Adding Up Cargo Counts

     When “cargo counts” marks its second year as a business unit of Lufthansa Cargo sometime this coming May 2006, Georg Midunsky, the managing director will most probably also set some kind of record for almost non-stop travel to all four corners of the world since start-up.
     cargo counts (the name is presented in lower case) currently serves half a dozen carriers and with Georg out there on the prowl, the bet is more will be added soon.
     The formula is familiar.
     In fact cargo counts gets at least some of its juice (and plenty of competition) from the success of another German-based company called leisure cargo.
     cargo counts covers all freight activities for the respective airline.

     Dropping responsibility for the entire air cargo package to ‘an outsider” appears to be an idea whose time has come.
Tony Fernandes, chairman of Air Asia the no-frills carrier in Kuala Lumpur, said that AA has gained access to all cargo markets in the world through cargo counts.
     “Air Asia as an early account was an important step in the right direction in the Asian market for cargo counts,” Georg Midunsky said.
     "Multinational enterprises demand a global airfreight infrastructure.
     “Key industries such as telecommunications, semiconductors and fashion incorporate airfreight as an integral part of their production and logistics concepts.
     “From the perspective of an airline, this means that airfreight is no longer just a by-product. Instead, it is a value-added part of air transportation.
     “From an economic perspective, a well functioning airfreight infrastructure is an essential catalyst to becoming an important partner of the global trade community: cargo counts."
     As indication of success just this past August 1, 2005—an Air Asia subsidiary, Thai Air Asia was added to the cargo counts fold.
     The selling of cargo counts is a pioneering effort in every way.
     Georg Midunsky basically approaches airlines with a plan to both manage and utilize non-active cargo space.
     But Georg admits that airlines desiring a turnkey operation are also quite careful of just to whom they will turn over their valuable cargo hold lift to.
     “A typical carrier can appoint cargo counts to cover all cargo activities aboard that carrier’s aircraft fleet.
     “The payoff?
     “The airline gets a monthly check with nary a single airfreight activity charged against its bottom line.”
     “At the end of the day ‘results count,’” Georg says with a wry smile.
     “Our total cargo management simply delivers the best possible product by opening the door to the world market establishing and maintaining a cargo organization, which means decreasing capital commitment accompanied by increasing profit.
     “cargo counts eliminates fixed costs for cargo
     “We protect our clients from possible hidden costs while also bearing default risk.
     “cargo counts airlines gain more power to concentrate entirely on their core business and get a monthly return on their cargo capacities.
     One cargo counts customer, Air Luxor founded in 1988, is the leading private Portuguese airline with a network of more than 40 routes.
     Last January Air Luxor flights were integrated into the cargo counts network.
     "Air Luxor and cargo counts started a very successful collaboration early in 2005,” Paulo Mirpuri, President Air Luxor S.A. said.
     “There has been steady growth in revenue generated by cargo, an area sometimes neglected in the past.
     “cargo counts delivers exactly what we expected: focused revenue driven approach to cargo management, which lets      Air Luxor focus on its core businesses," Mr. Mirpuri added Spanair is another early cargo counts customer. Mr. Lars Nygaard, Senior VP and CCO Spanair points to expanded possibilities as a driving reason for utilizing the service.
     "For a fast growing company like Spanair, it was a challenge to find the way to market our belly capacity without having to dedicate those much needed resources in other areas of the company.
     “Our collaboration with cargo counts permits us to sell our cargo capacity efficiently all over the world through one of the most experienced and professional air cargo groups providing a remarkable net contribution to our financial results."
     In one respect cargo counts grew from the experience of handling cargo activities of Condor, the Lufthansa subsidiary.
     Condor carries more than seven million passengers per year and is one of the leading leisure airlines.
     From the Condor experience came Sun Express, a joint venture of Condor and Turkish Airlines. The airline's home base is in Antalya, Turkey. SunExpress operates scheduled and charter flights connecting southern Turkey with nearly all German airports and Basel/Mulhouse, Luxembourg and Salzburg.