Scanning the Horizon: 8-13 Nov
Updated: Nov 16, 2020
IATA’s Hughes to take director general role at TIACA
Source: Air Cargo News
A blast of major news hit the air cargo industry as it was announced Glyn Hughes will be taking the leadership role of Director General at the International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), effective 1 February 2021. We are thrilled Glyn has applied to the role after TIACA has been transformed and modernized. Great recognition for the work done by Change Horizon!
Glyn Hughes has build a strong leadership career in air cargo industry, with three decades of experience in airfreight, passenger, financial, training and industry affairs. Hughes is joining the newly transformed Association with a strong ambition to "build bridges between industry players to tackle the challenges and help the industry get ready for the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines which will be one of his first priorities at TIACA next year."
We congratulate Glyn with the new appointment and whish him all the best in tackling the new challenges!
Moderna's coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective, according to company data
Source: CNN
Moderna's vaccine, tested on 15,000 people, came out with a striking 94.5% effectivness rate, according to early data released today.
Compared to Pfizer's vaccine, Moderna's vaccine has a strong logistical advantage - it does not need to be kept as cold - it requires -20 degrees Celsius (compared to -70 degrees Celsius for Pfizer's vaccine). Also, it can be kept refrigerated for 30 days, compared to only 5 days for Pfizer's vaccine.
Alibaba's Singles Day is over. Now comes the task of delivering $74 billion of merchandise ordered on world's largest shopping holiday.
Source: Business Insider
The Chinese shopping holiday, the Singles Day, celebrated every year on 11 November, has once again proven to be an e-commerce hit. This shopping spree usually generates more revenues than the Black Friday and the Cyber Monday combined and results in a massive logistics challenge for such giants like Alibaba:
Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, has prepared over 3,000 charter flights and ships to deliver goods within China
3 million people will work on processing and shipping orders
Wuxi warehouse is using 700 robots to process parcels
Cainiao is using robots for parcel delivery
Focus on sustainability: Caniao has reached almost 100% recyclyble packaging and has set up around 80,000 recycling stations across China for its customers
News From Pfizer Points To A Part Vaccinated World – What This Means For Aviation
Source: Simpliflying
Although the Pfizer vaccine, if approved, could arrive in early 2021, it may not mean that air travel will be able to resume as usual right away:
The vaccine will have to get regulatory approvals and will be prioritized for the most vulnerable members of society, leaving those who are the most likely to travel needing virus testing for a while
Several vaccines, except one, will likely need multiple rounds of injecting
Although it is clear several vaccines will be administered, some may be approved in some countries, but not the others. This will create a recognition issue for cross-border travelers
Logistics and transportation of the vaccine in amounts never seen before will be mammoth task
The risk of new pandemics will change the landscape of air travel forever no matter how effective vaccination against COVID-19 will be.
Race to zero: This graphic shows the rapidly falling cost of renewables
Source: World Economic Forum
There are less and less reasons to use coal to generate electricity as renewable energy sources are getting cheaper. The top three reasons why renewable energy sector will continue to grow:
Public environmental concerns
Falling renewable energy costs
Technologies are now available to make the renewable energy revolution happen
Source: International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Air cargo prepares for biggest ever product launch as vaccine nears roll-out
Source: Air Cargo News
The article explored the logistical challenges that the air cargo industry will have to overcome to be able to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to estimated 4.2bn people.
Among the key challenges will be ensuring no temperature excursions for vaccines that require transportation in -20 degrees Celcius or even -80 degress Celcius. One of the key worries in this respect concern most of the developing world where storage facilities are not equiped to handle goods in extreme low temperaturs.
Air Canada plans a dedicated freighter fleet to expand cargo business
Source: Loadstar
Yet another airline to capitalize on air cargo business potential is Air Canada. But this time, it seems the carrier is planning a dedicated freighter fleet as its long term business strategy. Air Canada was the first airline to convert passenger airplanes into cargo planes back in April 2020 when the global pandemic grounded passenger fleet with disastrous consequences for airline revenues. Not surprisingly, in Q2 of 2020, air cargo revenues surpassed the passenger revenues for Air Canada.
Now, the carrier is planning to link Latin America with Europe and Asia as part of its airfreight business strategy, using former passenger planes, hoping to kick off freighter operations by Q4 of 2021.
Canadian startup AirMatrix maps air corridors for drones
Source: DroneDJ
The start-up AirMatrix has been mapping out routes for drones in Canada using multi-layer principle and achieving millimeter-level precision. Drone delivery in highly dense urban areas can prove to be a crucial alternative to road transport, proving to be faster, more efficient and environmentally friendly. The work that AirMatrix start-up is doing could bring an essential element of guaranteed safety into play. We'll keep an eye on further developments!