Flyingtypers Cargo Talks!

Mixed in Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and a phalanx of other branded retail days almost too numerous to mention, days between now and Christmas 2021 let's take a deep breath and give thanks to those deliver it by hand to others in need.UPS celebrating 70 years of the UPS Foundation feels like a good place to start. A Slugger Without A Bat The exemplary In the game of baseball who is able to hit the ball far distances for home runs and extra base hits just three times times every ten at bats can be called a "slugger" Hank Aaron was a slugger, Joe Di Maggio was a slugger, Ted Williams was a slugger, as was Willie Mays. Jerry Trimboli at Scandinavian Airline System (SAS Cargo) was a slugger without a bat; a pioneer industry minded man who also happened to be in my 50 years of service,  head and shoulders amongst the best big league airline cargo transportation executives , ever. Here the exemplary life and times of Jerry Trimboli who passed in February 2020 is remembered. --- Support this p

Some time ago, shipment of dangerous goods by air and the threat to air cargo from unidentified and unlabelled hazardous materials in shipments was described as “The Wild West of Dangerous Goods". Now Radharamanan Panicker has decided to do something about that, having gone out on his own and formed his own company: Dangerous Goods Management (DGM) India. DGM India is a fully recognized dangerous goods training entity in the Indian air cargo market and Panicker is possibly one of the few experts in dangerous goods in the country.  World Cup 2022 In one year’s time (November 21-December 18) begins FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as the eyes of the world will be here watching us which is the biggest single sporting event in the world, with viewing audience of 3.6 billion persons and 1.2 million spectators. This great tournament will be held for the first-time history in the Muslim and Arab world. Thanksgiving USA Memories of the grand traditional American family dinner of Thanks, where minus the COVID, the only t

Has anyone noticed some ominous changes going on at air cargo leadership like IATA? Most distressing is to witness almost a mass exodus of vital key air cargo staff from the ranks of carriers, even though air cargo was carrying the water for these companies during the last 18 months. Does that make any sense? The answer we think is cutting staff in pieces: if you are always thinking passenger, your mentality will always result in good people of air cargo being swept away. I guess thinking about these things, what concerns me most feels like the loss of great expectations: the apparent short sightedness going on right now. We are losing lots of key people in air cargo positions throughout the industry whilst business booms. Where are the engineers of air cargo who are primed and ready to spring into future action with ideas that would allow an even greater future for air cargo? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Now Alitalia is gone. As you join us today a 74-year saga of the airline business is now gone, maybe forever joining a very long list of airlines that some of us grew up with and thought might never go away. We do not pretend to to know all that much about Alitalia. But we know someone who does and shares his observations here. Marco Sorgetti, the recently retired Director General of FIATA and, for our money, the greatest DG to serve that iconic nearly 95-year old Geneva-based forwarder organization, today is alive and well in Turin, Italy. Here he tells the story from up close and personal of AZ.  We recall delivering our newspaper, the original Air Cargo News founded in USA in 1975, 8 years before some Brits knowingly swiped our name and started up the now German-owned Air Cargo News in London. We came across some cargo workers at one stop, who were living in a container outside Hangar 6 at JFK where AZ Cargo operated. As AZ employees, they were on strike for what seemed like years back in the 199

Newspapers and TV now feature shipping containers as front page news, whilst shoppers frantically clean out Costco, Target and Walmart and other stores to the bare walls as Christmas and end of year holidays fast approach. All in all, 2021 will be remembered for those images and a time everyone was kicking the cans. IndiGo has initiated a freighter program and is in the process of sourcing four A321 aircraft.  “The A321P2F – Passenger-to-Freighter conversion is the most efficient narrow-bodied freighter available, offering 24 container positions and supporting a payload of up to 27 tons,” said William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, adding that “the delivery of our first freighter is expected in first half of CY2022.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Peter Hansen died on September 9th in Cape Town, South Africa. He was 87.  For thirty-five years from the dawn of modern air cargo, Peter was most important, and amongst his peers a very respected, down on the ground innovative air cargo builder of the last century. You may not know him. We realize that time marching on can be ferocious and people can get lost in the shuffle. But not this time. For air cargo, Peter Hansen simply was the whole package back at the beginning when creativity was the order of the day. Without precedent to fall back upon, Peter was the one with the knowhow to be a driving force for remarkable operations that were created between airline, forwarder and shipper. It was what Henry James described as “grasping imagination” that created airborne traffic where none had existed before. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

