Interesting comments from a forwarder recently. Rarely shy of speaking out, your average forwarder generally staunchly defends his industry’s actions. But this particular one admitted he feels the forwarding industry should take on a lot of the blame for the pitiful margins the airlines make. It...

It’s good news for the US and it’s latest trading partners. From the third quarter of next year, the US’s new free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea should come into effect, a move which is expected to generate $12 billion in new US exports. The agreements are the US’s f...

Back from an exhibition. World Routes, this time, in Berlin. A lonely place for a cargo man, as one delegate said sadly. For the second time, Routes had included cargo in its grand design, and apparently the cargo session, attended by the usual suspects including Des V and Ram M, was lively, i...

In comes an email about a conference focusing on crisis management. At the risk of upsetting the conference organisers, one must ask: really? Lecturing airlines on crisis management? You may as well teach your grandmother to suck eggs. (A peculiar English phrase meaning don’t try to advise an expe...

It’s time to turn our attentions. There’s been enough IATA-bashing lately (admittedly, much of it from Logistic-News). But it’s time to turn the focus back to where it should be. And where is that? The industry itself – by which I mean all the players, not just the airlines and their embattle...

Here in the northern hemisphere, August is traditionally called the “silly season” in publishing, as there is, generally, no news. Sadly this year, that hasn’t been the case, with phone hacking scandals, riots and economic crises hitting the headlines daily. But with much of the industry...

The market is looking fragile. As the results of Airline Cargo Management’s industry-wide survey start to come in, a cloud of fear is forming.  Although there is a general acceptance that the industry is naturally volatile and cyclical, and that overcapacity is something carriers simply need...

The question on everyone’s lips right now is what this year’s growth figures will show. While IATA is still optimistic for air cargo, with expectations of 5.5%, few others believe the market has that potential. And as capacity floods in with the delivery of more aircraft over the next few months...

Dear Des, So is it feeling different yet? Two days walking the corridors of power in Geneva without the shadow of Bisignani at your back? It’s not been long, but hopefully the benign winds of Tony Tyler will help push through much-needed change at an organisation in crisis. For those of us strug...

You have to ask yourself why the aviation industry is so loathed. Take two recent examples.  As was beautifully highlighted by the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), the recent spread of E.coli in Europe, reportedly caused by German beansprouts, led the EU to hand out a €210 million...