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“Making
up the numbers,” is exactly what Aviainform (an intriguing marriage of
the words, aviation and information) is, managing director Dirk Steiger exclaims,
with a twinkle in his eye and tongue firmly in cheek, as our European correspondent
Guenter F. Mosler wonders what kind of aviation
information the company provides?
Actually this think-tank at Frankfurt Cargo City
gathers facts and figures from a multitude of sources, data banks, publications
as well as personal contacts, and works up detailed reports applied with liberal
touches of in-house know how.
The result is a vital and trusted translation
that can be extremely useful in airline marketing and planning.
But any kind of business related to the air transportation
industry qualifies for an Aviainform evaluation, including airlines, forwarders,
airports, general sales agents, handling companies, airframe manufacturers and
even government agencies.
“We are in the business of providing air
transport market data and research, plus statistical market development information.
“Aviainform deals in cutting-edge market
intelligence tailored to the individual needs and requirements.
“Our database contains information at the
most detailed level.
“Consequently we help our customers to recognize
and realize new and additional opportunities by making markets transparent and
therefore more attractive.
“We merge data from numerous sources and
turn it into valuable information to project market potentials and demands.
By making markets transparent we help our customers
to achieve better business results and higher margins.
“We identify risks and seek out new profit
opportunities that help decision makers realize sustained, above-average growth.”
Dirk Steiger’s partner in the company, Dr.
Uwe Schomaecker is a graduate mathematician.
Come to think of it, both Dr. Shomaecker and MBA
Dirk Steiger leveraged quality education in the math field with experience in
the airfreight and integrator industry to found Aviainform in the fall of 2002.
Dirk has sold air cargo as well as express-and
courier services in the German and international markets working for Fedex and
Alitalia before co-founding Aviainform.
Herr
Steiger is an active member of the Aircargo Club Germany (ACD) and makes an
interesting presentation every January meeting, providing a comparison of actual
market results with the previous year’s targets and objectives.
At these sessions, Steiger breaks down the figures,
the trends and the reasons from a German, European and global perspective
“We are 100 percent focused on the core
business,” he says.
“We go into detail.
“Aviainform digs into all of our sources
of information, applies our experience and logic to the matter and delivers
a highly individual feasibility paper with solid suggestions to our clients.”
In Germany and also in other EU countries there
are government statistics available on foreign trade.
But the numbers only speak to the value of goods
exported or brought in into the country in one place with specific commodities
by country listed elsewhere.
The young lady in front is Nicole Dommermuth, economy and informatics, management.
Assistant Lo Gaumer overlooks the scene while Mathematician Thomas Bauknecht
(sans slide-rule) takes a break from shaking numbers like a Margarita in his
computer.
In order to utilize all these statistics effectively,
the data needs to be evaluted while factoring in all the different procedures
for trade in the European Union and to and from other countries. Here is where
Aviainform wins the day.
Simply practical solutions are drawn for either
export or import, pipeline, short sea, ocean, road, rail or air. In one case
Aviainform even dug deep-dish into the ISIC Customs Code in order to establish
a value per kilo factor for one client.
Aviainform also markets an interesting product
called the “Air Cargo CapacityBuilder”™
“The Air Cargo CapacityBuilder is an interactive
database solution enabling users to easily explore and identify additional income
and profit opportunities.
“Considering the endless number of alternative
network and routing scenarios, the question of flight competitiveness and profitability,
must be asked and answered for thousands of origin and destination (O&D)
markets.
“The Air Cargo CapacityBuilder profitability
forecasting capability assists planners to foresee and understand the real profitability
potential of air carrier cargo flight networks — the entirety of any airline’s
scheduled flights and the resulting possible cargo itineraries.
“Our unique Flight Quality Indicator (QINDX)
enables planners to quickly and confidently establish the financial merits of
numerous strategic plans and actions.
“Information covers flights (stops, non-stops,
code-shares etc.), aircraft types and specification, geographical areas and
measurements, airlines, timescales, and other factors.
“The Air Cargo CapacityBuilder does not
require installing any software at all: simply use the web-browser included
in various PC’s operating system and you are all set. The interactive
analytical reporting system provides graphic rich on-line reports for discovery,
analysis, communication, and decision-making.”
It is worth mentioning that a visit to the Aviainform
think-tank is totally unlike the “green eye-shades and bank-like”
boring operation surrounding most numbers people.
In fact company headquarters are located in some
light and lively office space in the Cargo City South area at Frankfurt/Main
Airport.
Looking out from his busy, rather chic office
surroundings, Dirk Steiger who seems to have figured out a way to keep numbers
information practical and simple, smiles:
“Aviainform wants to be close to the business,
but man does not live by numbers alone.”
At Aviainform the numbers are always up.
(Guenter Mosler)
