Air Cargo

Logistics services provider is optimistic about African continent’s global freight potential, despite economic setbacks from COVID-19 pandemic.

American Airlines Cargo has not slowed implementation of the IBS Software iCargo platform since last October, despite the upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s still a seller’s market in airfreight, but rates are finally moderating.

Air cargo and cross-border trade could be unintended victims of the dispute between the U.S. and China over access by their respective passenger airlines.

Rearview-looking government data confirms the stress for-hire transportation providers experienced in April. New cycle lows have built a foundation for recovery barring a pronounced second wave of coronavirus cases.

The platform moves toward customization based on job function.

Boeing’s stop-work order to its fuselage supplier has a lot to do with COVID-19 and the state of the airline industry.

U.S. safety investigators will hold a hearing in July as they try to find out why a big cargo jet carrying Amazon packages crashed last year.

Governments are taking equity stakes in airlines or putting conditions on them for aid. Cathay Pacific, a big passenger-cargo combination carrier, and Austrian Airlines are two of the latest to get a helping hand.

UPS didn’t need its weekly traffic rights on a key Asian route, so it turned them in. Two other airlines immediately pounced and were granted the routes by the U.S. government.

Airlines continue to send out SOS distress signals. The industry’s main trade association says profit margins will drop 20% this year, but the increased reliance on air cargo is helping companies stay alive and keep employees.

Passenger planes are flying empty. Are there ghosts? It sounds kind of creepy. No need to worry. Airlines are simply putting their assets to use with cargo as their primary customer.

Airlines are looking at a multiyear road to parity with 2019, but bookings have given them confidence to start opening up networks closed by the coronavirus.

Amazon Air has gone from start-up to mid-size cargo airline in four years. By mid-decade, it is expected to be in air cargo’s major leagues.

For aircraft lessor GECAS, the “Big Twin” doesn’t refer to a large person. It’s a big twin-engine passenger plane that’s being turned into a cargo plane.

Third-party logistics services providers involved in international trade remain concerned about how their businesses will remerge post-COVID-19. They are addressing tough questions about what it will take in terms of staff, systems and office space to operate a successful company.

Amazon’s growth is relentless. It’s more than package trucks and online selections. Now it’s expanding its airline to more than 80 aircraft.

The airfreight market is a volatile conundrum. Overall, demand is down. But with few planes flying these days and everyone wanting a face mask, good luck finding affordable space for your shipment of auto parts or seafood.

June is supposed to be the heavy travel season, but instead of operating full planes, airlines are busy trying to save their financial lives.

The U.S. has plenty of diesel in inventory, and jet demand is not likely to snap back until next year, according to Energy Aspects.

Mass layoffs can help a company survive the coronavirus recession for the time being, but the damage will hurt its long-term prospects, United CEO Scott Kirby says.

“Our forte is turning freight from plane to truck and getting it on the road to its end user quickly,” said Bryan Schreiber of Columbus Regional Airport Authority (CRAA).

Escalating airfreight transportation rates and capacity shortages from China due to the global pandemic have encouraged some shippers to split supply chain shipments between ocean and air pallets.

The U.S. government’s emergency aid package was only a Band-Aid for protecting jobs. Airlines promised not to have involuntary layoffs for six months, but now American Airlines is paving the way for mass layoffs.

Lufthansa and Germany have agreed on a rescue plan for the airline, but the European Union wants to take a pound of flesh from the German carrier before allowing the deal to go through.

United Airlines’ new CEO is putting his stamp on the company right away with a new tteam to steer the company through the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

The coronavirus isn’t slowing down UPS Airlines. It’s continuing with a major fleet expansion and new routes because of e-commerce trends.

For specialized industries such as health care and aerospace, the stakes of supply chain interruptions and service failures have never been higher.

“Crew changes cannot be postponed indefinitely,” warned the world’s largest maritime and air transport organizations.

Airlines like Air Canada are raising private capital through various means, while also seeking emergency government assistance.

The Canadian government shifts from planes to ships to import larger volumes of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies for COVID-19 pandemic.

Airlines are in a no-win situation. They need money now to keep from going under but know that debt payments will make it more difficult to make ends meet in the years to come.

LATAM Airlines is looking for protection from creditors as it downsizes, something that all airlines are trying to figure out how to do in the face of a pandemic that has wiped out travel demand.

Lufthansa will temporarily become a German-state owned company again with a pending plan to give the airline billions of dollars in emergency aid to withstand the fallout from the coronavirus.