Can you believe it? Scheduled on October 5th for the first time in recent memory, IATA includes an air cargo panel at its passenger AGM titled "What’s Next for Air Cargo After its Heroic Performance in the COVID-19 Crisis?" "Now we are underway building a new state-of-the-art cold chain facility in Greater Toronto Airports Authority Toronto Airport as the next logical step, that will be a 30,000 square foot facility that fully aligns with the rollout of our initial freighter network, which will serve strong perishable markets," Matthieu Casey, Senior Director Global Sales & Revenue Optimization is very optimistic. Jens Roemer, Chair of the Working Group Sea (WGS) of FIATA, is a person on the go: Jens and I checked the first part of this interview from his parent’s house in Hamburg, Germany, his hometown, during a short break. The rest was done whilst he was travelling back to Antwerp, where he lives and works. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

“As the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach go from bad to worse we now have LAX at a near breaking point with airfreight storage in some cases costing at 24 hours after arrival in excess of $1.00 kg per day. “Hang on as this is going to get much more chaotic before it gets better.” The speaker is Peter Lamy President of Intelligent Supply Chain Management (iSCM) and American Worldwide Agencies (AWA) based in Hawthorne, California. Cargo facilities at most U.S. airports are inadequate for what’s ahead! Since 2000, cargo improvements at most U.S. airports were almost nil until E-commerce and a pandemic sparked new interest. Resolving the gaps is far more difficult in mature markets where development comes up to the fences. Airports like Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) on 14,000 acres are rare. Don Lamy was a force of nature when we knew him as top man in the Americas at Air New Zealand Cargo, the airline he served and became famous for building in the U.S.. From Los Angeles Don had that cargo o

Bill Boesch is a true air cargo pioneer having served at top posts for Seaboard World, Pan American, American Airlines, Emery, DHL and elsewhere. One of my fondest memories is Bill inside a container with Julie Kupersmit at the TIACA Show in Manhattan 40 years ago drawing sketches for a new container on scrap paper. Little wonder that later that Bill was a force behind Envirotainer. Here Bill who delivers the unvarnished truth about things, and is still quite active with military transport, talks about the state of the airlines today. Mike White told Los Angeles Air Cargo Association (LAACA) luncheon meeting:  "Due to the stuck in the mud bureaucracy that maybe it is time that TSA not be the agency in charge of air cargo security and maybe taken over by CBP who has more capabilities and understanding of transportation logistics." Au Revoir Laurent A great pioneer of air cargo in France, and beyond that a genuinely lovely human being, Laurent Bernet died July 7 in Paris of cancer that he had been battling

Escape From The World Trade Center The Jim Larsen Story As the twentieth September 11th since the World Trade Center tragedy in New York City is upon us, somber memorial services and recollections continue around the world recalling that terrible day. We remember being at home when the doorbell rang on September 13, and there stood our friend Jim Larsen, Manager of Air Cargo Business Development for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. We were so glad to see him, we hugged, and poured him a cup of coffee. After a few minutes he produced a manuscript of how he escaped from the 65th floor of the World Trade Center, minutes before Tower One came crashing down. Our FlyingTypers issue today tells Jim's epic story  with some pictures of him in our kitchen September 13, 2001. Our FlyingTalkers Podcast today  allows you, the listener, a word picture and some extra observations. Jim, not only got out, but cool as a cucumber he saved lives as well. It's a tale of courage and hope from someone w

