Air Cargo

Although Amazon is not in the transportation business, FedEx, UPS and DHL can’t ignore Amazon’s competitive challenge, Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group, said.

The downside to an industry sector having a great quarter is that it places immense pressure on it to repeat the feat the following year or the comparisons will be dismal. This is where the air cargo industry finds itself after the first quarter of 2016.

ANA Holdings Inc. and Japan Airlines Corp. both increased their group net profits despite cargo weakness.

CMA CGM has introduced a new container to corner the live lobster market.

Japan’s air cargo trade with foreign countries will shrink for the second straight year in fiscal year 2016, which started on April 1, Nittsu Research Institute and Consulting Inc. predicted, citing sluggish exports and imports.

Shanghai’s largest air cargo terminal has continued its solid volume growth of 2015 into the first quarter, handling record year-over-year throughput from January to March.

Diversification, an acquisition and a change in its dimensional weight factor in its expedited less-than-truckload business helped drive first-quarter revenue and profit higher at Forward Air.

There is mounting speculation that Amazon is interested in acquiring a stake in Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to establish a major European distribution hub.

Europe’s leading air cargo carriers are continuing to post lower traffic figures month after month while their smaller rivals are still boosting their market shares.

Global air cargo traffic shrank 5.6 percent in February, but the steepest monthly decline in three years was heavily skewed by the impact of disruption at U.S. West Coast ports in early 2015 that triggered a one-off spike in demand for air freight, the International Air Transportation Association said.

Since the beginning of this year volumes across Russia’s shipping industry have begun to show signs of recovery after a dismal 2015 in which Western sanctions and the low price of oil devastated the country’s transportation firms.

In the past few months, Amazon has moved openly and aggressively to increase its reach, capabilities and capacity in the logistics and distribution arena. The Seattle-based company purchased thousands of trailers blazoned with Amazon logos in the U.S., registered as a non-vessel-operating common carrier to better manage the flow of goods from China to the U.S. and leased 20 U.S. domestic cargo planes from Air Transport Services Group.

Cargolux’s net profit surged in 2015, helped by cheaper fuel, but revenue shrank as low yields offset higher volumes.

Brussels airport is in lockdown for a second day following the deadly bomb attacks on Tuesday and will remain closed to all passenger flights tomorrow.

The movement of people and goods in and around Brussels ground to a halt Tuesday after a series of terror attacks rocked the Belgian capital. Brussels Airport has been shut down, all flights in and out cancelled, and public transportation throughout the city has been put on lockdown, sparking wide reports of gridlock.

As e-commerce demands push delivery limits, UPS is expanding its US and global early delivery guarantees for package shippers and customers.

Lufthansa Cargo remained in the black for yet another year in 2015, overcoming the damaging impact of a pilots’ strike and growing oversupply in the global air freight market, while its main European rivals sank deeper into the red.

The year-over-year distortions of the U.S. West Coast port dispute early in 2015 that pushed shippers to the skies were keenly felt in February cargo volumes at Hong Kong International Airport that recorded a drop of 15 percent compared to the same month last year.

In a long-awaited deal, Amazon announced Wednesday it has acquired a stake in the Ohio company that has been helping the e-commerce giant run its secret air cargo operation in the state since last year and has signed a five- to seven-year lease for 20 cargo planes.

Cathay Pacific’s 90 percent increase in 2015 net profit had no help from its cargo division, which after a solid first quarter saw demand for air freight largely fade away for the rest of the year.

The global air cargo market got off to a strong start in 2016, with volume up 2.7 percent year-on-year, the fastest growth rate since last April, the International Air Transport Association said.

International Airlines Group carried less cargo in 2015 than a year earlier but its freight revenue grew as it focused on strategic partnerships and premium products to offset lower rates and yields in bearish global market.

The enormous growth in China’s e-commerce market has driven up demand for domestic air express services and encouraged Boeing Co. to offer freighter conversions for its popular B737 passenger plane.

The ground package arm of FedEx will lease a CenterPoint-owned distribution and sorting facility in Auburn, Washington, six miles from Amazon's Kent fulfillment center and close to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

The lithium battery market is expected to double in the next 10 years, but the rapidly growing sector is crashing into a regulatory pushback from the aviation industry as safety fears mount.

Air France-KLM narrowed its cargo loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 but its full-year deficit increased as it continued to scale back its troubled full-freighter operation.

AirBridgeCargo began 2016 on a roll with volume soaring by a record 30 percent in January, but Russia’s largest air cargo carrier cautioned it faces challenges as it expands its global network.

Blood dripping from a U.S. freighter at Harare airport in Zimbabwe led the plane’s captain to a grim discovery when he opened a hatch and a body fell out.

Capacity cuts and a pre-Chinese New Year demand for air cargo on key routes barely managed to keep Cathay Pacific’s January volumes in positive territory.

E-commerce opportunities on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border are helping TransForce compensate for loss of energy, less-than-truckload volumes.

A Feb. 1 change in dimensional weight pricing will benefit Forward Air Corp., the CEO of the ground-air expedited transportation company told Wall Street analysts this week.

A massive increase in flower volumes destined for the U.S. reflects an increasing e-commerce capability that has allowed buyers to source directly from farmers.

Air India and Air New Zealand are the last two defendants in a long-running antitrust litigation brought against nearly 30 providers of air cargo services, but a nasty surprise could be in store for the carriers in a trial scheduled for September.

The International Air Cargo Association (Tiaca) has urged the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to clarify recent updates to air freight carried on passenger planes and freighters from several Middle Eastern countries.

Another multimillion-dollar settlement was reached in the long-running antitrust class action lawsuit in the U.S. that has involved most of the world’s major carriers, with Air China agreeing to pay $50 million.

Hong Kong’s largest air cargo terminal has teamed up with a Pearl River Delta ocean shipping and logistics heavyweight to increase its regional reach and drive up air freight business through the airport.

Shippers using C.H. Robinson Worldwide to move truckload freight saw pricing drop 3 percent on average in the fourth quarter. The logistics operator's volume, net revenue and profit, on the other hand, all rose.

Global air cargo traffic increased 2.2 percent year-over-year in 2015, less than half the 5 percent rise in 2014, due mainly to sluggish trade growth in Europe and Asia-Pacific, according to the International Air Transport Association.

ANA Holdings Inc. and Japan Airlines Corp. both saw their group net profits soar in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 31 on a year-over-year basis, despite lower cargo revenues.

Manchester Airports Group posted a 4.3 percent year-over-year increase in 2015 cargo traffic at its four U.K. airports, driven by new freighter services and growing express deliveries.