Ready to compete
The Wuhan coronavirus / Covid-19, having arrived in northern Italy, did not make our exchange with Massimo Roccasecca simpler. Brescia airport – part of the Save Group’s airport network, together with Treviso, Venice and Verona – handled 30,695 t of airfreight in 2019, or around 29% more than in the previous year. It bucked the national trend of –3.2%. The manager has discerned potential in other fields too.
In 2019, your first full calendar year in charge of the cargo segment at Brescia airport, Mr Roccasecca, your hub did better than other Italian or European gateways. What did you base this success on?
To be honest with you – I believe our extensive commercial planning throughout 2018 / 2019 paid off. This includes our segmentation by airport type, which helped to raise the profile of each of our four airports. We also accepted the challenge of changing our vision and efforts to create a friendlier environment for e-commerce at our hubs.
On top of this we shared exchanges with our clients about goals and expectations, to create mutually beneficial attitudes. To this end our teams focused on quality and performance. All of this contributed – as did a bit of luck, which is also essential nowadays. The group’s management has also agreed to take a long-term view, with our success in 2019 just representing a portion thereof.
What news of the development plans you submitted to the authorities?
Well, the process is confidential, but we do know that it’s moving forward as planned. Although I have to add that, over the last month or so, the stakeholders have had to deal with more urgent matters. I mean the ‘Wuhan coronavirus’, of course, which are going to have a massive impact on air transport in general in the short-term future.
Which commodities had a better or worse year than others, and why?
I’d say that, though e-commerce in general has been the engine of our performance, we’ve also witnessed growing demand for specialisation and tailor-made solutions that are difficult to duplicate at larger airports. As a network with ad-hoc solutions for all requirement we have strong competitive advantages to offer here.
Who are your competitors, both in Italy as well as beyond?
In general terms, every European airport is one of our potential competitors, and we’re ready to compete. If we can all play under the same rules and regulations, then I’m confident that we have the specific skills to attract operators to us as their ideal airport. Unfortunately, and this is one of my top concerns, we frequently don’t have a level playing field.
Can you elaborate?
I know that it’s hard to compete with the main Italian and European hubs, because a number of factors as well as the scale of the confrontation are frequently out of our control. But when it comes to attracting ‘normal’ business, airlines and operators take many aspects of a gateway’s services into consideration, including the availability of customs authorities, curfews, the infrastructure and the like.
Then I ask myself why, as an example, do we in reality often witness a sort of ‘free interpretation’ of the custom rules, despite the fact that they are – at least on paper – the same for all concerned? If Italy practices a serious approach to customs issues and goes by the book, why then can other European countries act more ‘liberally’ and thus gain a competitive advantage that cannot be matched by us? From the point of view of an airline, struggling with today’s low profitability, this may represent a decisive factor.
Alitalia has been ailing for a while now, and Air Italy has collapsed. How do you feel about your national aviation industry?
As a citizen, I’m ashamed of the fact that my country, a member of the G8, may actually end up without a national carrier. As an industry professional I’m extremely disappointed by the fact that, once again, we’re facing a very problematic situation whose main responsibilities lie elsewhere.
Historically speaking, Italy has always had extremely capable minds and people in its aviation sector. If most of them are making their fortunes in non-Italian airlines today or, even worse, have been forced to the margins of the aviation industry (that is to say, may be working for logistics companies, for example), then in my view this is because Italy has never protected this segment as other countries have.
What, in your opinion, is the current state of the global air cargo business?
We’re sort of in a minor recession mode at the moment – and recent events aren’t helping. I’d say that 2020 will somehow be more of a year of consolidation than of expansion. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a further period of mergers and acquisitions. I’m looking forward with great interest to what we’ll hear about such matters in Istanbul.
