Global Airline Services saw its tonnage and yield up to November increase by 18.5 per cent in 2015, its managing director, Jasper de Bruijne tells Air Cargo Week (ACW).
De Bruijne says Dutch export tonnage grew by 9.5 per cent due to growth to the US, which surprised him as he says the US is not one of Global Airline Services’ strongest lanes.
He says: “Global Airline Services Netherlands currently is closing the books for 2015 and concludes it was a very good year. Growth in both total tonnage and yield was realised, in the period January – November 2015, of 18.5 per cent compared to 2014.”
He continues: “While the total export tonnage in the Dutch market grew with around 9.5 per cent, mainly due to the enormous growth in exports to the USA. Considering that the USA destinations are not Global Airline Services’ strongest lanes, the company’s growth is even more remarkable.”
The general sales agent (GSA) represented 42 million kilogrammes for airlines due to increased flight schedules to both Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Maastricht Aachen Airport. De Bruijne says: “One of the reasons for the outstanding figures in 2015 is the increased capacity we had to sell on behalf of a few large airlines in our portfolio last year.”
Two commodities to China that are booming are e-commerce and milk powder, making up for what de Bruijne calls ‘normal exports’, including car parts, electronics and semi-finished products decreasing. “We have seen volumes of car parts, electronics and semi-finished products decreasing in 2015 but milk powder volumes were just incredible.
“After the poisoned milk powder incidents in China the Chinese consumer lost its confidence in Chinese milk powder and our country [The Netherlands] of course is famous for cheese and milk.”
He says this is despite the Netherlands export market proving difficult due to the flag carrier, KLM, struggling. “With the flag carrier not doing too well and many of the world’s biggest airlines trying to increase their market shares. In the past few years we have seen a capacity explosion to Amsterdam with airlines like Qatar Airways, Etihad, Saudi Arabia Airlines, Emirates and Cargolux.”
Global Airline Services invested in extra staff for operations and sales, and in its marketing and IT for better market awareness and improved quality of service.
De Bruijne tells ACW: “Global Airline Services still is very strong in the ‘old fashioned’ way of airline representation, but we have to do more nowadays than just selling and booking shipments we are convinced to give the extra added value to the product.”
He says in addition to services such as dedicated sales and operations teams, telephone line and office space for the airline, GSAs shares risks with the airline by buying capacity or deciding where to fly. De Bruijne says: “In 2014 we formed a think tank with people from inside and outside our company to develop a new strategy for the coming years.”
“Our industry is changing, so we had to ask ourselves the question … will GSA’s still exist in 10 years from now? The conclusion was yes but more/other services should be added,” he adds.
He says this is why Global Airline Services has become the first GSA to operate an airport, taking over Maastricht Aachen (see below). De Bruijne comments: “Guaranteed … 2016 [will be] another exciting year.”
