In less than a decade, the company has firmly established a foothold in the highly competitive air cargo industry, increasing its freighter fleet from 4 to 7
The global air cargo industry grew by 3.8 percent in 2016 but it remains exceptionally challenged with issues on over capacity, security, political instability and a slowdown on world trade.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says strong growth was reported on cross bordere- commerce and pharmaceuticals, which could continue to offer opportunities for the air freight industry in 2017 and beyond.
“Looking ahead it remains unclear as to whether the recent momentum for air cargo is a start of a sustained, stronger growth trend or a potential false dawn. There are a number of competing drivers. On the one hand, the industry is reporting strong growth in areas such as cross border commerce and pharmaceuticals, which are expected to continue to offer opportunities for air freight in 2017 and beyond,” IATA says in its December 2016 market analysis.
“On the other hand, though, wider weakness in world trade conditions remains an ongoing concern. Moreover, the recent pick-up in populist and protectionist political rhetoric means that we may now have passed ‘peak trade openness’, which is likely to reduce tailwinds for global trade and air cargo in the years ahead,” it added.
Industry experts say the first quarter of 2017 brought in promising figures for a sustained upward trend. And the nonprofit group IATA is also optimistic the air freight sector will post at least a 5.5 percent growth this year with the e-commerce boom.
Rising above the challenges
But for some companies like Global Services Solution FZCO (GSS Aero), tough times are no barrier to rake in profits and propel growth where oppor-tunities are likely to be made. The company, which specializes in ACMI and charter flights out of its hub in the UAE, consistently posted 20-25 percent growth for three consecutive years now ending in 2016.
“We had been growing consistently in the last three years at an average 20-25% and in 2016, we performed exceptionally well with sales
turnover of AED142 million,” Shekar Gunasekaran, founder and CEO of GSS Aero, told Air Cargo Update. The company also expanded its
services this year with the launch of the VIP passenger charter department.
“This year, we started our VIP passenger charter department to cater to our regular customers. Despite stiff competition from wellestablished players in the market, it’s showing good results less than a year since being introduced,”
Gunasekaran shared and expressed optimism that with the core strength of the company’s staff coupled with his partners’ support, the venture will also be successful.
Building capacities and reputation
Though relatively new in the market, GSS is run by well-experienced industry proffessional whose collective ideas and strategies make
a difference.
Add to that is the company’s huge investments on assets that speed up the freight process and ensure unmatched reliance on delivering
goods on time, practically anywhere in the world.
Gunasekharan said with acquisition of three more planes, their fleet would be beefed to seven freighters.
“We are an asset-based company. We currently own four freighters in our fleet and will add another three planes this year to our growing fleet to cater to the growing charter market in the region. In addition, we also have long-term contracts with various customers that allow us to operate our freighters extensively in the region to cater to South Asia/Iraq/ Somalia and African market on a regular basis depending on customer’s flexibility,” he said.
For the most part, GSS is known for ACMI and charter brokering, a highly-competitive specialization in the air cargo industry with only the
most stable companies managing to survive.
Gunasekaran agreed saying he has seen a number of companies charter brokers declined, preferring those on with known reliance
professionalism as clients.
Apart from GSS’s growing assets, it also has well-trained and highly professional staff who can deal with clients any time of the day to solve problems.
“ We also specialize in crews management, in-house 24 x 7 flight operation team, direct contract with fuel suppliers, engineering support
and own AOC,” said Gunasekaran.
GSS clients include some of the biggest and well-reputed in global trade such as Rus Aviation, Chapman Freeborn, WFP, KTZ Express, SFS,
Fast Logistics, Flying Carpet, UPS, Kuehne Nagel, among others.
“These customers are with us for several years and contribute to our growing success” said Gunasekaran.
To date, GSS has 23 staff in the UAE; two in Houston, and; 11 in Moldova. All of whom are extended appropriate trainings to keep up with
the needs of the industry.
Gunasekaran said their staff work as a team are continuously encouraged to learn new things for their professional benefits.
“We believe in our staff strength and consistently encourage them to elevate to next level within the organization and provide support /
encourage-ment to them in professional and personal level,” he said.
Vision 2017 and beyond With solid financial footing and an astute management, GSS is now embarking on overseas expansion plans, to further widen its international presence among potential clients. It is also buying three more B747 freighter planes. On top of that, the company has just opened its new office in Houston, Texas and is now on the final stage of setting up similar offices in Hong Kong and Europe.
