NextGen Sales

American Cargo Future

     On September 10, 1813, after defeating the British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie, Oliver Hazard Perry, commander of the American fleet, dispatched one of the most famous messages in military history to Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. It read:
     "We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
     I have always remembered that statement, perhaps because I was born and raised in the State of Ohio (Toledo) and was born on September 10, 1941.
     I recall that whilst working as copy boy at the old New York Herald Tribune (the great daily populated by Irish that exists today only in Paris, and is now owned by the dreadful New York Times), I supplemented my $46 dollar-per-week wages by serving as a runner for the sports book operated by the NYHT pressroom guys. My route used to include picking up and delivering money bet by various people at Blake’s, a saloon on 40th Street where the writers drank all day, before working all night on the next edition.
     There they all were, belly up to the bar—Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, John Crosby, Walt Kelly and others.
     Kelly, it should be remembered, drew the wonderful, satirical, adult humor comic strip called Pogo.
Google Pogo and see for yourself.

      Anyway, Walt thought about that quote from Admiral Perry as the Vietnam War was raging and drew a social commentary strip about America in the late 1960s. He called it:
     “We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us.”
     The last time I saw Walt was after I was drafted into the US Army and assigned to duty for 13 months in Vietnam. He kindly drew the likeness of Pogo on a cocktail napkin with the inscription:
     “Dear Geoff, Hope that Saigon will soon be bye gone.
     “Good luck from Walt Kelly & Pogo.”
     I guess it is funny how you remember things like that, but for whatever reason those days came to mind when I was sitting in a big empty meeting hall between sessions at Air Cargo Americas a few weeks ago. I was talking to a bright faced, absolutely brilliant young man from American Airlines Cargo.
     What he outlines is called Next Generation Cargo Sales, and after a few minutes it becomes clear:
     We have met the future and it is Leandro Moreira, American Airlines Cargo Director Cargo Sales & Marketing Southeast USA.
     “Next Generation Cargo Sales (NGCS) is a project that we started about a year and a half ago.
     “Right now NGCS has pretty much changed the way we do business; how we interact with our customers and what we do, demonstrating that at the very least we as a cargo resource airline have also become much better marketers.
     “What we are doing is taking our offering the extra mile.
     “Our approach is no longer just going to our customers with statements like ‘we have the space.’
     “NGCS shares our expertise and expands thinking about market opportunities to our customers along with exploring various protocols.
     “So in practical terms, American Cargo is now the airline that is specialized in various markets, such as pharma, offering the total dedicated capabilities and shared business intelligence about market conditions and opportunities to our customers.
     “In 2008, for example, we launched ExpediteTC as an active solution for pharmaceutical companies.
     “Just this past September (2011) we took that product to the next level, introducing Expedite TC Passive, expanding that product offering.
     “Today we are very much solution-driven at American Airlines Cargo offering global reach and local knowledge.
     “Our idea is to be well versed and to know the flow of products to the communities we serve and have awareness of the opportunities for business that are also special to our destinations around the world.
     “I am based in Miami and join people from all around the system who are working on both developing and implementing this new set of core values of NGCS.
     “It’s an exciting time at AA Cargo.
     “For example, here in Miami, inside sales teams have a tendency to be basically an inbound call center, but now we are moving out of an accepted traditional airline call center role by expanding our local reach out into the market, extending our offering to small and medium sized enterprises.
     “The impact on the customers has increased and there is a two way idea exchange and the growing knowledge and acceptance that we actually care and know something about what our service partners are thinking and expect from us.”

