Miami International Airport to join US Blue Lightning Initiative
Miami-Dade County and federal officials will announce that Miami International Airport is the first airport in Florida to join the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Lightning Initiative, designed to raise awareness against human trafficking by training and educating frontline airport workers. The online training will be mandatory for all newly hired Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) employees within 180 days of the employee’s start date and will also be available to all 1,400 MDAD employees.
The Blue Lightning Initiative is a collaboration led jointly by DHS, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to combat human trafficking within the commercial aviation industry.
Global Air Cargo ends year on relative high
Despite no traditional peak season for global air cargo demand in Q4 2020, the year ended on a ‘relative high’ in December with the first positive year-on-year growth in weekly volumes in over 12 months, according to the latest industry statistics from analysts CLIVE Data Services and TAC Index.
Volumes in the period 21 December 2020-3 January 2021 – compared to a corresponding period of 23 December 2019-5 January 2020 – rose 8%, contributing to two new records for CLIVE Data Services’ ‘dynamic loadfactor’ analyses. Based on both the volume and weight perspectives of cargo flown and capacity available, the loadfactor reached a new high of 73% in mid-December, while week ending 3 January 2021 saw an unprecedented level for this time of year of 65%, 13% points above the corresponding week a year ago.