“Year 2017 is very important in the history of GSS since we have already opened office in Houston, USA and in addition, we will be taking delivery of our first B747-400F freighter followed by 2nd and 3rd aircraft in the month of Sept and Oct 2017. We are also in the final stage to open office in Hong Kong and have European AOC,” said Gunasekaran.
A well-reputed executive in the industry, Gunasekaran says his vision is to make GSS a global brand known for its one stop cargo
services.
“We have strong presence in the
UAE market and would like to brand our company as one stop destination for all charter requirements since our company is unique because of the wealth of experience our directors have in all fields of sales, operations, engineering, aircraft management, ground handling and flight support service. In the coming years, we would like our company’s presence felt in Far East, Europe,the Middle East and to a great
extent in North & South America,” the GSS founder & CEO said.
And like others, Gunasekaran is also upbeat about Dubai hosting the World Expo 2020. The event is largely seen to fuel economic activities in many fronts, including aviation and logistics.
“It’s very important not only to our industry but in totality since this automatically increases the volume of logistical business in coming years and have positive impact in our charter department to import some urgent project cargo to UAE from various part of the world,” he said. “We expect the cargo industry to see substantial growth in light of Expo 2020.”
About Shekar Gunasekaran
Steering the wheel for GSS Aero is the pragmatic and enterprising Shekar Gunasekaran, the company’s founder and chief executive officer.
Born and raised in eastern India’s Chennai, the physics graduate Gunasekaran began his career in the aviation industry in 1990 with the
Pakistan International Airlines. He later joined Russia’s Aeroflot, where for the most part, he dealt with charter flights for large pharmaceutical companies transporting goods to Russia and CIS.
In 2003, Shekar relocated to Dubai to join Hellmann Worldwide Logistics where he made a name for himself by “winning big contracts.” This dramatically changed his reputation in the industry such that by 2009, he managed to set up GSS.
By 2012, GSS acquired its first aircraft. Today, its fleet will soon be made up of seven freighters with the acquisition
of three more B747 this year.
e-AWB and e-freight remain elusive for now
he digital age has radically transformed the way we live and do business today and all indications point to a gradual Tprogressive change towards more paperless transactions in the near future for convenience and speed.
Globally, retail and a host of other industries have successfully transitioned from the traditional way of doing business to doing it online or electronically. The same goes for the governments of many developed or affluent nations across the globe.
But the air cargo industry, though directly linked to the multi-billion e-Commerce industry, however, remains struggling to become e-friendly.
There is no doubt that the electronic processing of cargo transactions has clear savings in terms of time and cost for both exporters and importers, but individual country regulations and resources come into play, officials and industry experts said.
Low penetration
According to an International Air
Transport Association (IATA) 2016
research covering 135 countries, the
electronic penetration in the global air
freight industry is just 35 percent
c o m p a r e d t o t h e m a s s i v e e –
Commerce industry.
The technology-driven UAE, with its
smart government initiative, topped
the list of e-freight friendliness index
(EFFI) at over 47 percent, closely
followed by Denmark, Singapore,
Hong Kong and Sweden. South
Korea, Canada, Netherlands, South
Africa and the United States ranked
6th to 10th, respectively.
“Electronic documentation and
processing can result in shorter
delays at borde r s , l o w e r
transaction costs, and enhanced
security and reliability—all of
which can be beneficial to firms
involved in GVCs (Global Value
Chains),” said Ben Shepherd and
his team in their report for IATA
titled “Value of Air Cargo: Air
Transport and Global Value
Chains.”
The research partly covers the e-Air
Waybill (eAWB) use, disaggregated
by bilateral country corridor and
information on eFreight transactions
relative to the total number of AWBs.
“This second indicator captures a
broader range of information than just
eAWB use, including the ability to run
the whole transaction electronically.
Data are again provided bilaterally,
and are aggregated by origin and
destination country. In addition to the
IATA data, the EFFI includes indicator
2 from the Customs Capability
Database above. Weights for the EFFI
a r e a s f o l l ow s : 1 . I ATA e AWB
Penetration (35%) and 2. IATA
eFreight Usage (35%),” the report
noted.
