keynote feature The company began offering


handling services at Germany’s Frankfurt-Main air gateway in December last year, with a 15,000m2


cargo warehouse at


the airport. This facility can manage up to 240,000 tons annually, Bas noted. He went on: “Our presence at


Bas: “the air cargo business can be seen as a vulnerable sector”


Frankfurt airport is an integral part of our approach towards Western and Central Europe. “We plan to take a further


step in reaching other hubs and setting up a full handling network in Europe. Our objective is to bring a new model of handling into the


market, which is based on best-in-class quality combined with superior technological development. “Further international expansion is under way, along with


efforts to modernise and improve the processes of our current cargo handling subsidiaries in Mumbai, Delhi, Budapest and now Frankfurt. “Also, we plan to start domestic operations in our new


warehouse in Delhi very soon with some of the major airlines. We have invested more than US$100 million for our ground handling and cargo operations in Mumbai and Delhi,” he said. Meanwhile: “In Hungary, we are also making an investment of


about 485,000 euros ($644,000) to provide smooth, safe and efficient services as well. Our aim is to provide high quality, fast and reliable service with all of these investments and innovative steps in all of the Celebi stations.” Bas is confident of meeting targets for 2011. “Year to date, we


have handled 170,000 flights and 400,000 tons in our warehouses,” he stated at the end of September. Describing the Turkish air freight market as “fast-growing”, he pointed out that there is great potential for the country’s aviation


Istanbul GSA seeks to maximise the value of available capacity


According to Hakan Erman, co-owner of Istanbul- headquartered cargo general sales agent Airmark, the company has recently added three new airline partners to the portfolio of air freight carriers it represents. Airmark has been appointed as the cargo GSA of


Addis Ababa-based Ethiopian Airlines in Turkey, effective as of 1 September. It also began representing cargo sales for


Bahrain-based carrier Gulf Air in Turkey on 1 August, and started selling space on the flights of Ural Airlines from Antalya to Yekaterinburg, Moscow Domodedovo and Samara in the south-eastern part of Europe on 24 August. “We always expect to grow further, and we are now representing 18 airlines both off-line and on-line,” he said. “Our


Erman: “we are focusing on the growing regions”


aim is to get at least two new contracts every year and increase our market share,” which currently stands at 12 percent of Turkish air exports. Erman continued: “We are focusing on the


growing regions and our strategies for the coming years will be to expand our regional coverage and establish our own offices in the next two years.” He expects growth to be particularly strong in


Africa and the Middle East, but demand for air freight services from Turkey to the US is also


increasing. In order to keep pace: “We are aiming for better use of available capacity from our current


partners and also to get new contracts and create opportunities to and from Turkey.”


industry to keep progressing. However: “The air cargo business can be seen as a vulnerable sector to some points since it can easily be negatively affected by political and financial crises on local and international levels. Moreover, it is also characterised by rising costs of oil and it is highly dependent on the market situation.”


SELLING FREIGHT SPACE GSAs in Turkey are having mixed fortunes. “Kargosistem Group has had a very successful 2011 so far,” says Demir Ozerman, chairman of the board at the Istanbul-headquartered cargo general sales and services agent. He pointed out: “The Turkish market’s export air freight volumes


were already up by around 10 percent from January to July, but our revenues are up much further – by approximately 35 percent compared to 2010.” Ozerman attributed the “very satisfactory result” to


Kargosistem’s focus on higher yield niche destinations, as well as the company’s successful penetration of the market for smaller and time-sensitive shipments – again, where yields tend to be better. But there are sticking points to be overcome. Among them:


“Capacity is an issue for us at present. We are working with our partners to solve this issue on the basis of projects aiming at aircraft upgrade and fleet enlargement.


16 AIR LOGISTICS CHINA


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