DP World and Grupo Puntacana have announced a joint effort to develop a new air cargo logistics hub in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, boosting the country’s position as the largest trade and logistics centre in the Caribbean.

The new facility is being created through an agreement between DP World and the Punta Cana Free Trade Zone (PCFTZ), a company of Grupo Puntacana. It will include a new logistics centre and infrastructure platforms capable of supporting multimodal air, land and sea cargo. Operations are expected to commence in late second quarter 2023.

The logistics centre will harness DP World’s extensive Dominican Republic multimodal cargo management experience and world-class standards for handling logistics operations globally, as well as the high connectivity of the Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) to global distribution centres. DP World began operations in the Dominican Republic in 2003 at its port facility at the Punta Caucedo peninsula, a strategic place for the redistribution of cargo to the Caribbean, the United States, Central America and South America.

In addition, the agreement will launch the deployment of a robust regional commerce strategy to attract a greater volume of re-export and import cargo to and from major global commercial, industrial, technology and agricultural markets. The project also aims to generate greater investments in logistics services, increasing demand for logistics-related labour and triggering growth and diversification in the economy of the Dominican Republic.

“This new air cargo logistics centre with Punta Cana Free Trade Zone allows us to expand the range of services we can provide to our increasingly diverse customer base and help boost the country’s competitiveness. The facility will place the Dominican Republic on the world map as an air cargo hub for an increasingly broad range of products from around the region,” said Morten Johansen, CEO of DP World’s operation in the Dominican Republic.

“Our objective is to form alliances to increase connectivity in the nation and across the region. The more connectivity we can generate, whether by air or sea, the more attractive the Dominican Republic becomes for manufacturing and logistics companies in the Americas and beyond,” added Johansen.

Frank Elías Rainieri, Chairman and Founder of Grupo Puntacana, added: “This new air hub venture allows us to leverage the expanding transportation infrastructure of Punta Cana and accelerate the Dominican Republic’s transformation into the most important logistics hub in the region. Both DP World and Punta Cana International Airport are regional leaders in the airport, maritime and logistics sectors, and this project will be a unique opportunity to boost the economic and social progress of the Dominican Republic.”

Magaya Corporation, the leading provider of end-to-end logistics and supply chain automation software, announced that Horizon Air Freight has selected Magaya Customs Compliance and its Entry module, inBond, and ISF connections to ACE (Automated Customs Interface) to provide a modern, customizable, and innovative solution to drive growth and increase productivity.

Founded in 1970 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Horizon Air Freight specializes in equipping its global clients with high-touch customer service. With their global network of agents and facilities, they consolidate, expedite, and deliver door to deck, simplifying procurement, saving their customers money, and keeping their fleets on schedule: safe, able, and sailing.

Horizon Air Freight felt that their current customs compliance solution provider was severely lacking in the scalability and automation that they needed to grow. Due to the hindrance of bearing the heavy load of manual entry for data and the lack of visibility they desired, Horizon Air Freight realized the need for efficiency. After conducting extensive research, Horizon Air Freight selected the ACE-certified Magaya Customs Compliance solution to fulfill their needs.

“Magaya Customs Compliance gives us the internal and external visibility that we highly desire through its automated reporting ability and effortlessly gets us through the complexities of customs procedures and regulations,” said James Gassert, Executive VP of Operations at Horizon Air Freight. “Magaya exceeded our expectations by offering a solution that our antiquated software simply could not, including the enhanced and customizable user interface that’s easy to navigate through and its ability to seamlessly integrate with our current accounting system.”

Magaya Customs Compliance will help keep Horizon Air Freight compliant while reducing operating costs and boosting speed and efficiency for its internal customs operation. From a single dashboard, users will have complete visibility at a glance of all transaction types and their current status with U.S.Customs via a real-time data exchange, eliminating delayed responses on submission statuses. Plus, with Magaya’s form automation functionality, Horizon Air Freight users can leverage data from one form to auto-fill another, eliminating the need for manual data entry, saving time and improving productivity.

“We’re delighted to be part of Horizon Air Freight’s future growth and success,” commented Magaya Chief Revenue Officer, Mark Buman. “Horizon Air Freight made an important choice by selecting Magaya to help scale their operations and facilitating their need for increased productivity and efficiency. We look forward to exceeding their expectations and supporting them along the way.”

Maersk announces the inaugural flight of the logistics company´s new air freight service with scheduled flights between Billund, Denmark (BLL) and Hangzhou, China (HGH). The new service is responding to increasing customer demand.

The scheduled Eurasia operation will commence 20 March with three weekly flights introducing the first of three newly converted Boeing 767-300 freighters that have recently been added to the fleet of Maersk Air Cargo. All Europe-China flights will be operated by Maersk´s internal cargo airline.

With the introduction of our new service between Europe and China, we have taken another leap with our customers in providing true integrated logistics. We want to ensure that our customers have the visibility, reliability, and resilience in their supply chains. In this, air freight with scheduled flights and controlled capacity represents a crucial part of our customers´ end-to-end logistics needs. Michel Pozas Lucic Global Head of Air in A.P. Moller – Maersk

The inaugural flight also marks the first scheduled air cargo operation between Denmark and Asia. The corridor from Billund Airport is expected to significantly increase access for high value and time sensitive cargo between Scandinavia, Northern Europe, and the entire Asia-Pacific.

Furthermore, Maersk’s newly opened air freight hub at Billund Airport in Denmark enables customers to avoid congestion and delays that are usually seen in larger airports. In addition, the proximity of aircraft parking apron to Maersk’s airport warehouse facility, allows better control and faster cargo clearance.

The airport facility in Billund houses a fully equipped, 4000 m² import and 13,000 m² export facility. Separate areas for cold storage, dangerous goods, scanning and ULD handling. Billund airport will have a Maersk Air cargo team with pilots and aircraft maintenance staff, a flight operations team and a freight forwarding team all available to secure reliability for Maersk customers.

With Maersk Air Cargo, Maersk is on a journey to provide customers with unique end-to-end air freight services through own controlled capacity and a global network of scheduled flights.

Maersk also recently launched a new air freight service with scheduled flights between Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina (GSP) and Incheon, Korea (ICN) operated by Miami-headquartered cargo airline Amerijet International.

In addition, Maersk opened a new Chicago air freight gateway facility to add more supply chain integration opportunities for customers using Chicago O’Hare International and Rockford International.