“eFreight Friendliness as measured by
the EFFI is also an important
determinant of trade performance
a n d G V C p a r t i c i p a t i o n . A o n e
percentage point increase in the EFFI
is associated with a 2.5 % increase in
the value of trade. Moreover, a one
percentage point increase in the EFFI
is associated with a 0.3 percentage
point increase in GVC participation as
measured by the proportion of
backward and forward linkages in
total exports,” it added.
Africa, some parts of South Asia,
Southeast Asia and the Middle East
are still struggling to be digitally
smart.
Analysts said the air cargo industry
must catch up with the trends in the
digital age or it stands to lose more. In the logistics industry alone at stake is
about $1.5 trillion and a further $2.4
trillion in related industries.
Industry experts said the digital world
has entered its third phase of
revolution with the Internet of Things
(IoT)—network of smart devices,
sensors and the cloud that allow the
physical world and computer
systems to interact directly—which
will practically impact more aspects on how we live and do business.
Modernization
Vladimir Zubkov, the new secretarygeneral
of The International Air Cargo
Association (TIACA), said it is about
time to modernize the industry to
speed up the process and enhance
business in the supply-chain.
“We must also continue to push for
the modernization of the industry,
championing e-commerce and efreight
penetration and talking
convincingly to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the United
Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), regional
development banks, and relevant
regional organizations to form new
alliances in order to drive faster
and more complete adoption of ef
reight , ” said Zubkovina
statement when he was installed
to lead TIACA.
In an interview in Johannesburg,
South Africa during the three-day Air
Cargo Africa 2017 show, Zubkov said
the first thing to do is for governments
of countries to ratify the Montreal
Convention also known as MC99.
This multilateral treaty adopted in
1999 essentially calls for uniformity
and predictability of rules relating to
the international carriage of
passengers, baggage and cargo. It
also amended specific provisions in
the Warsaw Convention to do away
with paper transactions in air cargo in
favor of the electronic system.
“ It lays the foundation for an
electronic system in the cargo
industry,” said Zubkov who spent
m o r e t h a n 2 0 y e a r s w i t h t h e
International Civil Aviation (ICAO)
w h e r e h e w a s D i r e c t o r o f A i r
Transport Bureau and later Director of
Planning and Global Coordination
before joining Volga-Dnepr in 2008.
TIACA said digitalization of the air
cargo industry will essentially reduce
manual data input error, speed up
shipment cycle time, reduce loss of
paper documents, as well as enhance
efficiency and cut on labor costs.
Multi-layered cooperation
Airlines and airports agree a digital
system works better to do away with
human errors and speed up the
process.
But at issue are each country’s
customs regulations, technical
read in ess and resources to
implement the changes.
Saudia Cargo VP for Commercial
Operations Rainer Mueller said
seamless electronic connectivity
among key players like airports,
airlines, warehouses, freight
forwarders and customs are
essential to the growth of the
industry.
“Cooperation is definitely needed
to link them,” said Mueller who has
been in the industry since 1978
before moving to Saudia about six
years ago.
He said some countries have to
catch up with the technology that
more affluent countries like the
UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia are utilizing to enhance
cargo business transactions.
Saudia Cargo is one of the biggest in
the Middle East with plans for further
expansion. Known for its efficiency
and reliability, it is also leading in
terms of using technology to enhance
its services with e-booking options
for clients.
Emirates Divisional Senior Vice
President, Cargo Nabil Sultan, for his
part said, a joint effort from all
relevant stakeholders is necessary to
move the global air cargo industry
from paper-based to digital.
“As we move into a new era oimplement the changes.
Saudia Cargo VP for Commercial
Operations Rainer Mueller said
seamless electronic connectivity
among key players like airports,
airlines, warehouses, freight
forwarders and customs are
essential to the growth of the
industry.
“Cooperation is definitely needed
to link them,” said Mueller who has
been in the industry since 1978
before moving to Saudia about six
years ago.
He said some countries have to
catch up with the technology that
more affluent countries like the
UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia are utilizing to enhance
cargo business transactions.
Saudia Cargo is one of the biggest in
the Middle East with plans for further
expansion. Known for its efficiency
and reliability, it is also leading in
terms of using technology to enhance
its services with e-booking options
for clients.
Emirates Divisional Senior Vice
President, Cargo Nabil Sultan, for his
part said, a joint effort from all
relevant stakeholders is necessary to
move the global air cargo industry
from paper-based to digital.
