where he addressed 1,000 students and he was also honored by the NYC Dept of Education at a reception on that evening. The moral of the story is not Barrington’s age or even his skin color; it is that with effort and determination, anyone can achieve goals much greater than they perceive.

“The big difference between Cecil Field and the New Mexico spaceport is that we have facilities already in place,” -- Todd Lindner, Jacksonville Aviation Authority. Cecil Field airport in Jacksonville, Florida was awarded a federal license Monday to fly commercial space vehicles being designed to ferry tourists, researchers and others beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The Jacksonville Aviation Authority, which worked to get its commercial spaceport licensing for four years, plans to offer Cecil Field’s 12,500-foot (3,810 meter) long, 200-foot (61 meter) wide runway -- one of the biggest in Florida -- to a range of commercial space operators including Virgin Galactic. The company, owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, last month unveiled the first of six planned suborbital spaceships which initially will fly out of a commercial spaceport in California. Virgin Galactic, which is selling tickets for USD$200,000 per seat, is building a base in New Mexico. Cecil Field becomes the country’s eighth licensed commercial spaceport and the first in Florida cleared to fly space vehicles that take off and land horizontally, like planes.

Munich airport was re-opened late last month after a three-hour shut down caused when a passenger left the security check even though his laptop computer set off an explosives detector, police said. About 1,200 police did not find the man in their search of the terminal, which was shut down and completely evacuated. All passengers had to go through security checks a second time after the terminal was re-opened, an airport spokesman said. “We checked the terminal intensively and we’re certain that there are no explosives or dangerous materials in the terminal,” said Peter Pruemm, a spokesman Munich’s Franz Josef Airport, Germany’s second largest airport.

approximately 9,000 shipments it made to Iran during the same period. Most of the shipments involved correspondence, personal items, and consumer goods, and it was not alleged that any of the shipments contained goods that compromised U.S. security. DHL neither admitted nor denied the charges, but reportedly cooperated fully in the investigation, entering into the settlement agreement to resolve the matter amicably. The case is significant because it allegedly represents one of the largest penalties ever levied on a logistics operator for violations of U.S. embargoes against shipments to certain countries. The case demonstrates the importance of logistics operators keeping abreast of federal regulations affecting the transport of goods from the United States to certain foreign countries. In addition to risking a government inquiry, the operator may have to address the inquiry without the aid of any insurance cover. Although some insurers do provide coverage for fines and duties arising from the breach of import and export regulations, they will likely refuse to cover risks arising from illegal trade or from a breach of regulations about which the operator should reasonably have known. In a case such as DHL’s, an insurer might argue that an operator could reasonably have known about the sanctions. Regardless of the circumstances of this case, it serves as a reminder for the need to maintain good internal housekeeping procedures, including the following: Keep apprised of government regulations by meeting regularly with your legal department or outside regulatory counsel. Many companies have established internal compliance departments or have appointed compliance officers to monitor government regulations. Know your customer. If a customer ships goods of a particular nature, or transacts business in regions that may be subject to heightened scrutiny, it benefits you to understand this and to address those particular requirements. Establish an internal system to flag shipments that can potentially run afoul of regulatory prohibitions. Be alert for specific commodities that require additional documentary support, or for transactions to countries that are the potential targets of governmental action. Always ensure that you keep appropriate records for these shipments. In this time of heightened security, it can prove costly, even burdensome, for a multinational company to remain cognizant of every law or regulation that can impact its operations. What is legal in one country may not be in another. But if we don’t take reasonable steps to meet this challenge, we may find ourselves paying a far greater price.

While the year 2009 is best forgotten by people in air freight, the past decade presented a more balanced picture, A number of major trends emerged during the first ten years of the 21st century which is expected to influence air freight’s role in international trade for years to come. Julian Keeling, whose Los Angeles-based Consolidators International (CII) has been dealing with forwarders large and small for the past sixteen years in addition to all of the major international airlines, believes the industry has a more realistic assessment today than at the

beginning of the decade. “We now have a better idea of what air freight can and cannot do in moving goods around the world,” stated Keeling. “Air freight remains an important part of the global transportation mix,” said Keeling, “but we cannot, as in the past, take our growth for granted. Air freight is just as sensitive to global economic forces as any other kind of transport. We are not immune to global recessions as so many in our industry believed prior to the current downturn.” Keeling noted that air freight is back to year 2006 volume with almost no chance the industry will rise to double digit levels during the next few years. “The heady growth of air freight, taken as an article of faith by almost everyone in our industry right through the nineteen nineties, has been replaced by a more sober assessment of more modest increases in the single digit range,” stated Keeling. A principal reason for the supposed perpetual high growth rate of air freight was the so-called Just-In-Time or J-I-T method of production. The premise of bringing parts and supplies direct to the assembly line or distribution center at the last minute to increase efficiency and reduce inventory costs was supposedly a panacea for air freight with its capabilities of rapid and reliable transport. J-I-T initially swept the industrial world. As the U.S., Europe and Asia hurtled toward a recession, however, doubts began to creep in. Said Keeling, “with demand languishing for goods of every kind, so did the need for J-I-T supply chain systems. Also, J-I-T operated best in a perfect world of logistics where flight schedules were rigorously maintained with little room for error. The world is not perfect, however, with manmade calamities like terrorist attacks, strikes and security breaches. There also are natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and