The airline subsidiary of global express delivery company United Parcel service, UPS Airlines, has announced that the company has opened a new flight training facility in Anchorage, Alaska.

The facility, the second of its type for UPS, measures over 27,000 square feet and will house two flight simulators, classrooms and offices.  Operating up to 20 hours each day, it is hoped that the facility will reduce the time spent away from home for training by Anchorage-based pilots, who otherwise would have had to travel to UPS’s Worldport base in Louisville Kentucky for their training.

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Global parcel delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS) has advised that the company has amended its UPS On-Call Pickup service in the United States for air packages.

Designed to provide customers with more options to satisfy business requirements, UPS has made the On-Call Pickup Service for air packages available to more than 4,000 postal code areas, with air pickup times have extended in nearly 6,000 postal code areas.

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With the world price of oil dropping steadily over the past week and a half, a number of airlines have announced reductions in the fuel surcharge imposed on their product.

Late last week, American Airlines Cargo lead off the reduction by reducing their surcharge, the airline base their surcharge level on the weekly average spot price of kerosene-type jet fuel as reported by the U.S. Department of Energy.  An index which is calculated by averaging the five current spot prices in the New York Harbour, U.S. Gulf Coast, Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Singapore markets.

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Hamilton based Canadian cargo airline, Cargojet, have announced that with the introduction of new and larger freighter aircraft into its fleet, the airline will undertake an expansion of hangar and maintenance facilities at its base at Hamilton International Airport.

Cargojet in press release indicated that construction has already begun at the site with new hangar space to measure 65,000 feet as well as 12,000 square feet of space dedicated to office and parts storage and 75,000 square feet of apron area.

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Air cargo subsidiary of Germany’s passenger airline Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo has announced that the airline will commence non-stop dedicated freight flights from Frankfurt to Toronto, before returning to Germany via Atlanta.

Lufthansa Cargo will operate the twice-weekly flights using its MD-11F aircraft, the airline offering approximately 90 tonnes of freight capacity on the aircraft, on the Frankfurt, Toronto Atlanta, Frankfurt route.

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Canada’s leading air cargo company Cargojet has announced the arrival of the Boeing 757-200ERF or Extended Range Freighter aircraft to join the airlines fleet, with plans for the aircraft to enter service later this month.

With the aim of replacing Cargojet’s venerable 727-200 freighters, the 757-200ERF arrival at Cargojet will give the airline increased payload capacities as well as better fuel efficiency.  Indeed the Boeing 757-200ERF is able to carry a maximum payload of 80,500 pounds in approximately 8,300 cubic feet of space, a 33 percent increase over the B727-200.

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Announced at the recently held Farnborough Airshow, BAE Systems is set to supply a revamped BAE-146QT or Quiet Trader model aircraft to Austria’s dedicated cargo airline Amerer Air.

The deal will see Amerer Air purchase the first BAE 146-200 aircraft that will have been converted to the Quiet Trader freighter version at the Aerostar aircraft conversion facility in Bacau Romania. 

Amerer Air will operate the converted BAE-146QT from the airline’s base at Linz in Austria, with the aircraft scheduled to be operated on behalf of the major integrator companies, as well as on ad hoc freight charter work.

Founded in 1995 as an independent all cargo airline, Amerer Air is Austria’s largest all cargo carrier, serving major freight forwarders, express cargo companies, private shippers, integrated parcel carriers as well as various Governments.

Source: BAE Systems and Amerer Air

Industrial action that had plagued the passenger arm of Lufthansa has, according to a statement by Lufthansa, had little effect on the company’s cargo operations.

Whilst the strike carried out by members of the Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (ver.di) union delayed and grounded some passenger flights, Lufthansa Cargo’s 19 MD-11F freighter aircraft, it is reported, operated from both the Frankfurt and Leipzig hubs without interruption.  The only delays experience by the cargo arm being slight delays in Road Feeder Services during the time of the strike, however not even these delays are believed to be strike related.

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FedEx Express, the express logistics subsidiary of global freight transportation company FedEx Corporation, have announced the introduction of the Boeing 757, narrowbody freighter aircraft into revenue service.  The company employing the aircraft on flights, eight times a week, between Memphis International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The introduction of the Boeing 757 Freighter  enables FedEx Express to replace older aircraft and thus utilizing a more fuel efficient fleet.  A fleet that will not only contribute to the company’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but that will also see the company improving fuel consumption rates for its fleet, not an insignificant achievement amongst a climate of rapidly rising oil prices.

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The Canadian Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Lawrence Cannon last week announced that three more of of the countries airports have qualified for the international air cargo transshipment program.

The three airports concerned, Prince George Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Halifax Stanfield International Airport, have now received approval to participate in the program.  The approval specifically allowing the airports to move air cargo through the airports for shipment to third countries.

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