“As we move into a new era of
transporting goods and services, it is essential that the regulations that
govern transport of goods facilitate
rather than hinder the flow of goods
from one location to another and the
concept of e-freight and e-airway bill
is critical in this regard,” said Sultan in
an email to Air Cargo Update.
“Digitization has been evolving at a
slow pace and continues to be a
major challenge for the air cargo
industry. It is necessary that we have a
j o i n t e f f o r t f r o m a l l r e l e v a n t
s t a k e h o l d e r s t o e n c o u r a g e
digitization which will in turn ensure
that transportation of goods becomes
seamless and efficient delivering
more value to our customers,” he
added.
In an interview in Johannesburg,
South Africa on the sidelines of the
Air Cargo Africa 2017, Group CEO
Et h i o p i a n A i r l i n e s Te w o l d e
GebreMariam told Air Cargo
Update a political will to change
the system is necessary to reach
the level that other developed
nations are now enjoying.
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines,
the largest cargo operator in Africa, is
leading in the use of new technology
in the region.
GebreMariam said the company is
run like a private corporation though
it is owned by the government.
“We need the cooperation of each
country to change their customs
system to make digitalization happen
in the industry. We’re trying to bring
on board all stakeholders to address
this issue,” he said.
Ethiopian Cargo is one of the fastest
growing companies in the region. It is
scheduled to open a new cargo
terminal soon to increase its capacity
to 1 million tons per annum from just
600,000 tons a year.
The new cargo hub costing $115
million is envisioned to be an
important point of connection
b e t w e e n A f r i c a , E u r o p e , t h e
Americas, the Middle East and Asia
and digital transactions also play a crucial role in its success.
Holding the distinction as the only African nation to defeat the European colonial power in the 19th century, Ethiopia, the continent’s oldest independent nation where coffee beans were first grown, continues to break new grounds, defying stereotype notions about the region and its people.
Its economy had consistently posted growth of between 8 to 11 percent for a decade in this century, making it the 5th fastest growing economy among the 188 member nations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As the only African country that was never colonized, except for five years (1936-1941) under Italy’s Mussolini regime, Ethiopia was primarily ruled by Monarchs until their defeat by the Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist military junta, the Derg, in 1991.
The country’s history is ripe with stories of bloody battles between ethnic groups, poverty, great depravation and a record famine that led to the death of approximately more than 400,000 Ethiopians.
But in each tragedy, Ethiopia rises stronger and better.
Ethiopia Rises
Today, Ethiopia is one of few countries in Africa where business is nurtured with great prospects for the future despite many challenges.
“Conflict, corruption, and lack of proper system to utilize Africa’s abundant resources make development elusive,” said Fitsum Abadi, Managing Director Ethiopian Cargo Services, told Air Cargo Update in an email interview.
“However, as you know, emerging markets have moved from BRICs to PINEs and I believe we will see more emerging markets in Africa apart from Nigeria and Ethiopia in the forthcoming years, beating the challenges circling the region. Don’t forget that for the rest of the world, the untapped Africa is becoming the only playground for their sustainability in natural resources,” he added.
The country’s flag carrier, Ethiopian Airlines, which has been around for over 70 years is leading the quest for the elusive economic prosperity.
The airline is undeniably a vital link to a more globalized business-friendly Ethiopia with its passenger commercial and cargo flights leading the country’s export earnings from coffee, gold, leather goods and processed agricultural products.
In the fall of 2015, Ethiopia’s government drafted the 2016-2020 five-year plan known as the Growth Transformation Plan (GTP II), which prioritizes the manufacturing sector and new infrastructure projects.
The IMF was happy with Ethiopia’s economic plans describing it as “on course to deliver remarkable socio-economic gains, and the authorities are committed to mobilizing the required financing for sustainable development.”
“Consistently strong economic growth over the past decade and a broadly stable macro-economic environment has placed Ethiopia among the top performing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. With broad-based expansion and increased diversification of the economy, growth has been rendered increasingly inclusive and employment-generating. Poverty has reduced significantly and the income gap narrowed substantially,” the IMF said.
Ethiopian Cargo
In April this year, Ethiopian Cargo will unveil its state-of-the-art new hub in the nation’s capital Addis Ababa costing $150 million. Many experts view this project as the gateway to more business opportunities for Ethiopia and other countries in the region.
“Air cargo is extremely vital for African economic growth as one-third of the countries in Africa are landlocked. Fresh and organic produces for export, which are time-sensitive, could only be moved with air. Electronics, textile and trader cargo movements could support the growth in every country’s GDP which are mainly transported via air,” Abadi pointed out.
