NewsViews Anglo-Dutch success Agility key to
& F
ranco-Dutch group Air France-KLM Cargo and Martinair Cargo (AF-KL-MP Cargo) is one of the world’s
leading air cargo carriers, with a current combined opera- tional fleet of 14 freighters, plus extensive worldwide 747 combi and bellyhold capacity, primarily operated out of twin home hubs at Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport and Am- sterdam Airport Schiphol. Air Cargo Week talked to Pierre-Olivier Bandet, AF- KL-MP
Cargo’s senior vice
president of marketing, revenue management and net- work, to learn more about the group’s present business and future plans. ACW: Is it fair to say that the Asia-Pacific air cargo market is not getting easier? Bandet: Asia-Pacific was extremely difficult last year, particularly at main gateways like Hong Kong and Shang- hai, and that has forced us to reduce our capacity quite significantly, especially on the freighter side.
Having done that, our lat-
est results, both out of Hong Kong and Shanghai, and more generally out of Asia, are en- couraging. While the market is not experiencing the sort of fourth quarter peak seen in the past, we are seeing a ‘season- al pattern’, with something of an upswing in demand out of Asia into Europe. ACW: Some suggest the tradi- tional late Q3/Q4 peak season surge out of Asia may never be seen again. What is your assessment? Bandet: Yes, in the future we will not see the same kind of
surge experienced in the past, but there will still be a peak period in some form. Although logistics chains have made changes, I don’t believe they have reached the point where they can do without airfreight, including additional use in the peak period.
The biggest issue for our industry is supply. There is a lot of capacity around, both through the introduction of more cargo-efficient passen- ger aircraft and the numerous deliveries of freighters. That said, there are still market opportunities to be grasped, as some cargo traf- fic flows on a given date are desperate for air capacity. For example, Formula 1 cars that need to be shipped to a Grand Prix in Bahrain; horses that have to be flown to the Gulf; oil equipment which is urgently needed in Africa. ACW: When you refer to the increased “agility” of your operations, do you basically
used to think about their networks on a seasonal basis, but we now review our network monthly or even weekly. What is right for today
could be completely wrong for tomorrow. ACW: On the subject of “to- morrow”, is the group planning any
further changes to its
freighter fleet next year or any significant new all-cargo ser- vice/route developments? Bandet: The overall aim, al- though we are still working out how to achieve it, is to have a total freighter ‘footprint’, as we call it, of four aircraft at CDG and 10 at Schiphol.
Regarding freighter routes, I don’t think it’s any secret that over the summer we looked at western China, places like Chengdu and Chongqing for
those opportunities. ACW: Despite very tough glob- al airfreight market conditions during 2012, the AF-KL-MP Cargo group pushed on by introducing additional tech- nology for customers. That suggests the group is con- vinced enhancements to its service offering remain vital to continuing competitiveness. Bandet: Exactly. We believe that the competitive advantage of the future for cargo carriers will not be in having the largest aircraft or the biggest fleet of freighters. It will be in offering cost-effectiveness, being as easy as possible to do busi- ness with and being extremely reliable. We are also working on the development of a single infor- mation technology ‘backbone’ for the three carriers to provide a common order-taking and in- ventory system, which will also be technologically up to stan- dard for us to use as a platform to develop e-channels. We
really need to
mean providing more freighter charter flights? Bandet: Yes, charters and part-charters, but it can also be the redeployment of regular capacity to areas of the world where we see more demand. For instance, over the last year, Brazil and Mexico to Europe have been strong markets and we have deployed additional capacity there. Generally, we review our network much more frequent- ly than we did in the past — actually, pretty much on a continuous basis. Passenger carriers and freighter operators
example, but our assessment is it would not be the right move to go in there at present. Actually, that situation is part of a more general con- cern about the future of our industry, especially where full freighters are concerned, that we currently don’t see the next Shanghai, Hong Kong or Chicago on the world map. We
think that more and
more, the new market oppor- tunities will be smaller and have a shorter time span than before, so as a carrier you will have to be extremely flexible when it comes to addressing
invest
heavily in our core IT system. In fact, we have already started. There will be phased deliveries of that development, with the first expected during 2013. ACW: Air France has begun a major reorganisation this year. Will it have any noticeable impact on AF-KL-MP’s group cargo operations? Bandet: The reorganisation itself has no direct implica- tions for cargo. Cargo already has the philosophy Air France is aiming for, in that the head of cargo is fully responsible for cargo. The cargo business already has full accountabili- ty for its product, service and financial performance.
ACW 21 JANUARY 2013
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