After grounding its fleet of six Boeing 747-400ERFs on Dec. 31 due to depressed demand, Jade Cargo International has officially shut down. The liquidation of the Chinese carrier - of which Shenzhen Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo and German investment firm DEG hold a 51-percent, 25-percent and 24-percent stake, respectively - comes on the heels of numerous capacity cuts in the Asia-Pacific region.

GAC-SMHI Weather Solutions, an alliance between the GAC Group and Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, has introduced a new feature of its Fleetweb online application to provide alerts about sea-crime attacks.

time:matters, a logistics service provider specializing in expedited shipments, has launched a Europe-wide Harvest Season Weekend Service for agricultural shippers.

Garuda Indonesia has developed an appetite for cargo in a fairly short period. The Indonesian carrier's ambitions have advanced from a desire to augment belly-hold revenue to a plan for full freighter flights to take off before 2013.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo is now serving Vancouver, B.C., with flights from London's Heathrow International Airport every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Swiss WorldCargo has introduced a weekly non-stop flight between Zurich and Tampa International Airport in Florida.

IAG Cargo, the product of a merger between British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo, has begun a complimentary trial service for the collection of small freight shipments in the U.S.

Acuitive Solutions, provider of a global transportation-management system (TMS) portal for air and ocean freight, has introduced the Acuitive SpotManager.

There are two major challenges that companies face today in forecasting, says Bob Leonard, vice president of sales with Forecast Pro. One is the push to drive down to more detail, including smaller time buckets. The other is the need to treat forecasting as an analytical task, instead of just clerical work.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo has introduced four new flights from Chicago, linking the U.S. Midwest to the carrier's network of more than 350 destinations worldwide.