- VG Cargo GmbH celebrated the opening of a third state-of-the-art cargo terminal on Sept. 19 at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. The company built a 15,000-square-meter warehouse directly on the apron. VG Cargo now has more than 35,000 square meters of warehouse space at Frankfurt-Hahn. Also, the company added Air China Cargo as a new customer effective Sept. 3.
- LATAM Airlines Group plans to launch new international flights in 2015. LATAM says the initiative will strengthen the connectivity offered by the group in Latin America, North America and Europe. These include a daily flight from Santiago to Milan at the end of 2015. TAM plans to create direct flights between São Paulo and Cancun, Mexico before the end of this year and between São Paulo and Barcelona, Spain by the high season in mid-2015. The carrier also expects to launch, by mid-2015, a new flight to Toronto, Canada from São Paulo, with a layover in New York.
- The FAA has granted a $2 million grant to South Bend International Airport to reduce emissions and improve air quality by installing a geothermal heating and cooling system at the airport through the FAA’s Voluntary Airport Low Emission (VALE) program.and then heat or cool the building above through an energy-exchange process. Geothermal wells, distribution pumps, distribution piping, temperature controls and ductwork channel the water and provide the conditioned air to the terminal.
- CSafe has subcontracted maintenance and repair services for their CSafe RKN at both the Seattle and Dulles International Airports. This notice follows their June announcement of the opening of their CSafe managed service center in San Francisco. The new repair centers at SEA and IAD will service CSafe’s active systems and they anticipate that the growth of these centers will be similar to that of their SFO center.
- MIAT Mongolian Airlines has added a twice-weekly flight to Singapore Changi Airport connecting Singapore to Mongolia for the first time. The Mongolian national carrier will operate a twice-weekly service between Ulaanbaatar and Singapore, via Beijing. The route will utilize a 174-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
- Jettainer has been selected by American Airlines Cargo to manage its fleet of containers and pallets across the American network. Jettainer will equip the world’s largest airline with eco-friendly lightweight containers for the next five years. American currently uses more than 15,000 ULDs to transport both air cargo and baggage on board its aircraft. Lightweight containers will replace many of the airline’s existing units by March 2015. The lightweight container change will provide more than 500,000 gallons (1.9 million liters) in fuel savings and a reduction of more than 5,000 metric tons in carbon dioxide emissions per year. This initiative adds to the other efforts at American with a goal of reducing its overall carbon footprint.