Eric Joiner's Freightdawg.com - The Logistics and Supply Chain Blog!

Lufthansa MD-11F Crash at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

On Tuesday, July 27th, 2010, a Lufthansa MD-11 Freighter bound from Frankfurt, Germany to Riyadh, KSA crashed on landing destroying the air frame, however without loss of life.  LH8460 was subsequently scheduled to fly from Riyadh to Sharjah then on to Hong Kong.   Lufthansa only operates the MD-11 as a freighter. 

The MD-11 suffers from a bad reputation given its few numbers built (200 aircraft).   Of the 200 built, now 8 have crashed.   Three of those were FedEx freighters. Compared to other wide body jets this number of crashes is very high.  

Here are some comparisons to other aircraft currently flying.

• MD-11: 8 crashed out of 200
• B744: 3 crashed out of approximately 700 (166 pure freighters built)
• A340: 3 crashed out of approximately 390+
• B777: 1 crashed out of 860+

Previous MD-11 crashes are detailed here.

• 31-JUL-1997 MD-11F N611FE FedEx
• 02-SEP-1998 MD-11 HB-IWF Swissair
• 15-APR-1999 MD-11 HL7373 Korean Air
• 22-AUG-1999 MD-11 B-150 China Airlines
• 17-OCT-1999 MD-11F N581FE FedEx
• 23-MAR-2009 MD-11F N526FE FedEx
• 28-NOV-2009 MD-11F Z-BAV Avient

I'll be honest...if I was a FedEx pilot I'd be working on getting a rating to fly something else.  I have friends who are Delta pilots who "inherited" the MD-11 when DAL purchased other airlines.  There were always complaints that this aircraft was complicated to fly and was less-than-intuitive when it came to systems.  Most were not unhappy to see these birds retired.  

I will say as a passenger, I never liked the MD-11's older sister, the DC-10.  When American had the horrific crash at Chicago ORD many years ago, that crash scared me.   I always flew on the L-1011 because I thought it was a safer bird.   The MD-11 is a derivative of the DC-10. Perhaps the recent crashes are not linked, but as a guy who rides in back...I pay attention.

Lufthansa is still sorting out the freight manifest for this flight and as far as I know, no losses have been formally confirmed to freight forwarders or shippers with freight aboard.  That, I am sure is coming, but so far nothing has been put forward by the airline that I am aware of.

Eric

BA, American and Iberia win EU OK for alliance | al.com

So much for Virgin Atlantic's competitive motto of "NO WAY BA/AA".   Seems the European Union has approved the merger of BA and Iberia and the subsequent expansion of the relationship with American.  The net result will be deeper ties between the carriers and a larger penetration of the European and American markets.   Associated Press reported the story below.   

It will be interesting to see how the coordinated flight schedules will impact air freight space availability especially in crowded markets like the Latin American trades where American has a significant presence as does Iberia.

BRUSSELS -- British Airways and Iberia won the European Union's regulatory approval to merge and to team up with American Airlines to share more of their lucrative trans-Atlantic routes.

British Airways' merger with Iberia will create Europe's third-largest airline with a market value of around $7.5 billion pounds. They will keep their existing brand identities and claim the deal will create savings of euro400 million ($530 million) a year by the fifth year.

BA and Iberia also plan to expand their oneworld alliance with American Airlines, which currently coordinates how they sell and operate flights between the 27-nation European Union and the United States. They will now also jointly manage schedules, capacity and pricing on flights from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Norway and Switzerland as well.

BA, American and Iberia win EU OK for alliance | al.com

DHL: Press Releases

 I'm a few days late in posting this, but this is a significant event for DHL and the folks in Clinton County, Ohio. DHL donated the former Airborne hub at Wilmington, Ohio to the Clinton County Port Authority.

What DHL gave the CCPA is a big, big deal. This is the largest privately held airport in the United States. Its a former SAC base with twin 10,000 ft runways and a complete logistics infrastructure to support it.  A major airport capable of landing 747's in the middle of the United States, plus 1500 acres of logistics park, including warehouses, etc.  Is a great asset to help central Ohio recover from the jobs loss created by the DHL hub move to CVG and its departure from the US domestic parcel business.

_____________________________________________

CCPA, DHL FINALIZE AIR PARK TRANSACTION Wilmington, Ohio and Plantation, Fla. -- June 3, 2010 Deutsche Post DHL officially deeded the Wilmington Air Park to the Clinton County Port Authority (CCPA) in an afternoon ceremony held at the former Employee Welcome Center, highlighting the opportunity to once again open the Air Park to employee traffic.  
 
