GermanyReview


LUG to handle South African Airways at Munich airport


LUG aircargo handling began serving South African Airways Cargo (SAA Cargo) at Munich airport on 1 July. The freight arm of the South African flag-carrier offers daily


A340 flights from Munich to Johannesburg and is a long- standing customer of LUG at Frankfurt-Main International airport too. According to the cargo handler’s CEO, Wolfgang Korte: “We


expect to handle some 10,500 tons per annum (at Munich), outgoing a lot of car parts and components, incoming main- ly skins and leather products.” It is expected that some transit cargo from Switzerland and


Austria will also be handled at Munich for SAA Cargo. Patrik Tschirch, key account manager at LUG, pointed out


that the Republic of South Africa is Germany’s most important trading partner on the African continent. Moreover, Korte pointed out: “In the current economic


environment it is good to know that the scope, reliability and quality of our services and the experience of our personnel are appreciated.” In other news from LUG in Munich, the handler has con-


firmed that it has begun offering round-the-clock cargo screening at the gateway. As a result, it noted, it will be able to “better serve companies that are not yet recognised as Known Shippers”.


NEO overcomes tough charter market


NEO Air Charter is a recently formed broker based in Germany. Joint managing director Ste- fan Kohlmann says that, despite the charter business having hit a rather rough patch over the last six months, “NEO has been profitable from day one.” While demand in traditional areas of the


broker business such as machinery equipment has declined, it is the energy sector that is the main driver right now, he said. “The exploitation of new sources of energy


has led to the need for new power plants which are being built in the Western and developing countries,” Kohlmann remarked. “This busi- ness continues to grow and there is no end in sight.” Another good source of business is the auto-


Despite the market being quite quiet overall,


Kohlmann considers that NEO’s “personalised, professional and highly competitive service” dedicated to freight forwarders has allowed it to “quickly make a name for ourselves”. He also pointed out that – being a recent


start-up – the company’s cost structure is “extremely lean”. As part of the effort to main- tain that while broadening its reach geographically, “GSSAs are potentially the ideal solution”, Kohlmann considers, pointing to NEO’s recent tie-up with Amsterdam-based Active Airline Representatives (ACW, 2 July, p1). “GSSAs already have a strong customer base


motive industry, he continued, “with modern production lines stretching from continent to continent as the demand for cars in the developing countries continues to increase”.


Kohlmann: “NEO has been profitable from day one”


of forwarders driving their day-to-day business, they know the local market conditions well and can also easily identify charter opportunities out


of their pool of requests,” he added. “In the case of Active and NEO it is a win-win set-up which we are very proud of.”


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Frankfurt sees some recovery


Frankfurt-Main International airport processed a total of 180,110 tonnes of cargo last month (June), down by 3.4 percent on the same month of 2012. This nevertheless represented an improvement over the


monthly average for the first half of the year, with roughly a mil- lion tonnes of cargo being handled between January and June inclusive – a 9.8 percent fall year-on-year. Airport operator Fraport blamed “uncertainty in the global


economy, the European debt crisis and Frankfurt’s night-time curfew” for the decline. Across the five Fraport majority-owned airports – Antalya,


Burgas, Lima and Varna as well as Frankfurt-Main – cargo throughput was down by 9 percent to 1.1 million tonnes.


BRIEFS • BRIEFS • BRIEFS


AIR CHINA CARGO recently operated a charter flight carrying automotive parts from Frankfurt to Shenyang using one of its B747-400F aircraft.


S7 AIRLINES is to launch flights between Novosibirsk in Russia and Munich on 23 December. The weekly service will be flown by a B737-800.


23 July 2012 Page 13


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