The year 2020 has been producing a lot of ‘firsts’ for the global airfreight industry. The first digital editions of the annual conference and awards ceremony held by Air Cargo News and the TIACA Sustainability Awards were no exceptions. It was the first time that VRR was nominated for these two award with two different ULDs
Two innovative ULDs that address a global problem
The AAY and the AKE have two things in common: both received an Award nomination. Our collapsible AAY was nominated for Air Cargo News’ Innovation Award. The other one, the inflatable AKE, was nominated for TIACA’s Sustainability Awards.
The two describing words, collapsible and inflatable, reveal what else the ULDs have in common: The unique ULDs can be folded and unfolded, making it exceptionally easy to handle and stack.
When transported in its collapsed state, the AAY has a height of only 255mm (10”) and can be stacked up to four units high on a B737F main deck and up to six high on the lower deck of a wide-body aircraft. The AKE, our Air7, has the ability to be stacked seven high on a lower deck, making it an even more sustainable option.
We designed the containers to address the accumulation of empty containers in the global economy. The worldwide imbalance costs the industry enormous sums of money, causes no end of inconvenience and has grave impact on the global carbon footprint. Our solution was to create certified containers that can be reduced significantly in size when empty.
Now fleet managers do not need to leave their empty containers in the country of destination because a return flight is too expensive and sustainably limiting.
Our sincere compliments to the winners
Although both the collapsible AAY and the inflatable AKE impressed enough to get us nominated, unfortunately winning the award wasn’t meant to be for us.
We’re pleased to see the Air Cargo News Innovation Award go to one of our customers. The TIACA Sustainability Award goes to one of the other finalists. We’d like to congratulate ACL Airshop (Innovation) and Pelican BioThermal (Sustainability) on winning the award.
Nevertheless, these experiences confirmed that we’re on the right path of innovation and sustainability. At the end of a year, we look back with great confidence and motivation for 2021.
