If the easy spoken, relaxed, Guillaume Halleux now serving as Acting Chief Officer Cargo for Qatar Airways is concerned that maybe following in the footsteps of his predecessor is a big ask of anybody, he sure doesn’t show it.
     Guillaume who is front and center in Dallas this week has deftly and definitely moved with grace and ease onto the world stage with top responsibility for a great international airline’s cargo fortunes.

Puts The Customer First

      “Customer-centricity is our primary focus,” Guillaume says right away.
      “QR Cargo has been heavily investing in technology and innovation, simplifying business processes, all for the benefit of our clients in terms of the best services and air freight solutions.
      “We will continue to do so in the next five years.
      “Through understanding our clients’ needs and adapting our offering to exceed their expectations, we can build our brand and business on high levels of customer satisfaction to achieve growth.
      “Qatar Cargo believes this is what makes the airline a winner and it’s also a chief reason why clients love us and enjoy doing business with us.”

It’s Not About Size

      “Being a winner is not so much about size, it is really being the preferred option for our customers while remaining humble.
      “We, the ‘cargo people,’ do much more than shipping goods from point A to B.
      “Cargo people are key to the world trade, we are in the middle of the global village.

Higher Priorities

      “While helping nations develop; air cargo transports materials for infrastructure; we fly medicines and cures; we play a very important role in the life of millions, and yet not many people comprehend what we do.
      “I find this fascinating.
      “To a certain extent we contribute to a better world.”

Freight Forwarder Partners

      “The freight forwarders are a key element of our business model.
      “Forwarders represent the immense majority of our revenue stream and we deploy constant efforts to meet their requirements in terms of products, schedule, quality of service and customer experience.
      “Over the years that strategy has paid off and we see our brand becoming increasingly popular among freight forwarders.”

Air Cargo Not A First Choice

      Guillaume was born in France in 1973. Mr. Halleux studied Economics and holds a Masters in Business Administration from ICN Business School in Nancy, France.
      “Like many others in my generation, I didn’t really know much about air cargo.
      “There was no school or diploma in international logistics or airfreight in my country.
      “I discovered cargo in London while doing an internship with Air France.
      “My office was next to the cargo office at LHR.
      “I got to know the cargo team there and I immediately became fascinated with their activity.
      “I started to help them by designing some reporting and other analytic tools for them to monitor their business.
      “Then I was offered a job in Paris at the Cargo head office of Air France in 1997, holding various positions in the Logistics and Business Development department.
      “Later in 2006, I joined SkyTeam Cargo USJV as the Sales Director for the northeastern United States, before being promoted to Regional Director for Hong Kong and South China at Air France KLM.
      “In 2012, I worked with Bolloré Logistics, in charge of sales and Business Development for Vietnam, and later for Singapore.
      “I took up the role as Qatar Airways Cargo’s Vice President for Asia Pacific region in 2016, and last October I was promoted as Acting Chief Officer Cargo, leading the airline’s cargo division.”

Disrupters Challenge Change

      “The needs of commercial transportation and logistics customers are changing.
      “Supply chains are becoming more complex even in markets where the requirements were relatively straightforward in the past.
      “In my opinion, disruptors or rather ‘challenges’ to the air freight industry are in three areas:

1. Expectations versus cost

      The demand of a higher standard for air cargo business and the fast emerging e-commerce are two of the main stimulus to rising customer expectations. For cargo airlines the ability to offer speed, transparency, service excellence, and innovative solutions while keeping the cost low is certainly a challenge.

2. Technology and big data

      Digitalization, Internet of Things (IoT), and e-freight have become a prominent part of every player’s business strategy. We are proud that QR Cargo has been able to drive its expertise in developing CROAMIS, online services, e-AWB, and XML messaging, being one of the first few airlines leading digitalization in its business.

3. Competitions and new entrants

      Multinational and virtual startups such as the global online retailers have, to a certain degree, reshaped supply chain with their partnerships with logistic companies to form and improve their service delivery. Mergers and acquisitions between industry stakeholders also form competitive dynamics against logistic companies and carriers.

The Qatar Cargo View By Region

      “Asia will lead the growth in air cargo industry in the next two decades, with mainland China’s dominance in manufacturing contributing significantly to air cargo demand in the region. 
      “Qatar Airways gets an upright advantage to our newly launched services in Asia this year.
      “We will continue to focus on delivering quality and reliability, offering the best solutions to our customers and constantly innovating and contributing to the air freight industry.
      “Europe and ISC have been equally dynamic in 2017 and we are optimistic for 2018.
      “As for the United States, the main challenge still remains the imbalance of flows that became even greater in 2017.
      “Latin America has shown substantial growth for QR last year and we are constantly looking for new opportunities in that emerging part of the world.
     “Africa is promising while remaining a relatively smaller airfreight market compared to the other main regions.
      “Let’s also not forget,” Guillaume smiles, “the Pacific region, where we have significantly increased our footprint in AU and NZ.
      “We are confident for the future in this perishable market as demand for high quality food products is on the rise.”

