In July GBA Services, a UK-based logistics firm specializing in time-critical services, ramped up its focus on the aerospace sector with the opening of a dedicated aerospace division.

The industry offers ample opportunities for logistics firms with the right capabilities. Fuelled by the steady growth in commercial aviation and the ensuing need for aircraft maintenance and repairs, often in emergency situations, demand for rapid supply of critical parts is rising fast.

Charter brokers have reported strong growth this year, and one major driver has been the aerospace sector. Besides charters to carry replacement parts to stranded aircraft, they have also registered heightened demand for on-board courier services (OBC) for aircraft-on-ground (AOG) situations.

“We’ve seen a huge increase with OBC business. A lot is AOG,” reported Mike Hill, director group freight of Air Partner.

Charters and OBC are standard parts of the service menu offered by brokers and forwarders catering to the aerospace sector, alongside 24/7 availability and end-to-end tracking. B&H Worldwide, which extended its service contract with Flybe earlier this year, manages the regional airline’s supply chain through a 24/7/365 control tower based at its facility at London Heathrow airport and uses a cloud-based IT system developed in-house to track shipments.

With Flybe’s network covering 77 airports across Europe, improved transit times and better shipment visibility, plus cost reduction and fast delivery are essential, B&H management stressed.

Smaller forwarders do not have the network reach of large multinationals, but they make up for this by banding together. The Aerospace Logistics Group, which was founded in 2007 by a group of mid-sized forwarders, has evolved into a global organization headquartered in Switzerland and was named as global best-in-class aerospace freight forwarding network by the Global Institute of Logistics last November.

Some airlines also see an opportunity in AOG logistics. In April, Emirates SkyCargo unveiled a service to move aircraft parts around the globe. The offering leverages the Middle Eastern airline’s global network, using the quickest possible flight connections. It features priority handling, late cut-offs – up to four hours prior to departure for shipments of less than 100 kilos – and expedited delivery at destination, pledging delivery at most two-and-a-half hours after landing. The carrier has also created a unique MustGo bag for bulk loading of small AOG shipments.

Kuehne + Nagel has trained its sights on one aspect of aerospace logistics to develop a service that was introduced in April. KN Interior Chain targets logistics of elements of aircraft interiors, both for production and after-market logistics. It caters to airlines and leasing companies, maintenance and repair organisations as well as aircraft manufacturers. The service comprises supplier order management, multimodal transportation and warehousing as well as value-added services like kitting, packaging, rework and disposal. According to the logistics firm, this offers a holistic approach designed to keep downtime for refurbishments down to a minimum.

DB Schenker adopted a broader approach for a contract with Airbus Industrie to supply the aircraft manufacturer’s production plant in Mobile, Alabama. This includes the use of the manufacturer’s ocean-going vessels, which carry four complete aircraft sets in a month from Europe for final plane assembly on the other side of the Atlantic. The project involved the refurbishment of a pier at the production plant and the construction of a new aircraft hangar, done by Schenker with local contractors. Moving the aircraft components involves barge service and a new Ro-Ro terminal.

The approach saves Airbus a fair amount of money, using waterborne transportation instead of over-the-road moves.

The Airbus project reflects that speed is not always of the essence when it comes to aerospace logistics. One of the early projects of the new aerospace division of GBA was the creation of a milk-run service to support line maintenance activity by delivering airside to all UK airports in support of airlines and their associated supplier bases. This dovetails with the logistics firm’s pan-European road operations supporting airlines, maintenance outfits and aerospace manufacturers.

By Ian Putzger

Air Freight Correspondent | Toronto