ACU OCT- Final Draft

GLOBAL NEWS
Azerbaijan, China strengthen trade ties
BAKU/ZHENGZHOU: Silk Way
West Airlines is increasing its cargo
flight frequency to Zhengzhou, China
from four to six as it enters a new stage
of strategic cooperation with the
Government of Henan Province and
Zhengzhou Airport.
“With this, we are entering into the
new stage of our strategic cooperation
with the Government of Henan
Province and Zhengzhou Airport. We
are excited to further strengthen this
cooperation by seeing further
growth,” said SWW President and CEO
Wolfgang Meier. The deal was made at
the 2nd ICAO Cargo Conference held
in Zhengzhou on Sept 5-7.
“Within a short period of time, we
managed to emerge as one of the
leading cargo carriers in Zhengzhou
and we are aiming to further increase
tonnage and flights as Zhengzhou
provides for us the perfect platform to
grow in view of our core capabilities to
serve the Silk Air Route in accordance
to the One Belt – One Road strategy
t h e C h i n e s e G o v e r n m e n t i s
strategically pursuing,” Meier added.
SWW's fleet consists of more than
10 Boeing 747 full freighters and two
more planes are up for delivery. The
freight carrier operates to a global
network of more than 45 destinations
along the ancient Silk Road with
enhanced network through Baku
connecting China, Central Asia, the
Middle East, Europe, Africa and North
America.
China is Azerbaijan's fourth largest
trading partner. Bilateral trade
between them was valued at US$1.3
billion in 2017.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev
and Chinese President Xi Jinping
continue to hold talks in further
improving trade relations between the
countries, the Chinese state news
agency Xinhua reported.
Virgin Atlantic Cargo hauls 116.3m kg in H1 2018
LONDON: Virgin Atlantic Cargo
says it carried 116.3 million kg to the
end of June 2018, building on its
strong performance in life sciences,
express, valuable and automotive
shipments, collectively contributing
to a 3 percent year-on-year growth
tonnage for the firm during the first
half of the year.
The company says its cargo
business also continued to benefit
from closer alignment with its trans-
Atlantic joint venture partner, Delta
Cargo.
It says the opening of the Pharma
Zone at Heathrow in Q4 2017, and
confirmation of its Good Distribution
Practice (GDP) compliance in April,
helped grow its pharma business by
more than 50% compared to the first
six months of 2017 as tightening
regulatory requirements increased
customers' preference for airlines
offering GDP-compliant services.
Virgin Atlantic's expertise in
moving high-value prestige cars as
well as car parts for manufacture and
sale also increased its share of the
automotive cargo market.
“We have achieved a very positive
start to the year with most markets
reporting growth. We continue to see
benefits from our strategic focus on
pharma as well as other core products
and services, including express, high
value cargoes and automotive,” said
Dominic Kennedy, Managing Director
of Virgin Atlantic Cargo.
“Exchange rates and other external
factors may slow some parts of the air
cargo market in the second half of
2018 but with the momentum we
have built, alongside the benefits of
our partnerships with Delta Cargo
and Virgin Australia, our expectations
for the rest of the year remain
positive,” he added.
Growth in Virgin Atlantic's load
factor for the first six months of 2018
was helped by high demand from the
UK to the US as well as to Delhi,
Johannesburg, Dubai, Shanghai and
the Caribbean.
Half-year volumes from across the
Virgin Atlantic network to the UK rose
2.9% overall. Higher demand for US-
UK capacity saw tonnage climb 7.7%
thanks largely to double-digit growth
from the West Coast and South East
of the US.
Cargo revenues from Nigeria, India,
Hong Kong and Dubai all rose,
although business in Shanghai saw
currency movements impacting
demand.