ACU_December 2016 Final Draft for Approval

COVER STORY
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
About ECS
ECS Group offers airlines a comprehensive GSA service which
encompasses all aspects of their cargo capacity management, enabling
them to maximize their cargo capacity and sales yield, while reducing
costs.
The company is also into charter and brokerage activities, offering a
critical service to forwarders for urgent or outstanding shipments,
airlines, when their needs exceed their flying capacity or when they
require substitute aircraft to ensure that they fulfill their commitments
in case of a temporary aircraft shortage, among other special
circumstances.
The company also offers a direct warehouse handling service to airlines
and forwarders at a number of airports as well as handling supervision
elsewhere. ECS also offers warehouse space, dedicated airline storage
for export and import, IT controlled systems for documentation, cargo
warehousing and tracking.
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.
“ T h rough t h e a c q u i s i t i o n w e
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 challenges
A p a r t f r o m b e i n g e x t r e m e l y
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.
T h e c o m p a n y, a f t e r a l l , h a s
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