(Updated May 25, 2020, 8:10 P.M. ET, with news about Emirates.) Air France-KLM Group (FP: AF) said it has permanently eliminated double-deck Airbus A380 aircraft from its fleet, joining other […]

One of the big innovations for passenger airlines during the coronavirus era is using their planes as dedicated cargo haulers. Cargo 2.0 was putting boxes in storage bins and other seats. Cargo 3.0 is cargo on seats.

At least two governments, Australia and New Zealand, are helping to correct distortions in the airfreight market.

The word of the day: deep clean. Except for picking up trash, cleaning airplanes before the coronavirus happened mostly after a long day of flying. Now cleanliness is a top priority. Planes and terminals are being cleaned throughout the day, and much more thoroughly.

Airline watchers need to pump the brakes on optimism for an industry recovery just because some preliminary figures show an uptick in bookings and fewer cancellations, says Delta’s CFO.

Airbus expands manufacturing capability in the U.S. with a new assembly line.

Supply chain management solutions provider project44 said it has shippers covered no matter where and how their cargo is transported throughout the world.

Airlines know 2020 will be financially bleak but are seeing some green shoots of customer activity as encouraging.

Face masks and other personal protective equipment are worth their weight in gold these days, and German authorities are protecting shipments accordingly.  Lufthansa Airlines (FWB: LHA) on Monday opened a […]

Israel’s flagship carrier El Al is struggling to hold on financially during the COVID-19 pandemic and is looking to the government for a lifeline.

Korean Air is the latest airline to get government aid and raise capital to increase its cash position.

Airlines need to reassure customers that airplanes are safe from coronavirus to win back their business. Enter Boeing, with its Confident Travel Initiative to help them develop best practices for doing that.

Shanghai Pudong Airport is getting crushed by heavy cargo volumes. Add to the mix a lot of red tape for export clearance and shipments are experiencing long delays and missed flights.

Delta Air Lines is bidding adieu to the 777. The airline will be smaller for the next few years, so it doesn’t need its big 777 jets anymore. (Photo: Delta)

“We remain committed to achieving our aggressive climate and sustainability goals,” said Nancy Young, Airlines for America’s vice president of environmental affairs.

Most crops don’t grow without seeds. But how are seeds for commercial farming transported? Darren Prokop explores this topic.

International aviation authorities and health experts are trying to create public health corridors in the sky through the application of multi-layers of sanitary and hygiene standards.

A U.S. federal court on Monday agreed on an interim basis to Avianca Holdings SA’s initial motions to voluntarily reorganize under court-supervised bankruptcy protection. Latin America’s second-largest airline sought bankruptcy […]

Drone technology provider to UPS Flight Forward aims for unmanned aircraft systems certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

If you’re a forwarder and need more airlift to get goods around the world, you’re in luck. Airlines are listening and putting more assets to work.

Want to ride a “ghost flight” for fun? You can’t. They’re only open for freight and Delta Air Lines is flying lots of them from Asia to the U.S.

Amazon will occupy a huge air cargo facility being built at San Bernardino Airport as it expands its private airline and air delivery network.

Brett Hart served six months in 2015-16 as interim CEO of United Airlines while CEO Oscar Munoz recovered from heart surgery.

Emirates SkyCargo’s business fell in fiscal year 2019-2020, but the airline division is experiencing strong demand for its services during the coronavirus crisis.

People go to the hospital to get better from coronavirus. Avianca is going to a different emergency room – bankruptcy court., so it can downsize in a safe way . It is a major Latin American carrier with a cargo division that operates its own fleet of freighters.

One of the Middle East’s largest airlines targets freight to keep its more than 250 aircraft flying during the coronavirus pandemic.

Delta Air Lines and LATAM are getting ready to operate jointly once they clear antitrust hurdles in both countries.

Lufthansa and IAG Group are taking baby steps toward expanding flight schedules. That should bring in some more revenue, but Lufthansa is looking for a big bailout from the German government to get through the coronavirus crisis.

A perfect storm of events has created the mother-of-all cargo bottlenecks at Shanghai’s Pudong airport, where shipments sit at a standstill in crowded warehouses waiting for overwhelmed Chinese customs officers to inspect outbound PPE shipments.

British Airways and its sister airlines are taking some comfort from increased cargo business and helping keep global supply chains intact, but the dominant passenger business is at least three years away from getting back to pre-crisis levels.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created choppy conditions in the airfreight market, but air cargo companies like Atlas Air are mostly seeing upside for their business.

