Scanning the Horizon: 22-26 Feb
Cargo load factors remain strong despite Chinese New Year
Source: Air Cargo News
CLIVE Data Services reported that air cargo load factor was higher over the Chinese New Year period compared to previous years, when typically Chinese factories close for a two-week period during which the nation celebrates the most important holiday of the year. The new trend can be explained by the fact that many people could not travel back to see their families in China's provinces due to government restrictions related to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and were willing to continue working over the holiday period.
This year, thus, the factories continued working and Europe-bound air cargo volumes remained high, load factor dropping only 1% (from 94% to 93%).
The first COVAX vaccines have been delivered to Africa. Here's why it matters
Source: Reuters via WEF
The first 600K vaccines against COVID-19, organized under the COVAX initiative have reached Africa. The Astra Zeneca/Oxford vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India will be administered as of 2 March in Ghana. Although the COVAX Facility plans to deliver nealry 2B vaccines this year worldwide (1.8 billion to poorer countries), there is a lot more work that needs to be done to guarantee vaccine equity, as so far from 210 million doses of vaccines administered, half we injected in only two countries and over 200 countries have not administered a single dose yet:
Vietjet eyes expansion in cargo business for 2021
Source: Payload Asia
Yet another passenger airline to strengthen its cargo operations is Vietnam's largest budget airline VietJet, which introduced new cargo services to meet the growing demand and optimize its fleet. The airline has also invested in a local tech-based delivery platform Swift247 targeting express delivery market and partnered with a global shipping and logistics company to set up a transcontinental transportation network.