Last week attendees in Miami at the 30th Annual Cargo Network Services (CNS) Partnership, the American-based pioneer air cargo organization dedicated to advancing cooperation between airlines and forwarders, were introduced to a new look as CNS met its new President Frédéric Leger. Frédéric Leger has held several inside jobs at IATA and is referred to as a “right hand man” to IATA DG Willie Walsh. Both are based and will continue to operate from Geneva . “I’m very proud to walk in Tony Calabrese’s footsteps, but also the footsteps of successes as we open this 30th edition of The CNS Partnership Conference.” Nothing To Lose But the Wait Boston Logan International Airport air cargo stakeholders have some congestion challenges, but help is on the way as Massport, the airport operator have teamed up with Kale Information Solutions, the wunderkind company with the Airport Community System (ACS) that streamlines the entire export and import process for all airport cargo stakeholders. “Get ready for the Massport Air

As CNS gets underway this weekend in Florida, (August 29-31) featuring Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA, on his first public mission with gravitas after his appointment, I would gladly ask him questions regarding the IATA approach. Starting with Air Cargo, is One Record the totem for which IATA decided to ditch its IATA FIATA program? Was the entire IATA FIATA negotiation just a straddle strategy? Time to celebrate 30 years of the CNS Partnership recalling the people that made the "Partnership" go Meet Francesco Parisi Up Close & Personal When Parisi went into business in 1807 Napoleon was alive and signed a peace treaty with Russia; Ludwig von Beethoven debuted his Symphony Number 4 and Robert Fulton launched his first steamboat on the Hudson River in New York. Today in 2019, the quiet and unassuming Francesco Parisi (third generation) is a constant force for good as former President of FIATA and active builder of global transportation. Sad to report our colleague Steve Prince of Woodstock, Georgia

Fall Ahead In New York 22 carriers at Newark Airport's main air cargo handling Buildings 339-340 are about to be displaced and right now are scrambling for space as walking papers are sure to follow the deal the airport operator Port Authority of New York & New Jersey has made allowing Amazon complete control of those buildings—it might be useful to look at some numbers to see how goes the cargo business EWR and JFK . . .  High Road To Casablanca “Royal Air Maroc is into development of more streamlined, digitized processes, the promotion of our Charter operations using our Freighter and Preighters, and the pursuit of excellence in the handling of pharmaceutical and healthcare products.  Royal Air Maroc has joined the Cargo iQ community in 2019. The Cargo iQ initiative intends to determine and put in place quality standards for the Cargo industry. Joining this collaborative enterprise is part of our plan to reach operational and customer service excellence." Play it again Fayed . . . Nation

Amazing Inception Need Meditation Amazon is cooking up a deal with the New York New Jersey Port Authority that, if enacted, could end up turning over 23 acres or the heart of Newark International Airport Air Cargo handling via Buildings 339 and 340 to one company, Amazon, leaving almost every other cargo operator at the airport including 22 airlines, whistling in the wind. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

The International Air Cargo Association Summit scheduled for San Francisco for November 8-10 will now take place on March 22-25 in San Francisco. We could not find a location for this meeting but you can check for further developments & location @www.tiaca.org. When Air Canada Cargo put out the news late last month underscoring the best air cargo quarter the airline has ever seen, we sat up and took immediate notice. Now with freighters getting ready to extend the Air Canada Cargo brand this Fall 2021—high, wide and handsome around the world, Matthieu Casey, Senior Director, Cargo Global Sales and Revenue Optimization tells it like it is in today's edition of FlyingTalkers. It's Summer 2021 and what is old is new again as air cargo sets records for delivery of both life-saving serums during the global pandemic and income to the airlines. Here we make the case for greater industry involvement in advancing air cargo, whilst recalling the first breakthrough for air cargo—The Berlin Airlift of 1948.&nbs