Pharma & e-Commerce

      “The industry is growing at a rapid pace and providing a great opportunity for creating new and bespoke products and solutions to cater to complex transportation needs in geographical reach, service reliability, cost efficiency, and consistency.
      “Our QR Pharma network currently covers 75 destinations worldwide and is expanding further.
      “Pharmaceutical products are of great importance for us as we have been working hard to get trade lanes certified by the big shippers.
      “The e-commerce segment is booming and for this high demand segment, we have a suite of premium cargo services.
      “Qatar Cargo provides our clients the shortest transit times by offering tail-to-tail connections at our Doha Hub.
      “We implement electronic data interchange CARDIT/RESDIT with all postal customers, while our fleet strategy of effectively utilizing freighters and belly space on passenger aircraft enables us to offer impressive tonnage capacity, high frequency, and a global network.”

Educating The Shipper

      “The supply chain industry has witnessed a profound shift in the past few decades with the emergence of China, Russia, Brazil, and India as the world’s new production hubs and the impetus of digitalization.
      “Being the primary party in the chain, shippers need to understand the implication and identify opportunities to their advantages.
      “The collaboration between shipper and forwarding agents comprises education effort to achieve mutual partnerships.”

We Can Handle It

      “A main challenge I see is the lack of handling consistency.
      “Cargo handling capability varies greatly in our stations, regions, and Doha hub, bringing their own challenges and differences. 
      “We have always aimed for consistency of handling in terms of safety, security, quality, and operational delivery.
      “Qatar Cargo sets high standards for these disciplines.
      “The capabilities of the ground handling agents are rigorously assessed with each new route launch or expiry of the ground handling contract.
      “Our Network Handling Partner program enables us to have an established framework with the global handling companies to ensure our specific requirements are met, irrespective of location.
      “It ensures improvement in service delivery and minimizes operational gap between local station, GHA, and hub.”

Can Air Cargo Handle The Future?

      “The air cargo industry faces challenges of profitability, sustainability, and customer satisfaction as well as competition from other transport modes like sea, rail, and road. Modernizing air cargo and digitalisation needs to be done swiftly as these are key to the development of new innovative services and solutions, thus increasing air freight’s value to shippers.
      “Air cargo serves a specific function in the supply chain and as long as we continue to offer an affordable, efficient, and reliable service, this will remain the case.
      “Despite the challenging environment, our investments in IT, qualified staff, a flexible freighter fleet, a well-planned network, and visionary management, we are confident that with ongoing commitment to investment and expansion we can continue to overcome the challenges in this industry.”

Looking For A Few Good Partners

      “Qatar Airways Cargo’s alliances have been constantly growing over the past five years, proving there is a real business case for long-lasting partnerships within air cargo carriers.
      “We are constantly searching for new opportunities in order to produce additional synergies for the group.”

What Needs Changing?

      “Harmonization of border controls. 
      “We favor robust safety and security regimes but believe the supply chain would benefit massively (as would the core aim of safety and security) were border agencies better able to harmonize. 
      “On the commercial side, we want to see better quality ground handling (particularly in the U.S.).  
      “Differentiation in air cargo is limited, and mostly occurs on the ground. 
      ‘The opportunity to add value for the end consumer is here, but all parties have a role to play in seeing better quality, not just the GHAs. 
      “In terms of distribution, air cargo is many years behind other industries that have managed to automate their distribution channels to market. 
      “Why is it still so manual and why does it still take so long to buy and sell air cargo capacity?”

All About Life

      “I am married and the happy father of two children.
      “We now reside in Doha after living in London, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore.
      “We are a rather sporty family, therefore our vacation plans usually include a lot of activities and we are now looking forward to discovering this part of the world,” says Guillaume.
      “As a good Frenchman, I always need to locate the best bakery and the best French restaurant wherever I live. Luckily, Doha is not short on these options!
      “From a hobby perspective I enjoy photography a lot.
      “I like the adrenaline of capturing passing light and scenes.
      “I particularly specialize in street scenes, portraits, and I also do a fair bit of aerial photography,” Guillaume Halleux concluded.
Geoffrey