as one hour from arrival in Dubai.” The airline, too, profits from access to many potential new customers on cargo.one.

Mohamed Hassan, Senior Vice President of Airport Services & Cargo at flydubai, stated: “At flydubai, we have a long-standing commitment to creating free flows in trade and adopting best-in-class practices in the industry and we are pleased to reaffirm this with the launch of our digitalized sales. Our partnership with cargo.one will enable us to grow our cargo market reach and ensure the most efficient and user-friendly booking experience for our customers around the world.”

Moritz Claussen, Founder & Co-CEO of cargo.one, commented: “We are delighted to be the partner flydubai Cargo trusts to bring its digital sales strategy to life and we look forward to applying our market experience and digital best practices to support its exciting growth. Through the partnership, our freight forwarding customers will gain fast and exclusive access to flydubai’s unique cargo offering.”

Over the past twelve years, Gebrüder Weiss has invested over 25 million euros in its logistics presence in Tbilisi. The latest investment totaled 11.5 million euros and saw its logistics terminal being expanded for the third time, gaining a further 13,000 m² of handling space. The company has thus responded to the increase in business between Europe and Central Asia. It has operated its own logistics center at Tbilisi International Airport since 2012, building it up to become a central hub for trade across the Caucasus region, and benefiting from free trade agreements with the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, enabling transits through Georgia. In just five years, Gebrüder Weiss has handled almost half a million tons via Georgia. These include textiles, household goods, high-tech, and automotive goods travelling via truck, rail, sea or air, for which the logistics services provider has provided transport, customs clearance and warehouse logistics.

Wolfram Senger-Weiss, CEO at Gebrüder Weiss, said: “This expansion is our response to the rising demand for transport and logistics services in the region, which are growing largely due to the increase in trade between the European Union, Georgia, and its neighbors Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Alexander Kharlamov, Country Manager for Georgia at Gebrüder Weiss, revealed: “This is the third time we have expanded the logistics center since it opened twelve years ago. With this move, the first expansion in 2019, and the location’s connection to the railway network the following year, we now have a total of 142,000 m² of warehousing, handling space, railway, parking and open area at Tbilisi, with over 177 staff providing a full range of logistics services to our customers in the region.”

Thomas Moser, Regional Manager Black Sea/CIS at Gebrüder Weiss, explained: “We are also using this expansion as an opportunity to further build out our transport services in the Caucasus region and to ramp up our collaboration with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries. This will benefit our international key account customers, too.”

The two companies go back a long way, together – all the way to 2008. For the past 6 years, their partnership contract lay dormant, as the airline had paused its cargo services to Bulgaria. With the resumption of cargo sales on this summer, Swiss WorldCargo also rekindled its business relationship with Globe Air Cargo Bulgaria. Since 01JUN24, the GSSA is once more responsible for sales, booking, messaging, operational supervision, post-flight activities and claims, on behalf of Switzerland’s national air cargo carrier. To this end, Globe Air Cargo Bulgaria also employed an additional team member as a dedicated airline contact. “Swiss WorldCargo operates an A220 service between Zurich and Sofia, offering Bulgarian freight forwarders attractive connections across Europe, North and South America, and the Far East. The carrier has specialized in high-value, care-intensive and temperature-sensitive cargo  such as Valuables, Perishables, and Pharmaceuticals, alongside its X-Presso transportation solution,” the release explains.

Tania Mlechenkova, GLOBE AIR CARGO Bulgaria Managing Director, announced: “Globe Air Cargo was proud to represent Swiss WorldCargo when it first began cargo operations in Bulgaria back in 2008, and we are more than delighted to welcome them back after a six-year gap. In fact, our joint contract was never terminated during all this time, which goes to show the value that trust and reliability create in a partnership. It was clear from our initial face-to-face tender meeting, 16 years ago, that our two companies share a strong common interest in providing exceptional customer service through long-term stability and expertise. That is the credo we follow. Special cargo shipments require particular care and professional attention. Globe Air Cargo has the expertise to handle these needs efficiently and precisely. To further strengthen our capabilities, we’ve recently added a fully trained team member, ensuring even more dedicated support for Swiss WorldCargo.”

