LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Freight rates continue to rise sharply, on Thursday reaching the highest level since Sept. 2008, led by strong increases for the largest Capesize bulk carriers on the coal and iron ore routes from Brazil (C3) and Australia (C5) to China.

The cost to charter a Capesize vessel to carry iron ore from Brazil to China has risen 275 percent from $9.30 to $34.938 per tonne since the start of the year.
While rates are still far below levels experienced during the boom years of 2003-2008, they are high compared with the more modest standards of the previous decade.
The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which remained below 2,000 points for most of the time between 1985 and 2003, hit 3,298 points on Thursday.

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"FIVE LARGE redundant container ships are set to be moored in a sea loch off the west coast of Scotland for the first time since the 1970s, in a sign of the severe effect on freight from the global recession.

Three Maersk Line ships, which can carry 13,000 tonnes between them, are currently stationed in the Firth of Clyde near Largs awaiting a final decision from Maersk bosses in Copenhagen as to whether to sail up to Loch Striven, north of Bute, to moor for at least six months.

Two further ships owned by an unnamed company have also notified the Clydeport harbourmaster at Greenock, who oversees moorings in the area, of an intention to use the loch, and there are rumours that other ships could be lining up to use the facility. It is not known how much it will cost the freight companies to use the loch, but it is likely to run to millions of pounds.
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A spokesman for the harbourmaster at Clydeport said that the three Maersk ships in the Firth of Clyde, which are named Bentonville, Beaumont and Performance, are currently in a state of "hot lay-up", which means that they have been reduced to a skeleton crew while they await instructions. Assuming they go into "cold lay-up", they will still require a residual crew of about 10 sailors to maintain the three of them."

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How not to land at St Barth's airport.

The Museum of Flight has a page collecting dozens of airline logos, current and old. Fascinating diversity of designs.

"Air traffic at the Larnaca airport fell by 2.3% during March 2009 in comparison to March last year, according to data released by the Department of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Communication and Works.

According to the data, a decrease in the number of passengers by 10.0% was recorded at the Larnaca airport, while air cargo was reduced by 7.3%.

The Paphos airport recorded a decrease in air traffic by 13.8%, in the number of passengers by 20.4% and air cargo by 65.1%."

"The most striking number in British Airways results for the past year was the £3bn it spent on fuel, which was 44.5% higher than in the previous year.

So for all the talk from Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, that "the global downturn makes this the harshest trading environment we have ever faced", without the £900m jump in fuel costs the airline would have been very comfortably in profit: operating profits would have been around £700m.

In fact the evidence of BA's revenues is not of a cataclysmic global recession. Passenger revenues rose 3.1% to £7.8bn and cargo revenues were 9.4% higher at £673m. Which is not boom boom, but nor is it financial disaster at 30,000 feet.

What actually caused BA's worst ever loss of £401m before tax and the suspension of the dividend was a lamentable rise in costs:

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"Yangyang International is an airport looking for a reason to exist. Built on South Korea's east coast just seven years ago, you won't find any delays or long queues here. In fact, you won't find any passengers at all.

The initial vision could not have been more different.

Up to three million people a year were meant to throng the gleaming floors of the departure and arrival halls, built at a cost of almost $400m (£260m).

But last year an average of just 26 passengers a day came through the doors, vastly outnumbered by the 146 airport staff on hand to serve them."

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"BAA says it will appeal against the decision by the Competition Commission ordering it to sell three airports.

The commission told BAA in March that it must sell Gatwick and Stansted airports and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airport.

BAA said the ruling did not take into account current economic conditions. It also said that the commission's report was "affected by apparent bias". "

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"On Jan. 15, 2009, a few Canadian geese with bad timing became snarge, a steely pilot became a hero, and the world became fascinated with images of a jet splashing into the Hudson River and then floating calmly as passengers crowded its wings.

But until now, few people have seen the equally surprising pictures of the second half of this story: when a salvage team used the biggest floating crane on the East Coast to pluck the ill-fated Airbus A320 from the frigid water. "

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"Air traffic at the Larnaca airport fell by 2.3% during March 2009 in comparison to March last year, according to data released by the Department of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Communication and Works.

According to the data, a decrease in the number of passengers by 10.0% was recorded at the Larnaca airport, while air cargo was reduced by 7.3%.

The Paphos airport recorded a decrease in air traffic by 13.8%, in the number of passengers by 20.4% and air cargo by 65.1%."

"The flight was prevented from leaving Los Angeles when a metal container was sucked into its engine

A Japan Airlines flight has been grounded at Los Angeles airport after a large object was sucked into one of the plane's engines, officials say.

They say the incident happened as JAL flight 62 was leaving one of the airport's gates.

Television footage showed the object - believed to be a cargo container - wedged into the engine. "

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Lukla Airport, Nepal..

" May 11 (Bloomberg) -- BAA Ltd., owner of London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, said traffic declined for a 13th consecutive month as the recession curbed demand for air travel.

Passenger numbers at BAA’s seven British airports fell 2.3 percent to 11.5 million in April from a year earlier, London- based BAA, owned by Spanish builder Grupo Ferrovial SA, said today in a statement."

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"Importers are faced with week-long delays and increased demurrage costs at the port of Felixstowe because of container scanning delays.

Freight forwarders and customs agents said the UK Border Agency (UKBA) was taking seven days to process selected containers rather the normal 24 hours because of problems with scanning equipment and a lack of UKBA operatives.

"Last week, there was a backlog of 400 containers and various people were jumping up and down, " said one customs agent and freight forwarder."

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"The 10% fall in passenger numbers going through Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted during the first three months of this year is one of those numbers - like the halving of Japanese exports - that shouts about the depth of the recession.

That sort of plunge in numbers flying has happened before for BAA. There was a 9.9% drop in passenger traffic during the three months that followed the September 11 terrorist outrages.

But the plunge in 2001 was fairly short-lived. By contrast, this year's fall follows a 7.1% dip in passengers for the previous three months.

That said, BAA hopes - and believes - that it's over the worst."

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