The new Ethiopian Cargo Terminal, scheduled to be in operation by April 2017 can carry up to 1.2 million tons of cargo, and is even equipped with facilities for perishable goods.
It can also handle up to eight B747-400 freighters at any given time.
“Upon completion, our uplifting capability will be equivalent to the cargo terminals at Amsterdam Schiphol, Singapore Changi or Hong Kong,” said Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Tewolde Gebremariam in a statement.
The new cargo terminal is part of Ethiopian Cargo’s Vision 2025, aimed at supporting the country’s quest for modernity in an export-driven economy.
Ethiopia’s main exports include coffee, flowers, fruits, vegetables, meat and gold. Ethiopian plans to expand its freighter network to 18 aircraft serving 37 international cargo destinations by 2025.
Gebremariam said “2016 has been an exceptionally challenging year for the African Aviation industry. Commodity exporting countries in general and oil exporting African countries in particular have been hit hard by the global decline of commodity prices. As a result, demand for air travel has been suppressed and the shortage of foreign exchange has severely affected the financial performance of airlines in the continent.”
“Yet, at Ethiopian, we are very proud of the new heights Ethiopian has flown in the year: we celebrated our 70th anniversary, inaugurated the largest and the finest Aviation Academy in Africa and a state-of-the-art In-flight Catering facility which is the largest in the continent of Africa, introduced Africa’s first Ethiopian Airbus A350, and spread our wings to more countries on 5 continents,” he added.
The Dubai Link
For many nations in the Middle East and Africa, Dubai plays a major role in doing business with the rest of the world.
This is especially true for Ethiopian Cargo as it levels up with competitors in an open market.
“The ADD-DXB route for Ethiopian Cargo is very important as Dubai is the gateway for African entrepreneurs to international markets, including those across the Middle East, Europe and Asia,” explained Enquanhone Minyashal, Manager Ethiopian Cargo Gulf.
Through Dubai, African businesses ship out perishables, flowers, and other raw materials.
Likewise, the emirate is the jumping point where they import electronics, oil and petroleum products, machineries and other personal necessities.
Abadi said Dubai and the rest of the Middle East will remain important partners of Ethiopian Airlines and Cargo in the global aviation industry.
“Ethiopia’s trade relations with the Middle East are still growing, especially in terms of agricultural products. Investors in the region prefer Ethiopia as their investment destination which will also boost the current level of trade between them,” he said.
In fiscal year 2015/2016, Ethiopian Cargo flown some 346,120 tons, up by more than 17,000 tons compared to the previous year—a sign of more flourishing years to come with the right formula and attitude.
More Expansion
Apart from expanding the cargo terminal, Ethiopia is gearing up for the modernization of its airport in the capital, also due for completion this year.
The project will allow the airport to accommodate as many as 25 million passengers. By 2025, Ethiopia envisions to open up a new airport, equipped with the latest technology and modern facilities.
Domestic airport network is also being expanded to have at least 19 airports to reach the remote desert and mountainous areas of the country.
Plans are also afoot for an electric railway network connecting Ethiopia to its neighbors, with a link to the Port of Djibouti.
Ethiopian has also built the largest and the latest Aviation Academy in Africa, with an investment of $100 million.
The Academy has the best aviation training technology that an airline academy can offer; full range of fleet cabin emergency, evacuation and door trainers fitted with a high standard swimming pool for cabin crew ditching exercises and more than 20 pilot training aircraft, Class Rooms, Student Cafeteria, Auditorium Hall, Student dormitory, Green compound with space for outdoor sports.
Gebremariam said connecting their brothers and sisters in Africa is the only way to move forward.
“Africa’s share of the Global Aviation is the smallest which is only around 3%. As the largest airline group in the continent, we are highly concerned on the low base of air connectivity in the continent and we are setting record expansion to enable Africans enjoy safe, reliable and economical air connectivity both within the continent and between the continent and the rest of the world,” he said.
“Looking beyond the current economic slowdown especially in the oil export dependent economies of Africa, we firmly believe that the continent will become the magnet for foreign direct investment, trade and tourism, which are the engines of air travel growth and in turn efficient air connectivity also drives socio economic development and we are happy to contribute our share in the 21st Century African Transformation,” he concluded.
