Technology | Air Cargo World

2015 is shaping up to be a roller-coaster year for freight forwarder and carrier volumes. An air cargo surge caused by the West Coast port labor slowdown led to congestion-related challenges at major gateways throughout the United States. A strong U.S. dollar has since depressed export volumes, leading to bargain-basement rates for forwarders from both […]

Brandon Fried
December 2, 2015

IAG Cargo updates IT system

IAG Cargo has upgraded its software to Accenture Air Cargo Reservation systems, which the carrier said will help improve functionality and performance by simplifying booking procedures and allowing adjustments as business priorities change. Gareth Sinclair, head of revenue management at IAG Cargo, said the new software will allow the carrier to be more flexible and […]

Staff Reports
November 9, 2015

To the rescue: Can lithium batteries be made safe for flight?

On Sept. 3, 2010, a UPS 747-400 cargo aircraft took off from Dubai, headed to the UPS hub in Cologne-Bonn. It crashed shortly after taking off, killing the two crew members on board. Three years later, the United Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) concluded that the cause of the crash, a fire on board […]

Staff Reports
November 4, 2015

C2K to begin revision of door-to-door standards

More than 60 technical and operational managers took part in a meeting of C2K’s (Cargo 2000) technical working group last week as part of a drive to implement new quality standards for the air cargo industry. The group met in Vienna, Austria, to finalize C2K’s revised airport-to-airport specification and kick-start a revision of its door-to-door […]

Randy Woods
November 3, 2015

Software available to manage cargo claims

TranSolutions Inc., has released what it professes to be the industry’s first software system designed to help carriers manage their cargo claims that are filed against them. The product, CarrierClaim, can be integrated with the company’s transportation management system (TMS), accounting software, or other internal systems, so there’s no need to uproot current systems in […]

Staff Reports
November 3, 2015

DHL Global Forwarding pulls plug on IT system

What began as a €750 million project to modernize the world’s largest forwarding operation and make a splash in the logistics IT market ended ignobly last week as Deutsche Post-DHL announced that its troubled New Forwarding Environment (NFE) IT system will be completely scrapped, with an expected write-down of €345 million in the company’s first […]

Randy Woods
November 2, 2015

e-AWB gains momentum, but may miss goal

For the second-straight month, the usage of electronic air waybills (e-AWB) across the airfreight industry has grown by 2 percentage points, according to IATA. However, the added momentum appears to be insufficient for the industry to reach IATA’s goal of 45 percent penetration by the end of 2015. At the end of September, IATA reported […]

Randy Woods
October 29, 2015

Smiths Detection scanner approved by TSA

Smiths Detection Inc.’s (SDI) dual-view HI-SCAN 6040-2is X-ray unit is the latest security scanning machine to be accepted within the “qualified” section of TSA’s Air Cargo Screening Technology List (ACSTL). The X-ray machine uses multiple views and sophisticated algorithms to detect potential security threats within cargo loads and can penetrate 35-millimeter-thick steel. It offers ACTSL […]

Staff Reports
October 27, 2015

Cargo? Maybe on the next flight…

Today’s story is about a flight that didn’t carry any cargo. It didn’t depart from any of the usual places — no flowers from Colombia or iPhones from Zhengzhou — and it didn’t land at any airport you’ve ever landed at. Its payload was less than a 747, or even a 737. In fact, its […]