The World Trade Center Miami welcomes you to Air Cargo Americas News, offering you updates from the industry and useful information on the 20th year of the Air Cargo Americas Conference and Exhibition.

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NEWS IN THE AMERICAS

• Arrow Cargo Expects to Expand Fleet of 757 Aircraft to Five Freighters by Year-end
• Proposed Iberia-BA Merger Would Create the Biggest Cargo Carrier between Europe and Latin America
• Martinair Goes After Former Customers of Cargo B
• Dominican Aviation Authority Approves 66 New Charter Flights for Freighter Operators
• Astar Plans to Move 150 Jobs to the Cincinnati Area
• FreightScan Opens Office in Costa Rica to Serve Latin American Clients

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Arrow Cargo Expects to Expand Fleet of 757 Aircraft to Five Freighters by Year-end
Arrow Cargo has acquired three Boeing 757 freighters so far this year, and the Miami-based airline expects to acquire two more 757s before the start of the seasonally strong fourth quarter, an Arrow executive said. “One of them will be delivered in late July or August, and the other one will be in September,” Patrice Robinet, general counsel of Arrow Cargo, said in a July 10 telephone interview.

Arrow has leased two 757s from an affiliate of its principal owner, New York-based investment firm MatlinPatterson, and a third 757 from AWAS Aviation, which has an office in Miami.

Robinet said Arrow had four DC-10 freighters, down from six at the end of last year, and will keep the size of its DC-10 fleet unchanged for the foreseeable future. “The 757s are not a replacement for the DC 10s,” he said. Arrow also has disposed of the lone DC-8 freighter it was operating at the end of last year.

Improved business conditions in Brazil have encouraged Arrow to push ahead with its planned fleet upgrade. “Brazil has firmed up from what it was a couple of months ago, due to the dollar getting a little weaker, and our products in the U.S. becoming more attractive down there,” Robinet said. “But then it creates an imbalance on the northbound.”

He referred further questions about current market conditions to Luis Soto, the president of Arrow. Soto could not be reached for comment. One reason may be that Soto is too busy increasing Arrow’s market share in Miami, the carrier’s air operations base.

In April, Arrow was the busiest cargo carrier at Miami International Airport and, unlike many of its competitors, carried more tonnage than in the same month last year. Arrow’s volume increased to 16,046 short tons in April, up 7.8 percent from the level of April 2008.

In six-month period from November through April, Arrow was the top-ranked cargo carrier by volume at the Miami airport, with 102,333 short tons, down 3.3 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Looking beyond this year, Robinet said Arrow eventually will retire and replace its DC 10 freighters. “The DC 10s will probably have a life of three, four years, give or take, and then they will become uneconomical, as the DC 8s did,” he said. “I suspect we’ll start looking down the line and decide where we’re going to go after the DC 10s ... I don’t know if it will be later this year, or early next year,” he said. “Matlin’s got an order for some A330s,” but it’s too early to tell “whether that’s the aircraft we want to bring into Arrow, or we’ll want to look into another aircraft type, like a 767.”

Proposed Iberia-BA Merger Would Create the Biggest Cargo Carrier between Europe and Latin America
Motivated in part by the promise of dominating air freight to Latin America, Antonio Vasquez, the new chairman of Iberia, is trying to put fresh momentum into the Spanish air carrier’s merger talks with British Airways.

The Journal of Commerce reported that the merged Anglo-Spanish carrier would handle about one million tons of cargo annually, based on traffic in 2008, and would be dominate cargo service between Europe and Latin America. BA handled 777,000 metric tons and Iberia 242,000 metric tons in 2008. German airline Lufthansa led all scheduled European freight carriers with 1.92 million metric tons last year.

BA and Iberia have slowed their march to a merger as they discuss issues such as which of them should own the biggest share of the combined airline, or if a 50-50 split of ownership would be best. BA, which owns 10 percent of Iberia, originally wanted to own 65 percent of the combined airline.

The British and Spanish carriers also are applying for antitrust clearance from U.S. and European regulators to form a joint venture with American Airlines on trans-Atlantic routes. http://www.joc.com/print/412325

Martinair Goes After Former Customers of Cargo B
Dutch airline Martinair has increased its MD-11 freighter capacity from Europe to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to take advantage of the failure of Belgian carrier Cargo B Airlines.

Martinair has increased the frequency of its MD-11 freighter flights from Amsterdam to Sao Paulo from to three times a week from twice a week, the original frequency when Martinair introduced the service in March.

The MD-11 flights are taking a mix of cargo to Sao Paulo, with continuing service to Colombia or Ecuador to pick up fresh flower shipments to Amsterdam, the leading fresh flower center in Europe.

Cargo B served the Viracopas airport near Sao Paulo before it suddenly ceased operating this month. Its backers included NYK, a Japanese company that also owns Nippon Cargo Airlines. http://www.ifw-net.com/freightpubs/ifw/article.htm;jsessionid=B0628D5C29B 19BE63A663EABF798481C?artid=1247130754901&printable=true

Dominican Aviation Authority Approves 66 New Charter Flights for Freighter Operators
The Civil Aviation Board of the Dominican Republic approved charter flights for 66 new freighter operations, news source Dominican Today reported. The aviation board’s president Luis Rodriguez said the approval of the new freighter operations extended cargo carriers including Miami-based Arrow Cargo and Gulf & Caribbean Cargo, which also does business as Contract Air Cargo, a Michigan-based Boeing 727 operator. http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/tourism/2009/7/13/32577/print

Astar Plans to Move 150 Jobs to the Cincinnati Area
Miami-based airline ASTAR Air Cargo is planning to move its 150-employee operation from an airport in Wilmington, Ohio, to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Florence, Kentucky.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that ASTAR’s plan to move its air operations base to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was pending approval of a proposed tax incentive.

ASTAR has applied for a tax credit equal to 5 percent of the annual pay of 77 of its employees who would reside in Kentucky, which is just south of Cincinnati. The Florence City Council is expected to make a final decision on the application July 28.

ASTAR wants to move from Wilmington, near Columbus, Ohio, to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport to follow express courier DHL, one of its biggest clients. DHL announced in April that it would move its freight and package sorting operations in Wilmington to the Cincinnati-area airport. http://news.cincinnati.com

FreightScan Opens Office in Costa Rica to Serve Latin American Clients
Cargo scanning system source Freightscan has opened a new office in Costa Rica, citing economic growth in Latin America and heightened interest in air cargo security.

Carlsbad, California-based FreightScan’s product line includes a fixed, overhead cargo scanner and what it calls the world’s first forklift-mounted cargo scanner.

An air cargo industry veteran, Luis F. Paredes has been named director of Latin America. Paredes also serves as president and chief executive officer of two air freight companies, A.E.H. Group S.A. and AeroExpress Costa Rica.

Paredes began his career with the old Braniff International Airways in 1976 and went on to serve in operations and sales with such companies as INAIR Cargo Airlines, COPA Airlines, and DHL Aviation.

“His proven success in leading and developing professional cargo airline personnel and operations brings a strong dynamic to our team as FreightScan establishes a footprint throughout Latin America,” said Randy Richard, executive vice president, sales, of FreightScan. http://www.jdmandassociates.com/press_releases/2009_07-16_FS_Latin_America_Office_Final.pdf

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