Dr Yang Yuntao was born in Changchun, in Northeast China. Changchun means “Long Spring” in Chinese.  During his 20 years serving as the head of legal affairs in Sinotrans, Dr Yang lead the legal work of various milestone events, such as the initial public offering, litigation and arbitration cases, both at home and abroad, bankruptcy reorganisation of listed shipping subsidiaries, etc. Dr. Yang Yuntao has a simple and natural criterion for being a General Counsel, i.e. serving the company in a practical and down-to-earth manner, so that the leadership and his business colleagues can recognise and confirm the company’s values. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/geoffrey-arend/support

We can never forget that irresistible determined picture of some comely, nice- looking people masked up out on the ramp and inside Virgin Atlantic aircraft bringing life to otherwise empty passenger cabins .When you think about it, very early in the pandemic Virgin Atlantic Cargo made it clear that the red coats were going to take the bull by the horns and damn the pandemic they stepped out brilliantly with an aggressive, well thought out strategy to move cargo upstairs on aircraft seats, before anybody else. Oh! By Golly Here Comes Kale...Amar More CEO Kales Logistics: “You never know what you can do until you are pushed in the corner.” If two years back someone would have told me that you can still create world class software with all ! your employees working from home, you can implement systems in as far as North America, South America, Europe, Middle-east, Africa; sitting in India; I would have laughed my heart out. If someone would have said, people can move cargo in and out of large air cargo hubs based

Twenty five years ago on July 17, 1996 230 people were lost, when Trans World Airlines Flight 800 bound for Paris from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City exploded above East Moriches, Long Island and fell into the Atlantic OceanI This past weekend more than 200 people gathered in Smith Point County Park near the crash site that contains a  black tablet wall inscribed with the names of all those aboard the doomed aircraft. Will The Real Hong Kong Stand Up Please? For some time now quite a rather large cross section of the world’s media has bemoaned loss of freedoms in Hong Kong in what is often described today as a Mainland China-controlled city. So with Hong Kong as the air cargo driver that it is in the world today, with the busiest air cargo enterprise anywhere, we thought it might be good to talk to someone on the ground who is also a well-known and respected air cargo specialist, someone who lives and work there. The Best GSSA In The World You cannot mask that, during these lockd

Member of the FIATA Board of Directors, Turgut Erkeskin is a seasoned, yet youthful, energetic and quietly confident presence. But make no mistake about it, he is all there, albeit just below the radar, a most interesting transportation executive from Istanbul. Turgut doesn’t shout for attention. In fact, a major force in Turkish cargo as a long time shaker and mover of UTIKAD, the high energy forwarder association of Turkey, Turgut is best known for his advanced thinking and respected as a reasoned consensus guy. Perhaps the key quality about Turgut, when you talk to him is that he actually listens, and is able to pivot and broaden his thinking to move things forward. Turket Erkeskin, as the pandemic finally begins to subside in 2021, emerges as an enlightened force for good in transportation and increasingly FIATA’s man for all seasons. Sullivan's Travels Hot Summertime Backroom  Buzz Brendan Sullivan confirmed as new IATA Head of Cargo. His Linked-in page states that Brendan delivers “20 years of expe

Meet Jason Berry Vice President Cargo at Air Canada. Exciting news last week that Air Canada Cargo is adding freighters to its fleet is some very positive news of the impact and impression  of air cargo to the world in 2021.So now with its first freighter due to arrive sometime early in Q4 of 2021, we thought the man carrying the responsibility to make the future Air Canada Cargo plan work might share some insights and industry views as his mighty all -cargo fleet is building. Summer Rewind ....The Latin words " Speas Ultima Dea " translate in  English saying  "Hope is the last Goddess". Marco Sorgetti served as Secretary General for FIATA during a period from 2011 until 2017 serving the 92-year old Swiss-based organization representing the largest group of global freight forwarders. During that time FIATA emerged from what can be described as a self-imposed veil of secrecy, gaining wider attention and acceptance in many transportation  circles as a vital force.. In truth FIATA has al