Gieri Hinnen, Head of Cargo Global Sales at Swiss WorldCargo, confirmed: “Our expertise in transporting shipments that require extra care, and the high quality of our services is reflected in the high-quality work of the partners we collaborate with. This is also the case for Globe Air Cargo, which allows us to keep providing our cargo customers in Bulgaria with the extra care treatment they are accustomed to. We are glad to re-establish our partnership with Globe Air Cargo for a continuous and consistent service to our customers.”

From 01JAN25, Denis de Farias Duarte will head the Cargo Development team at operator Fraport AG and will thus be largely responsible for the further progress of the cargo business at Rhine-Main Airport.

“I am pleased that we have been able to recruit Denis de Farias Duarte, a proven professional from the cargo sector with more than 25 years of international experience in the air freight and logistics industry, for this position,” states Simone Schwab, Head of Aviation and Cargo Development at Fraport AG.

Brazilian native Duarte (49) has 25 years of experience in the air freight and logistics industry. He is moving within the Group from FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services GmbH. After graduating in molecular biology and anthropology, he worked in various positions at Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa Consulting. In April 2024, he joined FCS in Frankfurt as Senior Sales Manager. 

The Cargo Development Team at Fraport AG focuses on the further development and implementation of the Cargo Master Plan for the digitalization and optimization of cargo processes, space growth and site marketing together with partners at the Frankfurt site.

Duarte succeeds Max Conrady, who has held this position for around six years. Conrady left the company at the end of September after nineteen years with Fraport in various roles. Since 01OCT24 he has been a member of the management team of local railway developer Regionaltangente West Planning Company Ltd (RTW GmbH).

The Fraport management further announced that the company has sold its 10% stake in Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to majority owner GMR Airports Infrastructure Limited (GIL) for a price of USD 126 million.     

On the occasion, Fraport CEO Stefan Schulte stated: “After a successful 18-year partnership driving impressive growth in Delhi, it’s time to start a new chapter. We look back with pride on the various milestones we’ve achieved together with GIL. We jointly upgraded and expanded Delhi Airport into one of Asia’s leading air transportation hubs.”

The Fraport Group has held its stake in Delhi Airport since India’s capital gateway was privatized in 2006. Fraport currently expects the transaction to be closed within the next 180 days, subject to approval in particular by Airports Authority of India (AAI) and GIL shareholders. The additional cash inflow from the divestiture will contribute to further reducing the Group’s net financial debt

Chapman Freeborn operated a particularly delicate charter recently: delicate because when you transport an orchestra from A to B, you are not only dealing with irreplaceable instruments of great value, but also with musicians’ worries and emotions. Every musician has a very special relationship with their instrument and there are more than enough horror stories in the press about instruments going missing or becoming damaged. It is therefore understandable that they are reluctant to let their instruments out of sight.

In this case, it was Prague National Opera’s orchestra of 185 musicians and their instruments that were needing to travel between the Czech Republic and Finland to play in the Savolinna Opera Festival recently. Under the capable hands of Annika Eerola, Passenger Sales Manager Nordics, Chapman Freeborn, and Passenger Charter Broker, Gary Vaughan, the charter was carried out using a Boeing 737-800, and the musicians were able to accompany their instruments to the plane.

Annika Eerola, Passenger Sales Manager Nordics, Chapman Freeborn, explained: “This kind of charter is often challenging given the delicacy of the orchestra’s instruments and, understandably, members want to be next to them at all the times. Communication with the airport handling agent and the operator is therefore very important. We personally escort clients from their arrival at the airport to their departure, so that they know everything will be taken care of, enabling the client to enjoy a stress-free and smooth flight.”

Henna Orava, Producer, Savonlinna Opera Festival, commended: “Chapman Freeborn provided prompt assistance at every turn and throughout the process. I felt confident that they were in control of our order and its details. It was easy to make arrangements, and commitments were consistently honored.”