"We are pleased to accept this donation today," said John Limbert, Chairman of the CCPA. "However we understand it is just the beginning of the process of reactivating the Air Park. There is still a lot of work ahead of us." 
 
Many dignitaries were in attendance to mark the occasion. Representatives from the Ohio Department of Development and the Economic Task Force, as well as local and regional elected and business officials shared their comments with the group assembled at the Air Park. 
 
"I commend John Limbert of the CCPA who, along with State and Local Officials, worked diligently alongside our DHL team to conclude the donation agreement in the best interests of the local community," said Ian Clough, CEO of DHL Express USA. "With today's official donation of the Wilmington Air Park, we are confident that the community here and throughout southwest Ohio will be poised to prosper and attract new and exciting development to the Air Park property in the future." 
 
The CCPA, working with the State of Ohio, the County Commissioners, the Mayor's office and other Economic Development leaders, have been bringing visitors to the Air Park, sharing information on building specifications and discussing possible business opportunities. Now that it can enter into agreements with these groups, the CCPA will be able to negotiate in more detail with these potential tenants what it would take to make things move forward. 
 
"A lot of people put a lot of hours into this donation agreement," noted Limbert. "We want to thank DHL for this opportunity for our community and for their commitment throughout the process." 
 
At different points in the process over the last year - negotiations first began in early June of 2009 - DHL and the CCPA had the assistance of representatives from the State of Ohio, from national legislators, the community and its leaders and professional consultants, all with the intent of making sure the Air Park would be functional and viable as the CCPA accepted ownership and began to market it in earnest. 
 
Included in the property transfer are approximately 1,500 acres of land and several buildings located, for the most part, "inside the fence" of the airport. ATSG, ABX Air and AMES all will continue their leases of buildings at the airport. 

via www.dhl-usa.com

Could Concorde Fly Again?

  A British and French team are working on the possibility of returning a former Air France Concorde to flying status as part of a Le Bourget Air and Space Museum effort to preserve the Concorde as a piece of living history.  Very exciting news to this aviation buff.  

Concorde was and is one of the all time cool airplanes, along with the SR-71, who performed marvelously and well beyond their era.

BBC News - Work starts in £15m plan to get Concorde flying

The engines on a French Concorde are to be examined as the first move in a £15m project aiming to get the supersonic passenger jet back in the air. The Rolls Royce engines of the former Air France Concorde will undergo an initial examination to see what work needs to be done to start the engines.

Concorde was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity. The tests by a French-British team will take place at an air museum near Paris.

The work at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum is being done through a partnership between the British Save Concorde Group, SCG, and a French group Olympus 593.

'Critical date'

Vice-chairman of SCG Ben Lord said: "Today marks the most critical date in Concorde's history since she was retired almost seven years ago.

"Two members of our management team are in France this weekend to observe these amazing developments. "SCG has always maintained that she could return to flight in a heritage capacity, and the findings of today will hopefully go an awfully long way to proving our point.

via news.BBC.co.uk

DHL Brussels Farewell Party - June 11, 2010

For many years, DHL's European hub and headquarters was in Brussels, Belgium. In recent times however, the company has relocated it's hub operations and many jobs to Leipzig, Germany. 

Soon, the DHL team in Belgium will transition to new jobs, and in many cases, new careers with other firms. Nevertheless, one heck of a party is planned to close this chapter in DHL's European life.  See below for details!

THE DHL FAREWELL TO BRUSSELS PARTY

 

IT’S STILL NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR THE PARTY OF THE YEAR!

 

The date is now confirmed for Friday 11th June 2010 at Melsbroek football ground close to the airport starting at 1900 and going on until the early hours.

 

Many thanks to all of those who have registered and more thanks to those who responded to the brufarewell@gmail.com email address advising whether or not you will be attending this event. Also very many thanks to those who have already transferred payment to the BRU Farewell bank account.

 

Please note that, in order to ensure we register you correctly, in addition to registering on this site, please email brufarewell@gmail.com, confirming whether or not you will be attending and with how many people. If people have responded independently of your group, they will be treated individually.

 

Once you have accepted please transfer €55 per person to the BRU Farewell ING bank account 377-0159018-72 (IBAN: BE38377015901872, BIC Code: BBRUBEBB) before 7th May to guarantee your attendance.

 

Once you have made payment for yourself and others in your group, we will send you a ticket showing your name and the total in your group (if more than just yourself) to present to security on the night of the event.

