FlyingTalkers By Geoffrey Arend

Here we share stories about some interesting new leadership in air cargo that has emerged during the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that our conversations were conducted with women, we suppose, fits nicely into the ongoing International Women's Month celebrations. But we have been sharing these stories since we began publishing in 1975. The fact that the story can now involv...

Will Live Meetings & Trade Shows Come Back? The quick answer is, of course they will. Right now while you hear this story, COVID-19 vaccines continue to arrive in doses by the millions almost everywhere on earth. At the same time eager cargo events are reaching out entreating us to join a webinar or attend a trade show convention or a regional meeting. The voices, like crickets in summer, will...

Indication that the COVID-19 pandemic has heated up the investment community for air cargo and especially folks deep dish into digitalization is acknowledged as M33 Growth, a Boston-based venture capital firm showed up at SmartKargo with a suitcase full of investment money. Globalization In Real Decline? As long as there is cheap labor and low environmental requirements overseas, don’t expect offs...

One From The Heart “We benefit from her self-awareness, empathy and social skills that helps to navigate complex situations. “She is the heart of our company,” Ingo Zimmer, CEO ATC Aviation Services says of Dagmar Hanau. Why Guillaume Halleux Guillaume Halleux Chief Cargo Officer at Qatar Airways is a Frenchman, who decades prior began his air cargo career from a split hangar in London that Air Fr...

“People have space in their ultimate sanctuary, their homes, allotted for living. “To make the transition from the office easier and more familiar we handed over office equipment, including ATC laptops and personal computers and also even office furniture for use at home," said Ingo Zimmer, CEO of ATC, the world's leading GSSA. Too Cool At a time in life when everything is changing, the McCools, b...

In aviation the letters spoken as a word reporting flying conditions is WOXOF. "Weather: Overcast, Ceiling Obscured, Visibility Zero in Fog." Pronounced like it looks: "WOXOF”  when spoken most often gets the same response from everyone, especially pilots: “You're not getting me up in that.” Here in COVID-19 2021 as the year progresses and Spring begins, through the fog, there are some questi...

Basil Pietersen Brings The Rainbow To FIATA As COVID-19 has severely limited public events for the past fourteen months , you may have missed that late in 2019  at it's World Congress in Cape Town FIATA elected  Basil L.S. Pietersen, the former Chair and longtime director of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders to serve a two-year term as President of the global organ...

Last week Turkish Cargo Talks a three- hour webinar went out worldwide. We watched it. Here is our take. The event opened with about five minutes from host Smilin’ Sam Chui. Chui is a reality star who flies around and eats dinner in first class on everybody’s airline and shares the experience with his large global audience living vicariously every mile aloft. We Remember Boubby Once upon a time in...

Having launched FlyingTalkers, a weekly podcast every Monday for air cargo 18 months ago, I guess we could only expect that it would just be a matter of time until someone  came along and branded Cargo Talks. Turkish Airlines Cargo is putting up Cargo Talks, a first-time webinar that takes place beginning at 11:30 GMT Tuesday February 10. Rates Clobber India Flower Exports The flower farms at...

For a while most people in air cargo transportation knew Lionel Van der Walt from the time he served as President of Cargo Network Services (CNS). All of that has changed because for some time now Lionel has served as CEO of fast-rising PayCargo. The thing about Lionel is that he is a genuine good guy. He listens well, is not fearful of tough decisions and standing up for what is right. Most endea...

Last year in early March as the COVID-19 began raging and we were all locked down wondering what would happen next, the tulip beds springing back to life around our home sent their quiet message of life and renewal and beauty. In uncertain times being able to slow down a bit and contemplate the flowers works. Undoubtedly if you work in the flower business whether growing or selling or shipping you...

In the U.S. on Monday January 18, our nation celebrates the life and legacy of Martin Luther KIng. MLK Monday comes along just as the nation is about to welcome a new President after many months of political acrimony and unrest, and with COVID-19 still the continued threat to lives everywhere. With a tip of our hat to Rev. King always, we continue FlyingTalkers groundbreaking series covering the c...