     Leandro Moreira joined American Airlines 16 years ago, but he looks young enough today that you might think AA robbed a cradle to hire him.
     Leandro laughs at that one, saying:
     “I like to say that my parents forgot me at the airport so I went right to work for American.”
     “I’ve worked at various jobs at American including as manager of airport services here in Miami.”
     Leandro also worked at JFK and for a while was manager of flight crews.
     “The thing about air cargo that is both surprising and great is the wealth of information you get back from the kinds and volumes of air cargo in the shipping lanes.
     “For example, air cargo is a great economic indicator; when you see strong trade, that is a clear indication of economic performance.
     “I actually started in air cargo during the 2008 downturn, so to see the business come back and to be part of the innovative approach American Cargo takes toward building both its own business and air cargo as well is indeed exciting and challenging.”
     Looking ahead (and back) for a moment, Mr. Moreira said that while 2010 was certainly a good year and 2011 into 2012 has its question marks, “the Latin American economies like Brazil, Argentina and Chile continue to perform well.”
     You talk to Leandro Moreira and what bubbles up in the conversation repeatedly sounds like a new chapter, even a whole new book, being written at this critical station.
     A big plus being felt all over the American Airlines Cargo system is the network allocation program implemented in Miami.
     “The idea is to move traffic efficiently that originates both in Miami and because this is a hub to and from Latin America as well from Europe and Asia and elsewhere.
     “However, a lot of times when local customers in the past would ask us for space on airplanes, we said no too many times based on the traffic we had coming from up line stations.
     “So last year we instituted the concept of network allocation.
     “What we did was determine the price point that would allow (local) customers to get their cargo on any airplane and at the same time would allow us to harmonize with the traffic already in the stream.
     “So now with network allocation, local customers get needed access and we are able to maximize revenue.
     “It just works out all around.”
     Looking ahead, Mr. Moreira says job one for AA Cargo is to be “more visible to our customers.”
Geoffrey Arend/Flossie

TNT Airways Liege Power Force

      Niky Terzakis is a true veteran of TNT Airways, the flying arm of parent TNT Express since its inception in January 2000. Currently, the Greece-born manager commands a fleet of 44 freighters, all of them based at Liège airport in Belgium. Niky emphasizes that TNT’s operational concept is different to those preferred by the integrator’s competitors. While UPS, DHL or FedEx are backing a multiple hub system to transport their goods around the globe, TNT favors a single hub and spoke solution. Therefore, all flights depart and end at Liège, the former coal and steel center of Belgium’s French speaking Walloon province. There, TNT Airways accounts for 80 percent of all movements.
      The airport offers a variety of advantages. It is centrally located right in the heart of Western Europe and is totally uncongested, open day and night all year long, and cheaper in comparison to its German neighbor, Cologne/Bonn. TNT utilized Cologne/Bonn until 1998, when the Dutch company decided to pack things at Cologne and move to Liège. The decision was taken after comparing 50 different factors, recalls Terzakis, with two big points standing right on top of the list: both the night flight and handling question.
       “At that time, we weren’t sure if Cologne could give us a long term guarantee for operating at night times. Secondly, we were not allowed to handle our shipments ourselves, but were compelled to utilize an airport subsidiary for the job,” he says. This happened prior to the bill to liberalize ground handling services at the European airports proposed by the watch dogs of Brussels’ anti monopoly commission.
      Today, TNT is by far the biggest employer at Liège airport, with 2,300 people listed on the payroll. To find qualified and dedicated staff, however, doesn’t prove to be easy. Since the region is traditionally riveted by steel and mining, most people are not accustomed to the necessities a modern service industry demands. Things have become better recently, but “being an express company where the time factor is essential, we sometimes have to remind some of our people that a shipment that’s bound to leave at eight o’clock has to leave at that very minute and not a quarter past eight or even later.”
       There still is an “enormous change of mindset needed” to place the Walloon area on the service map, says Niky. He adds that “we did not have this problem in Germany at all.”
      In addition to the utilization of its own short and long haul freighter fleet, TNT signed bilateral capacity purchase and blocked space agreements with a great number of airlines to get the goods lifted off the ground.       Terzakis speaks of nearly 200 carriers worldwide his enterprise partners with.
      Major asset of the Dutch Mail Company subsidiary is the tightly knit road feeder network throughout Europe. TNT Only recently announced it was building a road hub at Hanover airport in North Germany. The building will encompass 10,000 square meters and be operational next fall. Then, express shipments from many parts of the country will be brought to Hanover by TNT’s sprinter fleet. After sorting the goods according to their final destination, they will be brought by trucks or courier vehicles to sub road hubs like Warsaw in Poland or Turku in Finland. Hannover airport has excellent road accessibility with a nearby Autobahn junction and sufficient open space at the local industrial park. Approximately 190 employees will be working there after the facility is opened up.
       TNT did not reveal the price of constructing the distribution center. Hannover airport’s managing director, Raoul Hille, says: “TNT’s decision to open up a road hub shows the attractiveness of our locality and will surely trigger additional express and cargo biz.”
      TNT calculates a monthly throughput of nearly 10,000 shipments at the start.
Heiner Siegmund

