“One of the biggest players”
“People don’t usually feel a vocation to start a career in airfreight,” Guillaume Halleux told ITJ editor Andreas Haug in an interview recently. The Frenchman himself soon discovered and fortified his passion for the segment in which he has now worked for 22 years. Having led Qatar Airways Cargo’s Asia-Pacific region activities from 2016, he succeeded Ulrich Ogiermann in Doha in October 2017.
You spent 15 years with Air France KLM, Mr Halleux, and then worked for Bolloré Logistics in Southeast Asia for four years. Why did you return to an airline from a forwarding enterprise?
I really enjoyed working in Vietnam and Singapore for the largest French logistics service provider, but I missed the aeroplanes. You don’t own anything as a freight forward- er – and that’s all different now. My nomination by His Excellency group chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker to lead Qatar Airways Cargo, after such a short time with the airline, represented an act of great trust and a huge promotion for me – as well as a massive amount of work.
This last fact must be closely linked to the size of Qatar Airways Cargo.
Absolutely. As an airfreight operator we believe that we and Emirates SkyCargo are the biggest players. We want to be the sole leader by the end of 2019, however. We’re set to grow through the addition of six new Boeing B777Fs.
What about process efficiency?
We have a staff of just 1,000, but we’re all highly motivated. We can arrive at a decision to introduce new aircraft or destinations (Macau and Almaty were added recently) in less than two months. Boeing has calculated that our planes spend most time in the air – 17.2 hours a day. That’s the only place they earn money.
How did 2018 go for your company?
We were initially well ahead of our forecast and budget; a very strong beginning was followed by solid business through to mid-November – and then China coughed and Europe caught a cold. The coveted peak season thus ended much earlier than was the case in other years – and with a bit of a bang. This caused many of our competitors to panic. We coped much better with these developments, of course, because we offer a large scheduled service network on top of our charter activities.
What prospects do you see for 2019?
Growth will be lower than of late; of course, we’ve had 24 months of unmitigated joy now. We nevertheless expect to attain a double-digit annual improvement rate. We’re returning three of our eight Airbus A330Fs, as their lease is coming to an end. For the peak season we’ll thus be equipped with 21 Boeing B777Fs and two B747-8Fs. On top of this, our passenger units are freight-friendlier than those of many of our competitors. We have only ten Airbus A380s; they’re set to be decommissioned from 2021 onwards.
How is business currently developing in Qatar Airways’ home region?
Our neighbours’ blockade has practically no effect on our cargo activities any more. It’s true that we lost access to the largest market Saudi Arabia and in the UAE in June 2017, but we soon replaced it with additional frequencies to and from Tehran, Kuwait or Muscat. It was painful in the beginning; I’d be lying if I claimed anything else, and it took time, but in the meantime we haven’t got any problems any more – except for the closure of several of our neighbouring countries’ airspace, in contravention of Icao’s regulations. This forces us to fly longer routes and drives up our fuel consumption.
How does this situation influence operations in Doha and Qatar?
Many investments, especially in the country’s food security, were speeded up, others were delayed. Plans for our second cargo terminal (CT2) are finished and in the top drawer. CT1’s nominal annual capacity of 1.4 million t was exceeded by far by last year’s 2.3 million t.
How did you manage that?
We turned two aeroplane parking slots into a facility for the short-term storage of pallets undergoing transfer, and also set up a 2,000 sqm air-conditioned tent for screening services, for example.
