Charter brokers


Gregersen noted, especially jobs related to the oil and gas industry. One of Aircontact’s senior


Gregersen: “looking into how to secure more business from government institutions”


brokers has already moved into the new office and the company is in the process of finding other “suitable candidates” to join him. However: “We are in no rush, since we in Aircontact have always been more focused on quality and results than with number of staff,” he explained. On the subject of Aircontact


corporate priorities, he continued: “Number one will always be to make a reasonable margin on what we do and to do the job to clients’ full


satisfaction instead of big volumes, which of course require a lot more manpower to handle properly.” Gregersen expects to attain a gross turnover of about 50-60


million euros (US$69.5-84.4 million) this year. Norway has not been greatly affected by the global financial crisis, he remarked, but more than half of Aircontact’s business comes from foreign clients, “so we must expect to be affected as well”. Thus: “We are generally looking into how to secure more


business from governmental institutions around the world,” since that sector has been hit less hard than the commercial market. Considering the local cargo charter market, Gregersen said:


“We hardly noticed the big international forwarders in Norway some years back, but now they have gone heavily into the market by buying leading Norwegian and other regional forwarders. This means that the likes of DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, Panalpina and so on, control a large part of the volumes in and out of Norway.” He went on: “Some of the global forwarders have a central


charter broker, which all branches are supposed to use; this can reduce our potential business. “We have also seen over the years that many of our


traditional UN clients which used to handle air cargo separately now include it in agreements covering sea, air, rail and trucking. “We have noticed that


commercial suppliers to the aid market now often organise charters on behalf of the relief agency, so we try to secure more of this type of business to offset clients like the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.”


Bauckham: “we have been planning on opening an office in LA for some time now”


ACS BOOSTS ITS PRESENCE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC UK-headquartered broker Air Charter Service (ACS) is also seeing good demand for its services. It opened the cargo


“A team of highly experienced ACS brokers transferred from


our established operations will be supported by local staff trained over the last six months in our London and New York offices.” Bauckham continued: “As with all our offices this is a


significant set-up with a firm infrastructure, both bringing in internal ACS transfers and hiring experienced staff locally.” He added: “We already deal with many clients on the west


coast on a regular basis, and I’m sure that the team will build an even larger client base now that the office has opened.” ACS boasts a total of 14 company offices across the world,


through which it handles almost 6,000 charters a year of all kinds.


IMPACT ON DEMAND Another of Europe’s brokers is doing less well. “It has been a bit of a disappointment so far this year compared to 2010,” rues Andreas Wald, general manager at Stuttgart-headquartered ProAir Charter. “During 2010, the economy recovered incredibly well and


made it the best year ever for ProAir. We were not expecting similar growth this year, but a stabilisation on 2010 levels. “We are a good way towards reaching this target but we also


see that existing capacity on the scheduled services is eating up demand that would otherwise exist for ad hoc charter flights,” Wald explained. “Charter requests are far less common as a consequence,” he


remarked, but added: “Automotive business was good until the summer vacation and is currently picking up again.” Moreover: “We are now seeing the reward of our sales efforts


in the form of frame contracts for the automotive industry like never before. This is also the result of recent years’ efforts to establish the name ProAir in this business segment.” ProAir maintains a managed fleet, to which it has added three


more aircraft this year. Having its own fleet gives the broker a significant asset, allowing it to offer a “full service one-stop package”, Wald noted.


AIR LOGISTICS CHINA 21


wing of a US office, in Los Angeles, California, recently. Adding to its New York cargo operation, this second base for the company in North America will handle charters on the US west coast. Tony Bauckham, ACS managing director, observed that


California has the eighth-largest economy in the world and an extremely large charter market. As such, he explained: “We have been planning on opening an office in LA for some time now.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32