Coming To America

Lufthansa Cargo's Nils Haupt

      Lufthansa Cargo's head of communications, Nils Haupt, will leave the air freight carrier on March 31, 2012, with a move to New York. While it may seem like a huge leap in terms of distance, we’re happy to hear that the Haupt will be staying with the family, so to speak.
      The move to New York will confirm Nils as communications manager for Lufthansa "The Americas" in both passenger and cargo matters. When approached by FlyingTypers, Nils said, "After having been with Lufthansa Cargo for ten years, during which I collaborated intensely with the media, it makes me feel a little sad to give up my job at this fantastic air freight carrier and switch over to Corporate Communications at Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
      “On the other hand I'm extremely delighted to take on the new task overseas, which is quite a challenge but offers great opportunities.”
      He will be succeeded by 43-year-old media professional Matthias Eberle.
      Matthias comes from renowned Handelsblatt, one of the most influential German newspapers. There he became a specialist in transport and aviation, contributing numerous reports regarding both subjects. Sent to New York by his employer as a foreign correspondent, he covered a wide range of topics, including Wall Street. Back in Germany in 2011, Matthias became head of the department of foreign coverage at Handelsblatt. Matthias will start April 1, 2011, at LH Cargo.
Heiner Siegmund

Turkish Cargo Mobilizes Far East

     On December 8, the Turkish Cargo Far East Regional Directorate office was opened in Hong Kong, with a special ceremony in which general consulate of Turkey, Mr. Haldun Tekneci, Cargo Senior V.P., Mr. Soner Akkurt, and Regional Cargo Manager, Mr. Huseyin Ceyhan, were present.
     Asia and the Far East are rising as important regions in terms of cargo, and this importance is increasing day by day. This year, there was a 49.6 percent growth in terms of cargo compared to the same period last year. A new department in Turkish Cargo was created in order to deal more effectively with the region and coordinate sales and marketing activities under one roof. The establishment of the regional directorate will give more power to regional policy, and firm up Turkish Cargo’s presence.

For 2012 China Party Is Over

(Editors Note)
For as long as we can remember, our friend Julian Keeling, CEO of Consolidators International, has been telling it like it is. Notices occasionally come to our desk announcing another Julian opus via his p/r scribe, Shura Bary.
So why should the close of 2011 be any different?
Actually, we trolled Julian’s website for some of the following, and you, dear reader, can do the same at http://www.cii-usa.com/
Here, “The Keeling” speaks out.

      “We have outlined a great year ahead and decade for our company, Los Angeles-based Consolidators International.
      “But we wonder—what about the rest of our industry?
      “What are forwarders' prospects in 2012?
      “A huge potential awaits for those freight forwarders who can share in this export bonanza as the U.S. perhaps may become once again the ‘factory to the world.’
      “It's a split decision.
      “The year 2012 will be a terrible time for those forwarders who have put all their eggs in the Chinese import basket.
      “While the ten-year U.S. honeymoon lasted, it was all wine and roses.
      “That honeymoon is over.
      “Overcapacity is rife.
      “During the past year, ex-China volume and rates were grinding down.
      “These declines will accelerate in 2012 as China, the ‘factory to the world,’ suffers from slow growth combined with higher inflation.
      “The opposite is true for those forwarders who have concentrated on U.S. exports. Despite a global recession, many of these forwarders have experienced growth.
      “CII is a notable example.
      “Sales and staff members have increased 50 percent during the past two years.
      “Our business is almost wholly export. Imports have accounted for only 5 percent of CII revenues and 2 percent to our bottom line.
      “What about our ‘partners,’ the air and ocean carriers?
      “I predict further consolidations among even the strongest airlines.
      “The new, ill-financed, all-cargo airlines will either join each other in desperation or disappear entirely.
      “Europe will witness a number of consolidations as governments refuse to bail out national flag carriers.
      “Mergers such as British Airways/Iberia may turn out to be mega mergers as British Airways/Iberia/Alitalia and Air France/KLM to Air France/KLM/Lufthansa.
      “Steamship lines are in even more dire straits. Just as rates are sinking through the floor, huge new container ships are sliding down the ways.
      “One or two highly leveraged ship lines may sink to the bottom as they cannot withstand the rate wars raging on almost all trade lanes.
      “Other, stronger lines may merge.
      “With Christmas rapidly approaching, it is time to recall the year's joys.
      “Forget the sorrows.
      “Christmas is a time of hope and redemption, of sharing with the less fortunate than ourselves.
      “Christmas is not an excuse to cruise the shopping malls, but to reflect and act upon the spiritual qualities that enrich our daily lives.
      “Qualities that will make ourselves better persons to those we love and cherish.
      “To all, a Merry & Prosperous Christmas and Happy New Year.”

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