International Aviation Terminals Inc. (IAT), which owns, leases and manages air cargo and aviation related facilities at Canadian airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg, has reached an agreement with the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) ¨C a community-based, not-for-profit organisation that operates the airport ¨C for a lease extension amounting to a ten-year period in a joint arrangement with the authority.

This approximately 580,000 square foot lease includes a 166,000 square foot air cargo facility and an adjacent truck courtyard and parking lot.

"With a ten-year term at this world class gateway airport, we are excited to invest in some signifi cant improvements to both the functionality and environmental sustainability of the facility," said Alison Hill, IAT's president and chief executive officer. Th e improvements are expected to include, among other things, a lighting retrofit and other moves to reduce energy consumption and operating costs, as well as the movement of cargo both inside and outside of the building.

IAT also signed a Memorandum of Understanding among with AMB Property Canada Ltd. and the VAA aimed at increasing efficiencies and throughput within the cargo community and total volumes at the airport.

"We are pleased to continue our long standing relationship and collaboration with IAT and AMB," said Larry Berg, president and CEO at VAA.

"We are all committed to the growth and vitality of the global air cargo business and we are looking at ways we can improve operations even more to ensure functionality and efficiency of cargo processing through YVR."

The airport authority has also earmarked CND$1.4 billion (US$1.39 billion) capital programme that is expected to ensure the airport ¨C the second busiest in the country ¨C meets the growing demand for air travel and continues to be developed as a premier global gateway.

Shanghai's Pudong International Airport has opened its new terminal two and cargo facility aimed at making China's commercial centre and largest city the cargohub of Asia by 2010.

The terminal more than doubles the number of passengers the airport is equipped to handle to 60 million a year from the current 28 million, according to airport authorities.

Similarly, the cargo handling capacity at Pudong, located near the seaside in Shanghai's new financial district, will rise by 1 million tonnes per year to 3.4 million tonnes per year.

By 2015, Pudong plans to complete a third passenger terminal, raising its capacity to 80 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo a year, according to a recent report by the Centre for Asia Pacifi c Aviation.

The 480,000-square-meter terminal, said to be modelled on a seagull design, comes amid a boom in airport construction in China. Nearly 100 new airports are due to be built by 2020, according to a plan by the General Administration of Civil Aviation. China had 147 airports as of 2006, according to the China Daily.

"As the passenger numbers and cargo flow have kept up double-digit growth for years, the old infrastructure can no longer satisfy the soaring demand," said Shanghai Airport Authority Chairman Wu Nianzu. "The target now is to make the airport the key hub of Asia's air traffic. By 2015 the airport will be able to handle 80 million passengers," he added.

The expansion was planned to ease pressure at the airport and handle the expected surge in visitors for the Beijing Olympics this year and the World Expo in 2010.

Meanwhile, Shanghai's Hongqiao International Airport, in the western suburbs, is due to boost its annual capacity to 30 million passengers with the completion by 2010 of a new terminal and runway, the China Daily quoted Jia Ruijun, general manager of Shanghai International Airport Co., as saying.

Munich Airport continues to post stronger than average growth in 2008. In the first quarter of this year a total of 7.7 million passengers took off or landed at the airport, an increase of 6.5 per cent over the same period a year earlier. Another record was set for aircraft movements as well.

For the first time, Munich Airport recorded more than 100,000 take off s and landings in the first three months of the year. Th e results in the airfreight segment are also robust according to the airport, with more than 62,000 tonnes of cargo fl own during the first quarter of 2008, the airport handled nearly 7 per cent more goods than in the first quarter of 2007.

International flights were a major growth driver in the early months of the year. Both the European and long-haul segments experienced increases of over 9 per cent in total passengers. Destinations in the US were in particularly strong demand.

These routes saw a 14 per cent increase compared with the previous year. Due to the strong demand, airlines at Munich up-sized their aircraft. On average, the aircraft operating at Munich Airport were 2.7 tonnes heavier than in the same period a year earlier. In addition, the average load factor increased by 1.3 percentage points.

Australian property investor Goodman and Chinese forwarder LinkGlobal, have penned a new worldwide collaboration.

The two have agreed to a work sharing model, in which Zhengzhou-based agent LinkGlobal, provides air cargo traffic to selected airports, while Goodman develops the ground infrastructure. The airports that both enterprises intend to use for the alliance, are Parchim Airport in Germany, Nanjing, Zhengzhou and Yinchuan in China and Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria. To begin the process, both partners inked a deal in Hamburg, Germany on 4 April that includes the transfer of €13 million to the county of Parchim in northeast Germany.

It is the first installment in a total purchase price of €30 million that LinkGlobal negotiated to own Parchim Airport outright, plus the neighbouring industrial area of 850 hectares.

Frankfurt Airport airfreight throughput rose by 4.4 per cent to 513,331 tonnes from January to March 2008. Airmail slipped, by one per cent to 22,846 tonnes. In the first quarter of 2008, the Fraport Group's majority-owned airports (Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Hahn, Antalya, Lima, Buras and Varna) handled 615,915 tonnes of cargo, up 7.3 per cent year-on-year. Th e number of aircraft movements climbed by 2.8 per cent to 160,423 takeoff s and landings.

In March 2008, airfreight rose by two per cent to 188,557 tonnes, hitting a new record for the month of March. Th e number of aircraft movements declined by 0.3 percent to 116,288 takeoff s and landings, while the accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) increased by 1.7 per cent to 6,749,557 tonnes.

Munich Airport's network sees three new Asian destinations added. From the beginning of May, Lufthansa will fly nonstop to the Indian metropolis of Mumbai for the first time, with three weekly departures, and as of June 8 will also be offering five weekly departures to Singapore.

In the summer season a total of 248 destinations in 69 countries around the world will be served from Munich Airport, with 52 long-haul routes, 175 continental destinations and 21 connections within Germany. The number of available flights to the South Korean capital Seoul is set to expand as of 9 May, Lufthansa will boost its services to Seoul from three flights a week to five, and later to six weekly departures. As before, the original three flights will continue to Busan, South Korea's secondlargest city.

Starting from 8 June the Korean flights will fl y on to the Chinese commercial centre of Shenyang. Korean Air is also enhancing its service from Munich to Seoul, offering passenger flights for the first time to complement the existing cargo service as of 1 June, departing three times a week with a B777.

The New Zealand government has rejected a bid by a Canadian pension fund to take a 40 per cent stake in the country's main airport, Auckland International. Land Information Minister David Parker and Associate Finance Minister Clayton Cosgrove say they were not satisfied the investment would have benefited the country.

They rejected advice from the government's Overseas Investment Office that the deal should be approved because it would have substantial advantages. The Canadian pension fund had planned to spend nearly US$1.5 billion for its stake in the airport, which handles around 70 per cent of New Zealand's international air traffic. Last September, state-backed Dubai Aerospace Enterprise withdrew a bid for a stake of up to 60 per cent equal to NZ$3.80 (US$3.05) a share, saying the board had not done enough to promote the deal.