When Jan Krems began his tenure four years ago as top cargo executive at United Airlines Worldwide Cargo as President we wrote: “Winston Churchill said of Franklin Roosevelt that 'meeting him was like uncorking your first bottle of champagne,' which is exactly what best describes talking to Jan Krems, President of United Airlines Cargo." Face-to-face or on Zoom, take your pick, Jan comes across as...

There is a celebration this week in New York City. The nearly three quarters of a million people that are mostly commuters going to and from work in New York & New Jersey have been forced to travel pre-pandemic through Pennsylvania (Penn) Station in Manhattan, a daily subterranean dismal railroad encounter since the misdirected destruction in 1963 of the monumental Beaux Arts 1910 version of P...

A moving holiday essay from a loving daughter decorates and drives our holiday spirit this muted Christmas 2020 during COVID-19. Here is how Christmas ought to be, ,once was , and pray will be again, when the Pandemic of 2020 finally moves into the rear view mirror. Florence Arend(we call her Flossie, takes off the gloves and paints a powerful word picture of her Christmas. "Every year around this...

Having spent most of my life in logistics, when we started talking about COVID19 vaccines in the springtime I was anticipating the greatest logistics challenge of our times: delivering COVID19 vaccines as soon as available to thousands if not millions of POU’s all over the world. Famously we recall challenges such as the Berlin Airlift which kept west Berlin alive in times of cold war, perhaps les...

Ronald Edward George (REG) Davies is probably someone you may not have heard about. Davies died in England nine years ago at age 90. Simply said, REG Davies was and today remains the greatest and most prolific airline historian that ever lived anywhere in the world. His legacy to aviation, captured in 25 books and other social efforts, are as pioneering and important in scope as many of the subjec...

This could be the week that the world has been waiting for as that now imminent vaccine is on the boards to begin deliveries. From India to Indiana, the world will be able to breathe a long sigh of relief as air cargo jumps centerstage to commence what could be the greatest airlift in history. But are we ready? Here we talk to some leading transportation professionals of India. The Flying Cool War...

Here  just for Thanksgiving in America 2020, we step back a bit and widen our scope revisiting one of most famous "airport happenings" in New York City history. The date was February 7, 1964 and the great international airport for New York City John. F. Kennedy International Airport  (JFK) said hello  to the Beatles musical group and the city went wild. Actually the story of that fl...

Stanley Lim Pioneering Singapore-based freight forwarder and Member of the Extended FIATA Board says:  “A lot is happening in FIATA:  the reset idea is very good, but there are issues. FIATA has gone through a complete overhaul within a few months, in one of the most complex times of our lives due to the pandemic. I am fully committed to assist and my impression is that the new managemen...

In less than two weeks the curtain will ring down on a career that has endured at an airline, nearly 46 years or since Gerald Ford was USA President and Helmut Schmidt served as Chancellor of The Federal Republic of Germany. In Frankfurt, when Heide Enfield packs it in and retires on November 30 and says her last farewell, she will also bring to close a family affiliation in the airline business t...

These days more often than not we hear some new language  driven by the COVID-19 global pandemic “We are OK, safe inside of our bubble.” I have often wondered how secure some of these perceived ‘bubbles” are. Also think of our Son’ Geoffrey 11 about 20 years ago the day he left Queens New York and headed out to Hollywood where he starred as Flipper Boy in his first big production movie titled...

CNS Departures Mean  Industry Will Suffer "Now we are witnessing some of the best leadership in our industry departing  when this is the time they are needed the most,",former CNS President Warren Jones told Flying Talkers.  "With the recent post of Mike White leaving CNS  and some other great individuals at IATA like Gordon Wright, our industry, while resilient, will suffer."...

“CNS will focus on its core mission on ensuring that the CASS continues to meet the needs of the U.S cargo industry,” came the terse announcement from IATA confirming that our exclusive story of Mike White an icon of change advancing the airline forwarder partnership, departing as Cargo Network Services President at year’s end, is sadly all too true. After finishing 40 years in the airlines and re...

When it comes to air cargo, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) seems to be adapting a bunker mentality in 2020 as top management and other key personnel connected to air cargo are retiring in droves. Glyn Hughes, IATA Head of Cargo departs IATA in January, and Mike White, President of IATA Cargo Network Services (CNS) will depart by year’s end. Add to that the diminishing number of...