Air bridges overseas
With this year not yet very old, it is not very clear what 2019 holds for global airfreight. To find out the state of the French market in detail the ITJ interviewed Jean Ceccaldi, managing director of GSSA Aero Cargo France, a part of the ECS Group.
The ECS Group is an international ground handling provider that is in the news regularly. At the Air Cargo Africa trade fair in Johannesburg at the end of February its chief executive officer Adrien Thominet was once again a key participant and interlocutor in discussions. He presented the pan-industry rejuvenation initiative ‘NexGenLeaders’ (see also page 5 of ITJ 7-8 / 2019), and also informed participants of the group’s new customers this year, which include Nokscoot from Thailand (see ITJ Daily of 8 January 2019) and the airlines of the German tour operator TUI.
25 airlines on board
Air Sénégal’s belly-hold capacities are now marketed by the ECS Group. This is due to the fact that Aero Cargo France (AEF), the group’s French unit, was able to garner this order from the West African national carrier, which presented its great air cargo ambitions recently (see also ITJ Daily of 6 February 2019).
Jean Ceccaldi has been the managing director of AEF since mid-2016. “Our portfolio includes no less than 25 airlines.
Their rather different networks allow us to offer our partners a wide range of destinations, including, of course, the main international capitals on several continents. We also bank on our parent company ECS Group’s worldwide network,”says Ceccaldi.
Ceccaldi, who obtained a diploma in transport and logistics in 1997, is the ITJ’s privileged contact. He has spent all of the 22 years of his career in the ECS Group and with the GSSA Aero Cargo France. For Thominet’s executive management team this represents “a perfect example of how the success of the group is based on know-how, trust and the will to innovate”.
Exports slowing down
During this time, Aero Cargo France’s staff has grown to 48 people, who work at the country’s main airports – Paris CDG, Lyon, Nantes and Marseille – as well as in the overseas départements of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion, where nine more employees operate. With 69,500 t of freight booked on their customers’ aircraft last year, the firm commands a 15% share of the French market.
“2018 was a stable year for us, compared to 2017, which was rather exceptional,” according to Ceccaldi.
He also points out the Iata / Cass fi- gures, which show that the country’s air cargo volume fell by a mere 0.34% year-on-year.
Asked about the prospects for 2019, he says that he feels that French exports are slowing down, as are the rates in general, but he does not want to overestimate these two elements.
“It is true that the market has expressed some fear for 2019; in the group we’ve seen some signs of a slowdown in Asia. Without going out too far on a limb and trying to predict the future, we’d say that at this stage there is nothing to suggest that this year will be all that bad,” Ceccaldi says.
For Ceccaldi it is more a question of isolated problems (Sino-American trade dispute, Brexit) than of basic structural issues. The group will continue to make sure it is prepared for digital change and ready to innovate, in particular through the development of internal business intelligence tools.
One of the peculiarities of the French market is the niche the country’s overseas territories present; Aero Cargo France has enjoyed a strong presence therein since it entered into a partnership with Corsair.
Growing customer base
“Our network is also oriented a lot towards Africa, especially West Africa,” Ceccaldi explains, citing customers Royal Air Maroc, the carrier Middle East Airlines, Air Sénégal and DHL Aviation, besides Corsair. These all serve to provide the GSSA with a special position in France.
All this enables Aero Cargo France, a long-standing subsidiary of the ECS Group, to contribute to its parent corporation’s strongly-growing international reputation.
Ceccaldi believes that AEF is currently on the right track. The GSSA will additionally be taking West Jet as well as Royal Air Brunei under its wing in the coming weeks.
