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Brazil’s catering gets a fresher look

Gate Gourmet has officially started up operations at its newly-built facility in São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport. This unit replaces the facility where the company has been operating since 1995 when it entered the Brazilian market.

The new facility will enable Gate Gourmet to back its customers’ growth following the airport’s privatisation and expansion through an on-airport facility equipped with state-of-the-art technology and with optimum layout and process flows based on gategroup’s global best practices.

The 17,000 square metre building has a 2,100 square metre production area, where around 720 employees can produce up to 36,000 meals for airline and retail customers per day.

Gategroup’s MD & President of Latin America, Edwin Garcia, comments: “As leaders of the airline catering market in the Latin America region, we are fully committed to continue growing and expanding, in order to meet our global customers’ needs and demands. Our new facility at São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport allows us to keep pace with the market while ensuring the highest global standards and delivering operational excellence.”

China gives 15 scanners to Bolivia worth US$11m

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 forward to Europe

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 wins quality award

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.AA Cargo

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.

Towing to the MAX

Electric vehicle manufacturer LEKTRO has confirmed the certification of its AP8950SDB-AL-200 for towing the Boeing 737 MAX. In do doing, this becomes the first towbarless towing vehicle to be certified to handle the new Boeing aircraft. Thanks to the versatility of LEKTRO’s proprietary automatic aircraft recognition system, this also means that the company’s larger AP8950SDB-AL-250 is certified for use on the B737 MAX

Eagle Tugs’ move finalised

Tronair, a portfolio company of Golden Gate Capital, has announced that Eagle Tugs has successfully moved into 1 Air Cargo Parkway East in Swanton, Ohio. This new, state-of-the-art facility will become the home to all of the Tronair portfolio companies. Within a week of Eagle’s relocation, the first production unit came out of the facility.

Silent running at Sacramento

Sacramento International airport has taken a further step in the transition towards a more environmentally-friendly airport, having secured an FAA grant.

Proterra sept 2017The award of US$2m will allow it to pay for half the cost of five shuttle buses and charging stations. Proterra has been chosen as the vehicle supplier and these buses are expected to enter service next year, carrying passengers between car parks, terminals and car rental facilities.

The airport also plans to open a large, on-site solar farm this year, which will produce up to one-third of the facility’s electrical needs.

Together, the buses and solar facility will reduce airport costs and lighten the airport’s environmental footprint. The solar farm alone is expected to save US$850,000 year. The new buses will supplement the airport’s existing fleet, which runs on compressed natural gas.

Florida’s Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Awarded $7 Million Grant for Airport ImprovementsBus Network Redesigns Are the ‘Hottest Trend in Transit’The buses and solar facility will reduce airport costs and lighten the airport’s environmental footprint, officials said. The solar farm is expected to save $850,000 year.The new buses will supplement the airport’s existing fleet, which runs on compressed natural gas. “In the long run, it is much more economical to run electric vehicles, and at the same time we are not contributing to greenhouse gas emissions,” spokeswoman Laurie Slothower said.

Flying high

New Flyer of AmeriGroundbreaking with gold shovels at NFA Anniston, Alabama (CNW Group/New Flyer Industries Inc.)ca, the US subsidiary of New Flyer Industries, the transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor, has broken ground on a US$25m building renovation and expansion project in Anniston, Alabama.

The 36 acre, five building campus will feature a new Vehicle Innovation Centre, which is understood to be North America’s first innovation laboratory that is dedicated to the advancement of bus and coach technology. The VIC will be led in partnership with Motor Coach Industries, another US subsidiary of the company.

“Repairing infrastructure through advanced technology is paramount to America’s competitiveness, safety and prosperity. Through New Flyer’s investment in advanced engineering and manufacturing, we have the potential to dramatically transform the future of public transportation in the US,” commented Wayne Joseph, President of New Flyer of America. “We are proud to power sustainable new technologies, collaborations for smart cities and opportunities to connect people to places.”

 

Unilode expands its global ULD repair network

Unilode Aviation Solutions has further expanded its global repair network by opening a new FAA Part 145 certified repair centre at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport. This new facility will primarily support and expand Unilode’s partnership with DHL, and focus on ULD repairs and assembly, in addition to supporting Unilode’s existing ULD management and repair customers.

Moreover, Unilode’s South American network will be further strengthened by the opening of a repair centre in São Paulo, within the next couple of months. This new facility, along with Unilode’s recently opened FAA Part 145 certified service centre in Santiago, will primarily serve LATAM, which is Unilode’s ULD management customer.

Finally, Unilode has said that it also plans to open a repair centre in Jeddah before the end of this year. This facility will mainly focus on supporting Saudia Airlines (Unilode’s ULD management customer) with its ULD management and repair needs.

IT comes to airport’s aid

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International airport, in combination with the local Transportation Security Administration, is using live and empirical data to identify irregularities at the security checkpoint. Thanks to BlipTrack technology, the airport is now experiencing better resource utilisation and smoother passenger processing.

In 2016, the airport achieved its best ranking in the history of the US Department of Transportation airfare report. It also experienced its highest passenger traffic volumes since 2005, with almost 7m passengers passing through this international transport hub.

CincinnatiTo keep the passenger experience positive, even as carrier and traveller numbers continue to rise, the airport implemented BlipTrack queue and flow technology at TSA checkpoints during 2014. The airport was the first in the US to utilise this solution, which allows it to measure, understand and improve the traveller experience, and to better plan and allocate resources in cooperation with the TSA.

After one year of use, the airport was in a position to announce that, due to the data gathered via BlipTrack, it had successfully reduced TSA security line waiting times by one third. In a 2015 report produced by Purdue University, standard waiting times had dropped by nearly over four minutes from 13.2 minutes to 8.9 minutes, compared to 2011.

Since then, the airport has gradually expanded the solution and added new features to help streamline operations further and continue improving the passenger experience. Passenger-facing waiting time monitors and CVGairport.com interfaces provide immediate waiting time status, thereby easing the travel anxiety associated with queue lines and setting realistic expectations. Additionally, the airport has gone so far as to establish service level agreement-like standards for self-accountability, ensuring average waiting times below 15 minutes are consistently delivered. For the second quarter ending June 2017, the average waiting time for expedited screening registered at 11 minutes 28 seconds. This is deemed significant, given the station’s surge in peak-day checkpoint throughput from 10,000 to over 15,000 during the same period.

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