DSV’s airfreight volumes benefited from strong demand out of Asia, although revenue and profit fell as rates dropped in the market. DSV’s airfreight volumes increased 2.3% in the first quarter of 2024 to 335,213 tonnes. This is compared to 327,712 tonnes in the same period last year. The company attributed this growth to strong Asia Pacific export volumes. “The air freight market is impacted by continued high growth in e-commerce volumes from China, driving both market volumes and rates up.” DSV noted that the airfreight market is dealing with overcapacity, but reflected that it expects that r ..read more

Aircraft refuelling handlers working for AFS at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) will initiate industrial action for 72 hours beginning on May 4. 50 staff that are part of the Unite trade union are due to strike for 72 hours. The industrial action could potentially affect large numbers of services into and out of the gateway, including significant numbers of passenger flights with bellyhold cargo capacity, if aircraft are not refuelled as normal. Unite has said the industrial action is in response to the refuellers’ employer imposing “drastic cuts to the terms and conditions of new staff recruite ..read more

Food logistics firm PML Seafrigo has hired Paddie Allen as airfreight director to head up the company’s UK airfreight operations. The role of airfreight director sees Allen based at Heathrow Airport, with responsibility for 22 staff. Allen has spent the last 16 years in the logistics business and has gained expertise across airfreight, warehousing and ocean operations. Allen’s foray into logistics began with a seven-year stint at a rival global logistics provider based at Heathrow, where he advanced from gateway coordinator to department manager. His next move to another transport, logistics ..read more

dnata has appointed Clive Sauvé-Hopkins as divisional senior vice president (DSVP), airport operations to oversee the company’s global ground handling and cargo business at 97 airports in 16 countries. Effective immediately, Sauvé-Hopkins will manage a team of over 37,000 customer-centric aviation professionals, with responsibility for ensuring consistent high quality and safe services for more than 330 airline customers. With extensive international experience in commercial strategy and business transformation, Sauvé-Hopkins has held several senior leadership positions with Swissport, Servisa ..read more

Ground services provider Menzies Aviation has extended its deal with Kuala Lumpur-based Malaysia Airlines covering cargo, passenger and ramp handling for the carrier in the Australia/New Zealand region. The deal has been extended for a further five years and covers the Menzies stations at Sydney Airport (SYD), Melbourne Airport (MEL), Adelaide Airport (ADL), Perth Airport (PER) and Auckland Airport (AKL). London, UK-headquartered Menzies has supported Malaysia Airlines with a range of services at these locations since 2016. The handler has said that it expects to handle a total of 3,200 flight ..read more

China Southern Airlines has launched a four flights a week connection between Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) in China and Hamad International Airport (DOH) in Doha, Qatar. The carrier is operating the connection, which launched on April 22, with Boeing B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. This new China Southern link complements Qatar Airways’ flights to seven locations in China – Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and Xiamen as well as Guangzhou. China Southern has become only the second Chinese carrier to serve DOH – the other is Xiamen Airlines. It is the fourth airline to ..read more

Express services giant UPS recorded consolidated revenue of $21.7bn in the first three months of this year, a 5.3% fall on its performance in the first quarter of 2023. Consolidated operating profit was down further, by 36.5% year on year to $1.6bn (and down 31.5% on an adjusted basis). The company’s Supply Chain Solutions division experienced a 5.3% decline in revenue, attributed primarily to ‘market rate declines in forwarding’. Operating profit in the Supply Chain Solutions segment was also down year on year, although a profit of $132m was made. The operating margin in the division was 4.1 ..read more

Colombia-headquartered freight carrier Avianca Cargo has stopped using conventional plastics in its pallet covers, instead turning to biodegradable plastics. The biodegradable plastic now being used is produced by BioNatur Plastics. It is manufactured with a 1% load of an organic, food-safe proprietary additive that allows anaerobic bacteria to digest the plastic within a landfill site. According to Avianca Cargo, which said the investment is the latest phase of its Sustainable CargoLab initiative, it has so far purchased more than 1,000 boxes of biodegradable plastics, thus avoiding the equiv ..read more

Finland’s flag-carrier Finnair has blamed lower cargo revenue and yields as among the reasons for declining overall revenue earned in the first quarter of this year. The airline made €46.3m in revenue in the first quarter of 2024 from cargo, down from €53.4m in the same period of 2023. Finnair’s revenue cargo tonne-km figure actually increased by 11.6% year on year, while total cargo tonne volumes carried increased by 11.9%; the cargo revenue fall of 13.3% year on year was due to the lower cargo yields. The Asia sector accounted for €32m of the €46.3m cargo revenue. Finnair made €192m from car ..read more

Both airfreight-related turnover and profit fell year on year in the first quarter of 2024 for Kuehne+Nagel (K+N), contributing to some disappointing results across the business. Across K+N, turnover was down by 18% over the first quarter of 2023, gross profit by 13%, and the figures for K+N’s Air Logistics segment were somewhat representative of the decline across the business. Net turnover of Air Logistics in the first quarter of 2024 was just less than CHF1.6bn, with an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) figure of CHF94m. However, K+N handled 491,000 tons of airfreight over the three ..read more