The Honolulu-based carrier has used some passenger airplanes to transport face masks from China, as well as food and medical supplies between islands.

ir Transport Services Group is making money from its aircraft leasing and outsourced transportation businesses as express carriers and other customers seek more aircraft to support supply chains.

Alaska Air lost $232 million on a net basis in the first quarter, but everything is relative these days and the loss doesn’t look so bad given the state of the airline industry.

Cargo in the hold, in the storage bins, under seats, on top of seats and with the seats removed. It’s all happening. And now some airlines are doing infill cargo with some seats removed.

Air Canada is trying to navigate the darkest period in aviation history through cost cuts, financing and new cargo operations.

United Airlines is steeling itself for a worst-case scenario that leisure and business travelers will not resume flying anytime soon, even with coronavirus restrictions lifted.

Flexport CTO James Chen articulates his vision of the future of global trade technology.

United Airlines isn’t sugar-coating the airline industry’s economic reality. United expects to survive the coronavirus crisis, but business will be slim for months to come.

Airlines have suffered mightily from the loss of passenger traffic as a result of the pandemic. But there also has been a demand for their services to move freight, including […]

Watchdog report lists “priority issues” requiring agency attention.

The logistics sector specializes in figuring out creative solutions to transportation and trade impediments, and a pandemic is the ultimate test. Check out what DB Schenker and Airbus are doing to increase airfreight capacity.

Combined transportation and logistics powerhouse grows gross profit despite impact from COVID-19.

American is slashing expenses, but not fast enough to stop big profit losses. Here are the details on its first quarter and what it expects going forward.

Boeing took a big loss in the first quarter and the rest of the year doesn’t bode better for a company plagued by ongoing technical problems with key products, and now facing little demand for aircraft.

Alaska Airlines may be late to the party when it comes to using passenger aircraft as freighters, but it wants to be an early adopter of using passenger seats for storage.

COVID-19 pandemic challenges American seed producers to secure airfreight capacity to meet spring planting.

Secondary airports are increasingly being used by all-cargo carriers supporting the government’s coronavirus logistics mission.

Virgin Atlantic has an extensive cargo network using passenger aircraft that are flying without passengers.

Airlines fly people, they don’t make things. Guess again. Delta is making portable human pods for the military and, along with American Airlines, is making face shields.

Southwest Airlines is not used to losing money in any quarter or full year, but that will change in 2020.

Drones have taken on added importance with the coronavirus pandemic, offering ways to do tasks faster and without dangerous physical contact.

If it flies, it can be a cargo plane for coronavirus relief missions. Planes are being put to unconventional uses to support the coronavirus response, including cargo-only passenger aircraft with boxes in the seats or on the floor and heavylift cargo planes used by aircraft manufacturers to move wings and other aircraft sections.

Global freight forwarder attributes most of the 23.2% year-over-year first-quarter earnings drop to impact of COVID-19 pandemic .

There are more ways to help businesses struggling during the coronavirus crisis than loans and direct payments. The Australian government has operationalized an international airfreight support program to restore supply chains for perishables that were broken by the pandemic, threatening to kill business for many exporters.

FAA cuts tower hours for air traffic control, but airports should continue to function smoothly.

Delta Air Lines officials believe they have the reputation for customer service, reliability, and brand experience that will carry them through the pandemic. Now, they are making hard choices about the future.

Domestic airlines want to put cargo in passenger seats or stacked on the cabin floor, as some foreign counterparts are already doing. But they first need authorization from U.S. authorities.

“We expect that more shippers will shift from just-in-time supply chains to just-in-case supply chains,” U.S. CEO Mark McCullough said.

Delta Air Lines is increasing the number of scheduled cargo flights between Asia and three U.S. cities, using its passenger aircraft as substitutes for freighters.

Delta is raising huge amounts of capital and cutting costs by half as it sets the stage for a new world with less travel.

Delta is the first of the domestic passenger airlines to release earnings since the coronavirus pandemic spread globally and the picture isn’t pretty.

United Airlines is getting $9.5 billion in U.S. government aid, but it still needs more money to stay afloat so it’s selling stock and borrowing.

The airline industry is considered essential to keeping the creaky economy going, but pilots, flight attendants and ground workers don’t always feel they are treated as essential when it comes to protection from the coronavirus.

Airlines and analysts are lowering expectations for a quick bounce back in business this summer because there still is so much uncertainty about the coronavirus.

The duty deferment applies to qualifying importers facing “significant financial hardship,” Customs and Border Protection said.