 

The event will feature 4 hours of free bar (thereafter cash will be accepted), a barbeque, a disco and a live band. For those football fans among you, there will be a screen showing the second match of the World Cup (France v Uruguay) although this will be in one corner and will not intrude on those who want to concentrate on partying!

 

The dress code will be casual but, as an idea, if you have any old DHL logo’d items of clothing still hidden away in the wardrobe, it might be fun to dig them out and come appropriately attired!

For those who have any distance to travel or who simply want to party to the max & not worry about driving home, we have a deal on rooms at the Airport Holiday Inn at Euro 75.00 per single or Euro 85.00 per double including breakfast for those who can face it! The reservation form is downloadable by emailing brufarewell@gmail.com and requesting the document. Shuttles will be arranged to take you from the party back to the hotel. More details on that later.

 

Many thanks and best regards,

 

The Organizing Committee

Dang it. Clinton May be Right.

This blog is about logistics. You will find almost 500 posts here and only one or two that are politically related.  That's on purpose.  I try to stay within the boundaries of my business.

In this case however politics is my business. Former President Bill Clinton gave a speech recently at the University of California, Berkeley,  warning about the power of words and the potential of rhetoric to incite harm.  Specifically Clinton referred to the strong negative discourse today between Tea Party Republican /conservatives and supporters of the current government over a host of issues, with healthcare being at the center.  

In this case, I think Clinton meant to align the Tea Partiers with radicals, which I disagree with, but I think he still has a bigger point worth noting. 

Clinton reminded the audience that in 1995 similarly strong sentiments were running when Timothy McVeigh and accomplices bombed the Federal building in Oklahoma City.  His point was that words have strong meaning and what may be political rhetoric for elective purposes for some, may incite violence from others with a more literal interpretation.  Speech is free, but it is not without cost. 

The key point with which I agree with a president I did not support,... is that the words we say to each other matter.  As Americans, political balance is one of the  reasons our democracy has been successful. I also believe it's the reason our economy has been as successful as it has for almost 235 years.  Weights and balances allow dialog, even difficult dialog, to take place.  Political dialog allows a free market economy to work.

What happens nowadays though, especially amongst we bloggers, is that information and opinions, regardless of viewpoint, are now as free as electrons.  Crazy can travel as freely as traditional.  Words incite actions, even unintended actions.  What's dangerous is that what's crazy to you may be both sane and logical to me.  Even more so, cultural collisions now happen instantly thanks to the Internet.

Where that comes back home to my world is that it costs the global economy serious money to scan freight shipments and packages for explosives.  It also costs big money in airline and shipping company practices and policies on security.   Doubtless, much of this is borne on the back of 911 related terrorism, but domestic terrorism is also a factor.   I suspect your office building has different security measures now than it did in 1990.   That's a result of both domestic and international attacks on our country. 

Ultimately, I think this comes down to respect.   Difficult to enact other than through restraint. I'm not talking about being politically correct.  That's only a way of masking true feelings with obtuse words.  What I'm talking about is being educated on the issues and speaking in a way that engages discussion.

I'm about driving costs out of supply chains, which means finding a safer world.  I hate to think the only way to do that is to ramp up the security investment while the rhetoric takes the same arc.

I don't have all the answers here, nor am I sure my opinion is completely coherent.  But I know that the ramped up conflict increases risk, and risk costs money.

Eric

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Elvis has Left the Building: Memphis Chamber goes For Freight

 Most people think of Memphis as the home of Elvis, Blues and Barbecue.  That's all good, but that ain't all there is. Not according to the Memphis Chamber of Commerce anyway. 

Freight is also important in Memphis Tennessee.  How many metropolitan Chambers of Commerce have a Vice President of Logistics? Memphis does.

Jim Covington is the Vice President of Logistics for the Greater Memphis Chamber, and he wants new business.  Air, ocean, intermodal, river traffic...the works.   In this regard, the Greater Memphis Chamber has started a marketing campaign dubbing Memphis as "Americas Aerotropolis".  

America's Aerotropolis

Memphis has the blessing of being centrally located in the United States.  Its location on the Mississippi River also gives it access to the biggest riverine domestic corridor in the country.

Freight transportation companies can obviously read a map.  A well known purple express company has its largest global hub in Memphis, making it the busiest cargo airport in the country.  Additionally several major railroads have intermodal hubs in Memphis.  All this makes for a great place for companies to set up distribution facilities in the region.  Retailers like Williams Sonoma, Dell, and others have facilities nearby in order to leverage the infrastructure.

Nevertheless, Memphis wants more.  See this linked White paper that the Greater Memphis Chamber has put out on the benefits of the city and surrounding areas.   The local TV stations are in line with the effort. Check out this news story that includes some video as well. 

