It might seem like a throwback to the dirigibles of the 1930s, but a new type of airship is another animal entirely.

Third-party logistics provider Landair has developed Guaranteed Value Acceleration (GVA), a new service feature designed to give supply-chain managers greater confidence that outsourcing to a 3PL yields measurable financial, operations or customer-service improvements.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo has taken delivery of 802 lightweight air-cargo containers.

It's fair to say that some mouths dropped in some quarters when word got out that the vice president of supply chain for McDonald's in the UK said he had handshakes rather than formal contracts with key suppliers. In dispensing with the written word, the fast-food chain formed long-term relationships with its partners in food, packaging and distribution, and included them in planning – even helping to set prices and volumes. Said Warren Anderson, "We don’t have contracts, but we do have our very assured supply partnerships with our food and paper suppliers," he said. "A gentleman’s handshake is just as powerful here."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that it has extended the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot program for an additional year.

World scheduled airfreight traffic, measured in freight tonne kilometers, is expected to grow by 3.7 percent in 2014, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization.