SURVEY Cargo Handlers
facility between customer, airline and handling agent is primary”, he said. Batten observed: “The carrier and the
handling agent need to engage more and also include the carrier’s customer in coordination meetings where the timing of the goods, aircraft and handling requirements (such as correct storage temperatures) need to be discussed, along with arranging pre- advisors from the customer and notifications of changes/delays. “We should be expanding the
boundaries to further improve beyond the normal. We must engage and work at this together,” he concluded. Mark Whitehead, managing director
“We have invested our revenues in the latest equipment and systems”
Jean-Pierre de Pauw
new markets in the South Asian subcontinent, Africa, Russia and the CIS countries as well as across the Middle East. But the whole process would just not
work as well as it does if the cargo handling business on the ground in Dubai did not function as quickly and as efficiently as it does. If cargo could not flow smoothly between aircraft and warehouses, often in the extreme temperatures encountered in the Gulf region, then airlines like Emirates could not continue to expand their air freight services at the rate at which they have over the past few decades. According to Jean-Pierre de Pauw,
divisional senior vice president cargo at dnata, which has traditionally handled all air freight in Dubai: “We have designed many creative processes at dnata, some of which have been copied by others. We have invested our revenues in the latest equipment and systems. I believe that the way we operate in Dubai is a good example of how to stay in touch with the market. “We are offering pay-as-you-go
services to the small forwarders, which allows the smaller players to be competitive and survive service-wise against the larger competitors.
“We have pushed things even further
by creating Calogi, a fully electronic way of doing business for smaller companies. We are three years into the launch of the product, so it’s stable and well accepted in the market. We have 430 forwarders working through the Calogi portal with 94 airlines, conducting 84 percent of all the air freight business in Dubai.”
Getting it right Getting it right the first time around is the mandate for the cargo handler moving time-sensitive and particularly temperature-sensitive perishable cargo, as the service provider either does not have the time left to do it again and meet its deadline commitment – or in the case of perishables they could be spoiled and worthless in the marketplace. The challenges for an air cargo
handler when it comes to dealing with perishable cargo are many, John Batten, executive vice president global cargo at Zurich-based Swissport International, explains. Handling some 3.2 million tonnes of
cargo a year at its warehouses across five continents, “the need for the right facilities and proper coordination in the
of Hong Kong’s HACTL (Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited), considers: “Any handling agent is two steps removed from mastering his own destiny: he cannot control the vagaries of world trade flows, or influence the effectiveness of his customer airlines’ marketing – yet both dictate the tonnages that determine his revenues.” He continued: “The handler is also in
Batten
“The carrier and the handling agent need to engage more”
a long-term business: commitments to building leases, and major investments in equipment and systems mean he cannot drop a destination at short notice if it is no longer viable. “Yet handling is the differentiator
between carriers... Quality and efficiency significantly impact our customers’ success, and therefore our own. It’s why we protect our business in the best way we know: investing millions every year in IT, constant training and upgrades to our SuperTerminal 1 facility.” HACTL owns and operates the
390,943m2 SuperTerminal 1 at Hong
Kong International airport. It is one of the most technologically advanced air cargo facilities in the world, costing US$1 billion to build and able to handle
48 AIR LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
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