Bug smashers, nearjets, flippers, junkstreams. To most pilots, these names conjure memories of their first jobs in the business, flying small aircraft for regional carriers, often carrying cargo. "It's real flying, the sort that puts hair on your chest," a seasoned American pilot named Dover explained. "There's nothing glamorous about it. You are the dispatcher, it's your job to check the weather, and if it's legal to go, you go. But at the end of the day, I wanted to be there because I wanted to fly. I wanted to be a pilot."

UPS has announced plans to build a $200m package operations facility in Arlington, Texas, just after it confirmed that it's pilot Saturday-pickup project would be expanded nationwide through 2018.

New technology from Alibaba Cloud aims to predict when and where large airfreight shipments will be sent each day for a range of forwarders and shippers. Alibaba says its new artificial intelligence (AI) platform, called PAI 2.0, will provide businesses and organizations machine-learning capabilities.

Gatwick Airport and DHL Supply Chain have flipped the "On" switch for the airport's new waste management plant, making Gatwick the first airport to turn airport waste into energy onsite.

Once again, UPS has seized the top position by a long-shot, with a brand value of $22bn, according to Brand Finance, a U.K.-based valuation and strategy consultant that appraises the brand values of the world's leading logistics companies.

IT and software company Unisys Corp. announced that it will partner with Australia's government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), to develop software and technology that can analyze massive sets of data to identify risks posed by both passengers and cargo.

DHL Express is piloting a cargo bicycle program for inner-city deliveries. The bikes, called 'DHL Cubicycles' are customized, four-wheel bikes that can carry a container with a load of up to 125 kilograms (one cubic meter in volume). The program reduces emissions by minimizing the mileage and time spent on the road by standard delivery vehicles. As e-commerce volumes surge, efforts to minimize the industry's high carbon footprint are increasingly important.

For those interested in finding a snapshot of global freight pricing from week to week: Meet FIFI. Online freight marketplace Freightos has launched its Freightos International Freight Index (FIFI), a database of more than 250 million price points updated weekly, covering container pricing, price ranges on key lanes, historical pricing and volatility, and the ability to instantly estimate pricing on specific routes.

Millennials aren't flocking to the logistics business, prompting The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) to back a program of visits aimed at improving collaboration across the air cargo supply chain.