| Club Deutschland
Falls Back
ACD Falls Back, From left: Wolfgang
Plantholt, member, pr consultant, Tobias Jaeschke, member, new AF/KL
sales manager, Mathias Jakobi, ACD deputy chairman, director IATA,
Markus Wolf, guest speaker and Ferdi Lunelli, member, perishable
shipper and consignee. |
There are a couple of truly great air cargo clubs in the
world and Air Cargo Club Deutschland with nearly 300 members tops the
list.
But when you think about it the air cargo
club or association or whatever you call it in Tokyo, Chicago, Moscow,
Dubai, Houston or our dear Atlanta, is the oft overlooked but absolutely
vital nuts and bolts organization that usually only has one mission in
mind and that is uplifting the local transportation scene.
Along the way the club also does another
service in keeping the vital human element intact that in turn opens up
possibilities for everything else that can happen.
Air cargo clubs meet and greet and also
keep folks abreast of the latest news and often can be a springboard for
trade shows and golf events and best of all prospering the friendships
all of us need to nourish and appreciate one another.
So it is especially good that in Frankfurt
earlier this week the ACD came back to regular monthly meetings and it
was both a season of renewal and business as usual again.
The ACD had a longer summer break this year
because instead of the regular June meeting a number of members attended
the “Airfreight Day” in Leipzig.
Quite a number of Germans save their holidays
for after July and August, so the board was not complete this past Tuesday
(September 9), as overall attendance was a bit thin.
But the thing here was contact.
Contact after the long absence meant lots
of talk, a non-themed excitement hung over the place, but catching up
was at high level all around.
“Cargo-GSAs are in vogue as AF/KL
assigned Tobias Jaeschke (40) as its new sales and development manager
for Germany and Austria,” we learned.
Tobias comes from GSA ATC and had one or
two similarly interesting jobs prior his latest assignment.
Elsewhere the buzz at ACD revealed that
logistics providers (cargo agents) have been made to replace one or the
other of their favorite carriers across certain long haul routes because
several scheduled flights have disappeared as airplanes are parked as
a consequence of the astronomic fuel prices.
The new business costs added to pop up surcharges
and the need to develop different approaches kept discussions and innovative
ideas going over lunch, drinks and probably even some later emails.
Some grumbling ACD members cast an eye at
Fraport concluding that the airport badly needs expansion and a new landing
runway.
“But the political climate is not
the best presently,” somebody said, “so service delays are
already scheduled as an ongoing fact of life as 2008 rolls on.”
Some concern as some volume of business
numbers come to the fore underscoring that the cargo business at the 16
international airports in the German market have not been growing very
much.
“But one person’s hell is another
opportunity,” opines one member.
“The imbalance on key routes has driven
the stock of key strategy and schedule planners upward.”
Everybody smiles at the thought.
Sharing At Core
Of ACD
 Aircargo
Club Deutschland voted in its new board of directors this past January
meeting as this mighty 260 member organization sets its sights on
the next two-year term.
Prof. Dr.
Manfred Schoelch, (right) although on assignment was elected by an
overwhelming count.
It was Schoelch,
as part of airport management here at Fraport, who set the course
for an air cargo future while promoting and pushing the Frankfurt
Cargo City South project into reality and position as a show case
logistics hub for airfreight.
Also
in the picture let’s meet other members who were elected to
the ACD board up close and personal.
From
left to right:
Dr. Heinrich Frye
is a scientist in logistics who works in the compact but effective
and world famous Frauenhofer Institute for Logistics, located in Cargo
City South at Frankfurt.
Stephan
D. Haltmayer is managing director of privately owned Quick Cargo Service,
a truly successful airfreight and General forwarding company.
QCS was founded by his father Dieter
Haltmayer, former Air Canada sales manager here who moved in 1974
over to the other side and greater success.
Stephan
has gradually risen in the air cargo ranks both at the company and
in the esteem of his colleagues.
Stephan
was very instrumental as catalyst in forming a huge forwarders association
in China—CCA China Cargo Alliance Co. Ltd., where he currently
serves as vice president marketing of that organization.
Wolf-Dietrich von Helldorff is ACD President.
Wolf-Dietrich is currently in his second term.
He
is a member of the board of directors of Kuehne & Nagel with responsible
for all airfreight activities of the Swiss (nee German) multinational.
Wolf-Dietrich came up through the ranks launching his career in K&N
as an apprentice.
Claus D. Mahler,
Treasurer of the Aircargo Club Germany for many years also provides
consulting services to various management people in the trade.
Claus once served in marketing and sales
for Pan American World Airways and later at Delta Airlines.
Mrs.
Bettina Hickler, as the only female top executive on the ACD board
knows both sides of the agent carrier relationship. She also is quite
at ease in a room full of baritone voices.
After
some successful years for Emo-Trans in Germany, she traveled to America
where she accelerated sales and marketing profile for Emo in the United
States.
Returning to Germany, Bettina
was assigned cargo sales manager of El Al covering the entire central
European market.
On the steps in
the back is Erwin Maruhn, a trade journalist at the German language
“DVZ”.
Erwin probably holds the record for longest commute for club meetings
traveling between Hamburg and Frankfurt each month.
Mathias
Jakobi, on top is the club’s Vice President (also in charge
of vice naturally). A capable and very decent and always approachable
supporter of the organization, Mathias successfully operates ACD administration
while devoting long hours as kind of club secretary as well.
Mathias is also “Mr. CASS Germany,”
as a manager of IATA-based here in FRA.
To
the extreme right on the ground floor is Heiner Sass, general manager
of Globe Air Cargo, one of the leading general sales and service agents
GSSA.
His portfolio is colorful
and wide with carriers represented from several continents, and a
unique network of branch offices in Eastern Europe.
Heiner
was an airliner for many years, successfully running Martinair in
Europe’s strongest air cargo market.
GFM |
“Airports seem to be
shifting from aviation related business to real estate and retail,”
Marcus Wolf, managing director of Garbe World-Cargo Center (WCS) based
in downtown Frankfurt told attendees in his ACD presentation: “Airport
Cities are appearing throughout the land.”
WCS is backed by a joint venture of traditional
real estate and construction experts in Holland and Germany – Geo
Mar and Garbe Logistic AG respectively. The WCS division is dedicated
to the logistics side and especially air cargo.
Mr. Wolf told ACD of several WCS integrated
facilities in operation across many countries including the Panalpina
operation at Cargo City South here in Frankfurt.
Another WCS opus is that new home and hub
for integrator DHL in Leipzig.
WCS is also building the off-airport cargo
center in Hamburg.
Overall Marcus Wolf sees 40 countries to
be his field of action; Europe, Middle- and Far East, Latin America and
the USA.
“The market is there with growing
cost-pressures for airports, carriers and airfreight forwarders to realize
every cost efficiency,” Marcus Wolf said.
www.world-cargo-center.com
Next month ACD tops the news on October
14th as ABC-Air Bridge Cargo is center-stage here to talk about its new
management team headed by Robert Strodel, telling attendees about where
new management plans to pilot the all-cargo carrier.
Upcoming ACD dates include Jettainer on
November 11 and for December the highlight of the club-year is dedicated
to one of the world’s most exciting cargo carriers and its key actor,
Ram Menen of Emirates SkyCargo.
As always for every one of the 45 years
since ACD commenced meetings everyone is welcome to the meetings on each
second Tuesday of the month at 16:00 hours.
Air Cargo Club Deutschland gathers at DFS,
Langen – Air Traffic Control campus, just a few miles south of Frankfurt
Airport.
www.aircargoclub.de.
Guenter
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