French shipping group CMA CGM and carrier Air France-KLM are scrapping an air cargo partnership after struggling to get US approval to operate North American routes and deliver on the project’s promise in the wake of pandemic lockdowns. The companies said on Tuesday they would end a tie-up announced in 2022 at the end of March, citing regulatory constraints, and that each would go back to operating their own cargo aeroplane fleets while still trying to co-operate on some routes. One of the biggest hurdles had been the partnership’s difficulty in getting antitrust approval to operate in and out of the US, killing off one of their biggest markets, two people familiar with the matter said. “A constrained regulatory environment on some important markets did not allow us to co-operate in an optimal fashion,” the companies said. The original 10-year deal, which was partly motivated by CMA CGM branching into new avenues on the back of Covid-19 era windfall profits, was coupled with a direct investment by the shipping group into the Franco-Dutch airline group. CMA CGM will keep its 9% stake in Air France, but a lock-up on those shares will end in February 2025 and no longer be partly extendable until 2028. The Marseille-based transport group, the world’s third biggest container shipping company, will also give up its seat on the board of Air France-KLM. The airline group also counts the French and Dutch governments as big shareholders, and had welcomed CMA CGM as it looked to turn the page from Covid-19-related bailouts and raise fresh capital.<br/>
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Kenyan authorities will allow cargo flights from Tanzania after its neighbor threatened to ban Kenya Airways passenger flights to Tanzania’s commercial capital. The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority in a statement Tuesday said its Kenyan counterpart had given approval to operate cargo flights between the East African countries. The issue around aviation restrictions between Kenya and Tanzania has been successfully resolved, Kenya’s foreign affairs minister, Musalia Mudavadi, said in post on X, formerly Twitter. The Tanzanian authority on Monday threatened to ban Kenya Airways passenger flights to Dar es Salaam beginning Jan. 22 over Kenya’s lack of airline approvals. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority did not say why it denied Air Tanzania the approval to operate cargo flights. Kenya Airways has been suffering losses, and Kenya’s government has injected millions of dollars into the national carrier to keep it afloat. A ban on the lucrative Tanzanian route would have been painful.<br/>
A Korean Air plane carrying 289 people hit a parked Cathay Pacific aircraft while being pushed by a ground vehicle ahead of takeoff at northern Japan's New Chitose Airport on Tuesday but caused no fire or injuries, fire and airline officials said. The incident happened only two weeks after a collision between a Japan Airlines airliner and a coast guard plane on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport which caused the passenger plane to catch fire. Passengers had to flee using emergency slides before the larger plane was gutted by fire. Five of the six crew members on the smaller plane were killed. On Tuesday, the Korean Air plane had just started moving away from its parking spot to a runway for takeoff when its left wing came into contact with the vertical stabilizer of the empty Cathay Pacific plane parked next to it, according to the Chitose City Fire Department. KAL said in a statement that its Flight 766, an Airbus A330-0300, which was scheduled to fly to Seoul's Inchon airport, came in contact with the Cathay aircraft “during a pushback” when a third-party “ground handler vehicle slipped due to heavy snow." The airline said it is cooperating with all relevant authorities in the case. None of the KAL plane's 276 passengers and 13 crew members was injured, and no fire or fuel leaks were detected, the fire department said. KAL said a replacement plane was to arrive in New Chitose late Tuesday to pick up the passengers.<br/>