Air Austral awards ULD management contract to CHEP

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French carrier Air Austral, headquartered on Réunion Island, has awarded a five-year unit load device (ULD) management contract to CHEP Aerospace Solutions.

Air Austral operates a widebody aircraft fleet of three Boeing 777, and took delivery of its first 787-8 Dreamliner in May 2016, making it the first French airline to operate the aircraft.

Air Austral says it has chosen CHEP’s unique pooling model to drive efficiencies, reduce its costs, and benefit from the increased fuel and CO2 savings made possible with CHEP’s lightweight containers.

Air Austral’s vice president of ground operations and security, Jean-Jacques Roy says: “Our partnership with CHEP provides us with immediate cost savings as we don’t have to buy ULDs for our new Dreamliners.

“Due to the seasonality of our flights and peak periods in our schedule we appreciate that we can flexibly adapt the ULD inventory in our stations and only pay for the units we use as well as being able to generate additional cargo revenue opportunities due to the weight savings of CHEP’s lightweight containers.”

CHEP Aerospace Solutions president, Dr. Ludwig Bertsch explains: “Air Austral is a perfect fit for our network and particularly for our leisure carrier customers due to the overlap of destinations which further increases the synergies of our ULD pooling model.

“As CHEP’s entire baggage container fleet consists of environmentally friendly lightweight units, our customers are able to benefit from quick savings opportunities and improve their sustainability. Our outsourcing solutions will help Air Austral to focus on its core business of flying passengers while CHEP takes care of the management of ULDs.”