Scanning technology at the main Bolivian airports is being renewed, thanks to the donation of 15 scanners by the People’s Republic of China. This machinery will serve to facilitate and speed up the processing of both passenger baggage and cargo. The scanners were delivered to the National Customs of Bolivia at the start of October.

The equipment will be installed in the main airports of the country: five will go to Viru Viru International airport, in Santa Cruz, where four are destined for international flights and one for cargo control. Three will be placed in La Paz, two in Cochabamba, and one in the border area of Tambo Quemado, to help with customs control and the fight against smuggling and trafficking.

The President of the ANB, Marlene Ardaya, said that this new equipment would allow for a quicker luggage process, saving time and speeding up the passenger traffic at the airports in question. The scanners can check up to 300 bags per hour and this system easily detects any irregular elements, which replaces manual supervision.

FAST Global Solutions, the US designer and manufacturer of non-powered ground support equipment, is continuing its global expansion theme and has announced a new Europe-based manufacturing, sales and service operation that will be centred in Paris, France.

American Airlines Cargo has won a 2017 Quest for Quality award in the annual customer satisfaction and performance excellence survey, for the second consecutive year.

The survey, conducted by the Peerless Group and Logistics Management magazine, has been undertaken over a period of six months from the start of the year for almost 30 years. Around 5,500 survey respondents voted across a number of criteria which saw American recognised as the best for global service excellence.

Peerless Group’s Editorial Director, Michael Levans, said: “When you consider the challenging environment in which transportation and logistics service providers have had to manage during the past year, we believe that walking away with a Quest for Quality Award in 2017 is nothing less than a monumental achievement that should be celebrated across your entire organisation”.

Kim Trahan, American’s Cargo Operations and Trucking Manager, accepted the award at a gala awards ceremony in Atlanta. Trahan commented: “Awards like this matter the most since they are voted on by the professionals within our industry who use our services week in and week out.” She went on to thank American’s teams around the world for their part in delivering consistently exceptional customer service.

This is the third customer-voted award American has received this year. In April, it was voted Cargo Airline of the Year and Best Cargo Airline of the Americas by the readers of Air Cargo News magazine.