interview
ULRICH OGIERMANN is president and CEO of Luxembourg-based all- cargo carrier Cargolux, Europe’s biggest operator of B747-400 freighters and launch customer for the B747-8F. He is also the current chairman of TIACA – The International Air Cargo Association, an organisation that serves a worldwide membership covering all major segments of the air logistics industry
Most of the world’s freighter fleets have survived the worst economic downturn in living memory. How did Cargolux in particularmanage to achieve this feat and howwill you nowmove forward?
“Last year we were caught out by the crisis like everyone else. We didn’t have the volumes we needed to fully make use of our fleet, so we took out some rotations that weren’t cost-effective.We call this ‘parking in the network’. At theworst point, around May or June, we had the equivalent of nearly two aircraft grounded. “We also encouraged some staff to take reduced working hours or sabbaticals.We cut nearly all our
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excess costs by these voluntary measures so we didn’t have to lay anyone off. “We also put in place some general tough cost-
cutting measures, postponing certain things. We had to think, is it make or break that we do this now, or can itwait? Some things like investment in IT and certain training initiatives have been put on hold. We had sold two aircraft to a US express operator and we were going to replace them, but instead we just hired what we needed for the summer season. “It has all required a lot of flexibility from our
people and our systems. Everyone has chipped in; it’s been amazing to see how flexible we really are. “Judging by our current performance it looks like
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