The Week in brief
KLM will soon offer services to Havana, Cuba
- KLM will fly directly to Havana, Cuba, three times a week using MD-11 aircraft starting October 31. The flights are currently scheduled for Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
- Air Partner operated two relief flights to Tunisia to help homeless people fleeing Libya for the safe haven of the neighboring country. A B747-400 freighter flew 91 tonnes of blankets, tents and other supplies from Dubai to Djerba. The charter operator said a second flight carrying similar cargo would follow.
- Kenya Airways has announced plans to bring in a freighter to serve regional, intra-African destinations. Group managing director Titus Naikuni said the carrier was looking to source a freighter for the start of its new financial year in April to complement widebody passenger capacity to Lusaka, Lilongwe, Harare and Kinshasa.
- Damco, Maersk Group’s freight forwarding and supply-chain management arm, saw pre-tax earnings almost double from $45 million to $85 million in 2010. Revenue increased from $2.2 billion to $2.7 billion. Damco improved its EBIT margin from 2.3 percent to 3.2 percent. While seafreight volumes grew 13 percent, the company’s smaller airfreight operation saw a 24 percent growth to 75,000 tonnes.
- The European Union has signed an agreement with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration that, according to a statement, "calls for both sides to research the interoperability of avionics, communication protocols and procedures, as well as operational methods under NextGen and its European counterpart, the Single European Sky ATM Research."
- Cargolux is experiencing a case of identity theft. On its website, the carrier said thieves claiming to be "employees, agents or representatives of Cargolux or of a Cargolux subsidiary" are contacting potential clients. The carrier is reminding customers that it "does not solicit, via Internet or other means, payment or personal information in return for goods in transit or in Cargolux custody" and has set up an e-mail address, compliance@cargolux.com , for inquiries related to the matter.
