Lufthansa USA From The Ground Up

     When Lufthansa Cargo wanted the best location to operate cargo headquarters in the Americas, the German national carrier settled in on Atlanta, Georgia.
     “Atlanta,” said Joachim Haas who was top executive for the carrier’s cargo effort at the time, “offers central location, a great international city and airport, a wonderful standard of living and low cost as compared to others.”
     The world has spun around quite a few times since Haas (now retired) uttered those words, and new generations of cargo executives have come and gone.
     Yet Lufthansa Cargo USA continues its growing world business in booming Atlanta.
     Klaus Holler has served as Lufthansa Cargo Head of Area Management Americas since May 2006.
     He eased into the move to top USA post with exceptional air cargo experience in America, Europe and Asia.
     He knows the drive for bigger and better starts on the ground because at one time he was smack dab in the middle as the go-to individual as top gun at the critical Lufthansa Cargo Center in Frankfurt.
     Mr. Holler also understands the importance of traffic flow and the “keep it simple” concept having served as a top ground executive at the Lufthansa Cargo hub at Sharjah.
     In America a few years ago when he was chief operations officer for Lufthansa Cargo, Mr. Holler celebrated his 60th birthday with a gift from his people of a classic Fender electric guitar, the kind the legendary Les Paul plays.
     But Mr. Holler is no one man band.
     Instead some others musically inclined from Lufthansa Cargo gather together and enjoy rock sessions on an ad hoc basis.
     Eine Kleine Fracht Musik indeed.
     But hitting the right note in air cargo is Klaus Holler’s rationalization of what must be done to be successful.
     “Better service starts on the ground.
     “The shortest distance that air cargo moves is from acceptance, through the warehouse and back again on the same path to the pick up area.
     “How well consignments are handled across that space is the major driving force in success or failure in the air cargo business today.”
     Mr. Holler is somebody who knows about the importance of ground in the air cargo matrix.
     In America, it is safe to say that not since the legendary Peter Hees wrote the book on operations for world air cargo at Lufthansa’s legendary “nose dock” Building 263 at JFK during the last quarter of the 20th century, has the airline fielded a USA head of cargo with Klaus Holler’s service credentials.

     Safe to say that Klaus Holler is building with first-hand knowledge of how to organize change, including Lufthansa’s recently consolidation of handling and sales.
     “The intensive cooperation with all employees has brought immediate result and has been very helpful for our customers as well.
     “Our return to Los Angeles with MD11 main deck cargo service last October has been a definite plus in unlocking new service connections with our west coast shippers via our European hub at Frankfurt.
     “India and China are also developing in stronger focus.
     “We face the challenge of maintaining our position through quality, service and reliability and of building trust as reliable partners for our customers.
     “Lufthansa Cargo is doing just that and we are getting better all the time.
     “As example here in USA our BUP or bulk utilization program offers flexible pricing by optimizing pallet usage, allowing our shipper partners opportunity to obtain a more favorable average rate.
     “We are also offering more customer-specific solutions such as door-to-door freight pick-up and delivery, optimized dock management with dedicated BUP doors, improved import and export processes, considerably simplified booking and capacity access processes including booking of BUPs via electronic channels such as GF-X and more.”
     Born in Würzburg, Germany Mr. Holler is married and has two daughters.
     Not a desk-bound executive by nature, Klaus Holler spends a good deal of time on the road traveling the broad American continent.
     “Customer visits take up a large part of my time.
     “We are making new friends all the time by responding to our service partners’ needs, and maybe even more importantly listening to them.
     “Lufthansa Cargo today is products and services from a single source, faster decisions and enhanced service delivery competence at a local level.”
     A boss can be a boss, we are thinking.
     But if he or she can harmonize with other members of the team, the music can be sweet indeed.
     Now 600 air cargo employees that are Lufthansa Cargo in the Americas, have a Holler in that carrier’s future.
Geoffrey