Specials - ITJ | Transport Journal

International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 People & CompaniesAnniversaBirthday partyHow many legacy carriersdoes a country need?Comment11Professor Armin Schwolgin,the head of the forwarding, Armin Schwolgintransportation and logisticscourse at Lörrach’s Baden-Württemberg cooperative stateuniversity celebrated his 60th birthday with universitycolleagues and the Lörrach logistics forum. Besides hostHerbert Boll, of Streck Transport, Karlhuber Dischinger,Axel Salzmann, of Kravag, and Professor Egon Trumpall proposed a toast.ObituaryDoyen passes awayDavid Cheslin, the founder and managingdirector of London-based Dunelm PublicRelations, passed away on 5 August. Fromthe 1970s onwards Cheslin, a pioneer ofcommunications in the shipping industry,worked as a journalist, and then set up aPR agency for the shipping industry in1981. Dunelm also organised conferencesand collaborated with the shipping linesEvergreen and Rickmers, amongst others,as well as the P & I Club in the United David CheslinKingdom. In 2004 he founded Coastlink,through which he also served the shortseasegment. A memorial service in his honour will be heldin London on Friday 27 September at 2 pm in St MaryAbchurch, in Abchurch Lane, London EC4.Change of address and nameSaco ShippingNetzibodenstrasse 23cCH-4133 PrattelnTelephone +41 61 826 14 51Fax +41 61 826 14 55E-mail jochen.meier@ch.sacoshipping.comInternet www.sacoshipping.comPhoto: Juri JunkovPhoto: Dunelm Public RelationsThe merger of American Airlines andUS Airways (see ITJ 9-10/2013, page40), which has been in the pipeline formonths now, seemed to be home anddry not so long ago. Even the EuropeanCommission, the continent’s highest competitionauthority, said at the beginningof August that – in the light of the competitivedynamic in transatlantic air traffic– it had no objections to the move. But amere ten days after getting the green lightAndreasHaugITJ editorfrom Brussels it was none other than the US departmentof justice (together with seven attorney generals) that fileda lawsuit against the plans on 13 August. The creation ofthe USA’s (and the world’s) largest airline was once againon thin ice. It is the largest airline by passengers, but notby freight carried. The «New American» cargo segmentwould nevertheless not be a quantité negligéable. If youadd American Airlines’ and US Airways’ 2012 freightperformance (1.6+0.5billion tkm = 2.1 billion tkm),then the result places the new entity third behind United(3.6billion tkm) and Delta (3.5billion tkm). Of course,they also attained their places thanks to mergers (in 2010,United with Continental and Delta with Northwest).But Washington has now put a stop to industryconsolidation – for a change, now that six of the ten UScarriers that operated international flights in 1938 havedisappeared from the skies. They are Braniff (1982), Easternand PanAm (bankrupt in 1991), Western (mergedwith Northwest 23 years before Delta), TWA (acquiredby American in 2001). The lawsuit stated that additionalbenefits for clients were not immediately apparent, airportswould have to fear for their status as hubs and themerger candidates had shown that they could also survivealone. But how long for?A French government body has looked further intothe future than is usually the case for political decisions.You can read about its report on page 21. It says that newbusiness models (such as LCCs) and Chinese and PersianGulf competitors are putting so much pressure on Europe’shistoric airlines that only the three big European players– AF-KLM, IAG and Lufthansa – may be left in themarket in 20 years. If at all, I might add...Zürich · Basel · St. GallenTop – Stellen für Spediteure & Logistiker unter Diskretwww.fctkader.chFISCHER Kaderselektion GmbHDorfstrasse 13a · Postfach 178 · CH-8155 Niederhasli ZHTel. +41 (0)44 850 25 25 · E-Mail reto.wieser@fctkader.chPersönlichIndividuell