Continental Cargo's Euro Reach

     Continental Airlines Cargo European manager’s region covers a lot of territory reaching from Lisboa to Goa and from Helsinki to Lesotho.
     Andreas Gutberlet who overlooks sales activities in 42 countries on three continents with 16 stations on line serving a total of 27 destinations featuring 309 flights a week, does not let the size of the challenge get the best of him.
     Some 30 Continental Cargo people share his endeavour.
     Put another way, operating from a Frankfurt base, CO Cargo is an ongoing example of really lean management.
     Outside of Frankfurt there are CO sales and service stations in the UK and in France – with the rest covered by handpicked sales and handling agents.
     In the UK by the way a dramatic add on is in the pipeline—Heathrow in addition to Gatwick.
     Andreas has three sub-regional managers for Western Europe and Africa, for Central and Eastern Europe plus the Middle East and Northern Europe and Western Asia. There are also three specialists responsible for the entire region in their field i.e. Sales, Services and Finance.
     Handling agents, considered important partners are not selected following any fixed rule.
     But the cost of service must be acceptable and the partner must deliver quality assurance, loss prevention and other value added services such as trucking in the area.
     Andreas Gutberlet personally does not believe that big must be beautiful at the same time.
     “We know that almost any airline is substitutable so we deliver value for the money and that is our edge versus the competition.
     “Our agent selection is also driven by geographic and business relationships between for example Scandinavia and The Netherlands – or between Israel, Greece and Turkey.
     “But communication with the agents is vital and well organized on several levels. “We conference call weekly to stay current and also to head off or deal with any problems.
     “Issues are discussed and decisions reached all the time during those calls.
     “We can also rapidly synchronize new directives and changes and as mentioned we like the benefit of getting problems and solutions together on the table at once.
     If there is any trouble in paradise here, it could be the preponderance of the aircraft serving the region being narrow bodied.      Every widebody added to the network is applauded.
     The prospect of Boeing B787 Dreamliners coming soon brings forward visions of even bigger things to come for the air cargo business in Africa, Western Asia, Europe and other markets.
     “Presently a number of finely tuned interline agreements help us keep pace with our growing business.”
     We wonder how has the region performed? Andreas looks confident and kind of smiles.
     “Contribution of cargo to Continental Airlines revenues from here is about 7 or 8%.
     “As mentioned the B787s will help us do even better.
     “In the meantime two well defined products Quick Pack and CMR, both guaranteed and basically flown as booked are making friends for Continental Cargo.
     “Special products such as climate secure container service serving the Pharma industry is also working well in joint effort with our freight forwarders.
     “We know that we have to be innovative because there is a lot of competition out there.
     “Every airline crossing the North and Mid Atlantic is out to carry air cargo.
     “But one should not overlook the ocean carriers either.
     “God only knows how many tons they have taken back from the airplane with their modern IT linked to shippers, consignees and all others along the transportation chain.”
     Andreas Gutberlet graduated from university with a job as a teacher in mind. There were no suitable vacancies – so he started to work for SAS, later Air Canada and Kintetsu before he joined Continental Cargo in 1997.
     He says he really enjoys his assignment, and also obviously his success.
     Andreas is married and has a daughter. Family time includes enjoying a bike-ride.
     He is also a keen reader of economic publications and says he is fascinated with the relation of economics to the logistics world.
     “Along with our fine company culture and corporate mission, my philosophy is to train and encourage junior people to understand “service” as a business essential.
     “Tools for the air cargo trade are provided by the company.
     “Management must define best business practices and objectives.”
     Andreas likes to draw a mind map in order to circle and master a problem.
     “Quality control is fine but people have to live it.
     “IATA and other cargo performance ratings are also helpful.
     “But what really matters to us is customer satisfaction, so regional management here at FRA constantly look for customer feedback.”
     We recall a program called “Go Forward” created at Continental about 1993.
     Andreas Gutberlet is of the opinion that CO Cargo will go to even greater heights in the years ahead.
Guenter Mosler