Broadening horizons
Adrien Thominet is no stranger to the air cargo industry having spent more than 20 years of his career sailing through this tough and rough yet rewarding sector.
Thominet, the health-buff COO of ECS Group, a Paris-based leading General Sales and Service Agency (GSSA) providing complete cargo outsource solution with 69 subsidiaries and 128 offices across 47 countries dealing with more than 110 airlines, has every reason to be thankful for in 2016.
The year has been very good to the company marked with lots of acquisitions, new deals and contracts with airlines and firms in allied industries, across Europe, Latin America and Asia.
In July, ECS won two new GSSA contracts in Germany with DHL and Malaysian Airlines, which is setting up its cargo operations in the country.
“We’re quite happy this year because we have new contracts, new airlines and new acquisitions,” the French entrepreneur told Air Cargo Update in an interview in Paris on the sidelines of the Air Cargo Forum held in October.
This year, Thominet said ECS has extended its network to at least five countries in Latin America—Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Equador and Mexico.
“These are niche markets. Chile is booming and there are also opportunities in other Latin America countries,” he said.
Additionally, the company was awarded the contract to provide total cargo management to Jetstar Asia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas Airlines, which flies to 22 destinations across the globe.
“Economically, this is very good for us,” said Thominet, noting that the company is also eyeing further expansions in some emerging markets in Southeast Asia like Myanmar and Cambodia.
And their quest for more acquisitions will go beyond the traditional routes with Iran even considered to be served.
“This is something that we’re considering,” said Thominet when asked about the prospect of doing business with Iran, which opened up its economy to outside forces this year after successfully negotiating an anti-nuclear deal with the Obama administration, that among others would yield to some $100 billion in fresh capital for the country.
Regional Expansion
With just four countries in 2001, ECS has managed to increase its presence in 47 more nations with annual sales of about $1.1 billion.
And it’s on a mission to further expand its network. In November, the company’s chief executive and chairman, Bertrand Schmoll, announced ECS acquired Asian specialist AVS as it looked to expand its presence in Southeast Asia.
Headquartered in Bangkok, AVS consolidates cargo from the ASEAN region on its network of flights and interlines to the rest of Asia, Europe and the US. Its office network includes Taipei, Hong Kong, Yangon, Phnom Penh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Manila, Cebu and India.
Schmoll said having a large network, but with good local market knowledge would be key to the company’s future expansion.
“For me there are two things that are important for a GSSA,” said Schmoll. “The first is the network because when you want to make an offer to an airline you must have this network and you must also control this network. That’s why it’s important you have your own representation & not just commercial agreements.”
“The second point is that the GSSA business will remain local because if locally you have poor management and poor governance you will have problems with the airline. So what is important is the selection of the manager and to have the best manager in each country.”
Schmoll added that he expected the outsourcing of cargo sales to grow over the coming years because of the amount of belly capacity that is coming on-stream.
This will lead to lower prices and therefore airlines will look to outsource the cargo sales business to reduce costs and also try to fill the cargo holds.
Thominet noted the AVS acquisition would benefit its existing customers as it would now be able to feed in cargo from across the Southeast Asia region.
This is also helped by one of its big contract wins in 2016 – a deal to provide Singapore-headquartered low cost carrier Jetstar Asia with a total cargo management solution.
Jetstar Asia currently has 18 A320 aircraft in its fleet, operating more than 600 weekly return flights across 25 destinations in 13 countries.
“With the AVS acquisition we suddenly have access to the Southeast Asia market, which is one of the booming areas of Asia,” Thominet said.
“Through the acquisition we immediately have offices, we have a trucking system to connect with the main gateways like Saigon and Bangkok and then we have Jetstar Asia feeding from those places to Singapore. Immediately − we are the GSA of Finnair flying out Singapore − we give [Finnair] access to those markets instead of just fighting over the Singapore-Europe market,” he added.
Ready for the challenges
Apart from being extremely competitive, the air cargo industry is also marred with unpredictability depending on which region you’re looking at.
But Thominet says ECS is ready for any eventualities and will push ahead with its expansion goals.
The company, after all, has successfully shown its capabilities, even in developing new IT systems to enhance efficiency.
“We need to continue this trend,” said Thominet. “We still have lots of acquisitions to make. The market is still very unsettling. It’s very difficult to predict the market. Nevertheless, we will try to do new business and develop new concepts that will help our clients.”
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