United Cargo has designated logistics firm Crane Worldwide Logistics as its sole Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) freight-forwarding partner. CRAF is a program in which airlines agree to make their aircraft and flight crews available to the Department of Defense (DOD) in times of crisis. Under the agreement, United Cargo, a subsidiary of United Airlines, and Crane Worldwide will provide a minimum commitment of aircraft and air freight support services to various government entities and private-sector businesses, should the need arise.
For its third quarter, Air China reported an 8.8% drop in net profits, due to a downturn in the Chinese economy that curtailed domestic business travel. The Beijing-based airline said net profit fell from 2.94 billion yuan (US$481.1 million) to 2.68 billion yuan (US$438.6 million) in the July-to-September period, year over year. Also, for the first nine months of the year, Air China’s net income was down 22.3% from the same period last year, to 3.16 billion yuan (US$517.0 million).
For the first time, Lufthansa Cargo will begin regular weekly service from Houston (IAH) to the Norwegian city of Stavanger (SVG) on Nov. 8. The two cities, which are both major global centers of the oil and gas industry, will be linked directly with a 777F flight every Saturday. For its winter schedule, Lufthansa Cargo will serve more than 300 destinations worldwide, 45 of which will be served by the airline’s freighters.
Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN) moved a throughput of 147,800 tonnes of airfreight in September, a 2.7% year-over-year decline. However, for the nine-month period ending in September, cargo volume was up slightly, by 0.3%, to 1.37 million tonnes, compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, 4.25 million passenger moved through the airport in September, a decline of 0.5% year-over-year, while aircraft landings and takeoffs decreased by 5.0% to 27,020 during the same period.
American Airlines Cargo has begun accepting the CSafe RKN container for sensitive, temperature-controlled cargo. The CSafe is a compressor-driven refrigeration ULD that can maintain constant temperatures of between +4°C and +25°C. In preparation for the new containers, the airline recently built dedicated Active Container Management areas in Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW), New York City (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA) and Chicago (ORD). AA Cargo’s parent company, American Airlines, is also nearing completion of a new, 25,000-square-foot pharmaceutical/healthcare handling facility in Philadelphia (PHL), These areas, designed for the cold-chain processing of lucrative pharma shipments, include plug-in stations that can keep up to 30 ULDs charged during transit.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Cargo signed an air freight agreement with Colombia’s Avianca Cargo on Oct. 27 to provide twice-weekly 747-400F service between Malpensa International Airport (MXP) in Milan, Italy, and El Dorado International (BOG) in Bogota, Colombia. The alliance is set to begin operations on Nov. 11.