A government-orchestrated bail-out for LTU, the German charter airline, was facing criticism on Monday as Lufthansa, the German national airline, turned to the European Commission to stop what it described as “state subsidies”.
Lufthansa competes with LTU through Condor, the charter airline of Thomas Cook, the second-largest travel group in Europe. Thomas Cook is a joint venture between Lufthansa and retailer Karstadt Quelle.
Read MoreJapan Airlines (JAL), Asia’s largest carrier, said on Monday it would merge with Japan Air System (JAS), the third-largest domestic carrier, to form the world’s sixth-biggest carrier.
The airlines said they would set up a joint holding company next autumn, and complete integration of operations by spring of 2004
Read MoreAs the managing director of DHL in Israel, Dan Granot has one recurring headache – last mile delivery to residential areas. The problem with delivering packages to homes, he discovered, was that his deliverymen worked during office hours and so did the recipients of the parcels. Seventy-five percent of the time, a deliveryman would have to drive out two or three times before he could finally get the parcel delivered. This cost the carrier a great deal of time and money. The carrier subsidized each trip and was losing large amounts of money on residential areas.
Last summer, Granot – who founded delivery company Shigur Express – decided to try to solve this problem together with Nir Kinory and Yoav Koster. The result is eShip-4u, a start-up company that has developed a convenient hardware and software solution that solves the problem of last mile delivery.
Read MoreSchiphol is already the fourth largest gateway in Europe for both passengers and cargo. The recognition that this fact provides will be further boosted over the next few months, thanks to the part-privatisation of parent company Schiphol Group (see panel page 6). Meanwhile, the airport is pursuing various initiatives and projects which should ensure its continued development as more than a mere air transport hub. Beyond 2010, though, the future is not yet clear.
Read MoreStarting as of today [10 November], the Russian Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy has introduced new tariffs for all postal services.
The tariffs for sending postcards and letters will be raised by 30 per cent. The weight charge for sending parcels of a declared value will also go up 30 per cent. At the same time, the payment for the declared value will be reduced by 20 per cent.
THE Post Office is to install fee-charging cash machines at 2000 locations countrywide. The Post Office is paid a fee per transaction. It justifies the £1 levy by saying that many branches are in remote locations and their ATMs would not be economically viable unless customers were charged. Cash machines are currently available at just 500 post offices but the intention is to roll them out to at least 3000 branches over the next 18 months. Two thirds of these are expected to levy a charge
Read MoreFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has reported that “a court in Hanover has ruled against Deutsche Post AG, the German post office, in a legal dispute concerning postage charges amounting to DM6.3m. The court dismissed Deutsche Post’s claim against Citicorp Card Operations GmbH, which in 1995 and 1996 sent out mail to customers in Germany via the Dutch post office, so as to avoid the higher postage charges imposed by Deutsche Post. The court ruled that Deutsche Post would have been entitled to send the letters back to the Netherlands, but had no right to claim compensation having delivered the letters.”
Read MoreBusiness Express has won a home delivery contract for bid-up.tv, an interactive auction digital television channel. Sky Digital subscribers order goods from live auctions daily by phone or through the company website. Fulfilment consultants Sports Logistics worked with bid-up.tv to appoint Business Express as sole carrier.
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