At the end of the day, the Chamber of Commerce in Memphis wants jobs.   Whether employment comes from additional transportation company investment, warehousing or retailer investment, the community wants to grow and is leveraging its best assets to make that happen.

Eric

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A long haul into History

On December 7th, 1941 a Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat was enroute to Auckland, New Zealand when news of the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor reached them by wireless.   Directed to get the high tech airplane back to the US, the crew flew around the world westbound.

The video below is about that flight.  I wouldn't mind the air miles for this one, but the trip was dangerous and lengthy.

Those who want to know the rest of the story, check this link.

http:/www.radiocom.net/Clipper/

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Logistics will Save Haiti

George Clooney and Wyclef Jean have their hearts and minds in the right place.  Both championed and created the "Hope For Haiti" Telethon that debuted tonight on HBO.   I watched the show and was impressed with the number of TV and movie stars that donated their time and money to the cause.  Common folks calling in donations but getting the phone answered by Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, etc. were impressed.  No doubt MILLIONS will be donated.  

Then tomorrow will come.   The money will be contributed to major charity and relief organizations who will convert the cash into usable materials and food.  All that stuff will then need to be delivered to the island nation of Haiti. 

Haiti is one of the poorest nations on earth. Its poor people are known to eat mud cakes just to have something in their bellies.  I know this because our church has a twin parish in Haiti.  Take that poverty and add a very thin layer of social infrastructure in terms of electric power, gas and communications as well as fuel, and what you have is a little crust of a society that can be broken with a strong wind.   Much less a 7.0 earthquake.

Despite politics, people are sympathetic to anything that puts children at risk.  Images of little children being rescued from collapsed buildings will immediately interest anyone who has had a kid of their own  (and rightly so!).  Our humanity is called to action!   Many nations have sent medical and rescue teams to Haiti to save victims.  Companies, including my own employer, DHL, have sent Disaster Response Teams to help with the efforts.  For the most part, these are very brave volunteer forces.

Lets break down what needs to happen.   The Port au Prince airport normally handles about 35 flights a day.  The American aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson is now near shore and with her Navy air traffic controllers as well as USAF controllers, inbound flights are up to 100 per day. The inbound freight is staged in the open air, which is a risk, but it's on the ground, which is at least a positive.  Canadian forces are working to open a second airport at Jacmel but the time table to get that organized is not firm.   Port infrastructure at the port of Port au Prince was heavily damaged in the quake, with the container cranes there being knocked off their rail mounts or knocked over. The US Navy is engineering the reopening of the port now to allow relief aid to enter the country.

There is no aviation fuel on the island.  This means that inbound flights must have at least enough fuel to redeploy to a near by airport.    The crux of this is that an airplane that has to carry extra fuel to repatriate to another country can carry less in the way of relief goods.  For this reason the United States has set up a staging base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.   For more nefarious reasons, the world at least knows exactly where Gitmo is.  I suspect Miami, San Juan and perhaps airports in Cuba and other Caribbean nations will serve similar roles.  

Given the tactical nature of this rescue effort, I think the hero of the campaign will be the venerable C-130, which has been ideally suited to tactical materiel delivery since the 1950's.

Once goods are on the ground, the key will be how efficiently they are distributed to those who need them.   This is an area where I feel our industry has expertise to share.  Shipping lines, airlines, trucking companies, contract logistics (warehousing and TMS) firms all have expertise gained by handling the worlds global commerce can help Haiti.  Haiti has no distribution network.  For this reason a green field opportunity exists to put this little impoverished nation on a new footing. 

The world will provide Haiti with billions of dollars in assets and infrastructure it would never have had access to before this earthquake.  Despite its chronic poverty,  Hollywood stars weren't concerned with Haiti until it hit a world stage.  For this reason I take at least some of the "stars" with a big grain of salt.  In my opinion however, Wyclef Jean is a Haitian patriot.  He stands for his countrymen as a voice in the west.

It will take years and many global dollars, but I wonder in the end, if this earthquake will not turn out to be a blessing of sorts for the nation of Haiti?  Many of her citizens have perished tragically, but I can think of no other event that might have pushed the worlds "first world" countries to be so forceful in helping the least of the third world.

Almost assuredly, the Hollywood movie stars had their minds on other things...as did we all.

Eric

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Airventure 2009

One day I have to go to the EAA Airventure show at Oshkosh.  If you love airplanes, this is Mecca.  I found this video on youtube, and loved it. 

Eric

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