ACU_December Final Draft

COVER STORY
Argentina, Colombia, Equador and
Mexico.
“These are niche markets. Chile is
b o o m i n g a n d t h e r e a r e a l s o
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
e y e i n g f u r t h e r
expansions in some
emerging markets in
Southeast Asia like
M y a n m a r a n d
Cambodia, where their
expertise is needed.
And their quest for
more acquisitions will
g o b e y o n d t h e
traditional routes with
Iran even considered
to be served.
“This is something that
we're considering,”
said Thominet when
a s k e d a b o u t t h e
prospect of doing
business with Iran
which this year opened
up its economy to
outside forces after
s u c c e s s f u l l y
n e g o t i a t i n g a n t i -
nuclear deal with the
Obama administration
t h a t a m o n g o t h e r
things, would yield to
some $100 billion in
fresh money for Iran's
economy.
Expansion in Asia
W i t h j u s t f o u r
countries in 2001, ECS
h a s s u c c e s s f u l l y
maneuvered its way to
penetrate 47 more
nations to do business with within just
15 years.
And it's on a mission to further expand
its network. In November, the
company's chief executive and
c h a i r m a n , B e r t r a n d S c h m o l l ,
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,
b u t w i t h g o o d l o c a l m a r k e t
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