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AIR FRANCE KLM MARTINAIR CARGO LAUNCHES NEW CDG FACILITY
May 27, 2015

Air France KLM Martinair Cargo and its partly owned subsidiary SoDExI, the Society of International Express Development, have unveiled their “HubExpress” facility, a new express and mail handling centre at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport.


Self Photos / Files - IMG_20150521_150929

One third of the new €22 million (US$24 million) hub was financed by SoDExI, one third by Geopost through increasing its stake in SoDExI from 25% to 35%, and another third by bank loan.

 

“This investment proves that we attach a large importance to this activity,” said Alain Malka, executive vice president of Air France Cargo. “We strongly believe in the development of express, postal and parcel activity. That’s why we’ve dedicated so much energy to this investment.”

 

The facility is located away from the main cargo area at CDG and much closer to terminals 2E, 2F and 2G, where Air France, KLM and their SkyTeam partners operate their passenger flights. Aircraft parking stands are now only between five and 15 minutes away.

 

Béatrice Delpuech, vice president for express and postal solutions at Air France KLM Martinair Cargo, said that one of the primary reasons for this was because the company wanted to have a bigger presence in the transit business. “To be in this market, we need to have a very strong express hub which is very close to the aircraft,” she said. “If not, then the transit time will be longer.”

 

This new express hub will enable Paris to compete very strongly against other major transit centres, according to Jérôme Balbi, CEO of SoDExI. “We want to compete against Frankfurt and London, but also Dubai and Istanbul,” he said. “We know that we have strong competitors rising in front of us. The goal is really to save time on the ground. If we take six hours on the ground to transit the shipment from one aircraft to another, that’s already the time you need to fly to Dubai. That’s why we really need to shorten this time.”

 

The fact that the building is so close to the passenger flights reflects a shift in philosophy with regard to this particular segment of the cargo market.

 

“We’re adapting to a far more difficult market and far more structural overcapacity than perhaps a few years ago,” said Bram Gräber, executive vice president of Air France KLM Martinair Cargo. “We are disinvesting in assets that we don’t think are part of our future and that means reducing our exposure to freighters. There’ll be far fewer freighters and they’ll be supplemental to our long-haul passenger network from Paris and Amsterdam rather than a core unit themselves.”

 

The express hub also means that Air France KLM Martinair Cargo can develop its business with integrators, couriers, postal offices and forwarders. Tapping into the growth of e-commerce is a priority, according to Delpuech.

 

“E-commerce is something that we cannot ignore anymore,” she said. “A lot of flows are between Europe and Asia and we want to be in this segment. We absolutely need to be very strong and to be able to provide a solution to these customers.”

 

Balbi added that he wanted to offer the widest possible range of solutions to customers. “For example, from China or Australia to Europe, of course we offer the possibility to go by air, but we also want to offer a solution by road for the last leg in Europe, because it can be cheaper and because we’re able to do customs clearance at CDG, a global entry point for Europe.”

 

Self Photos / Files - IMG_20150521_152013

Inside the HubExpress facility, a 300m-long sorter sends parcels and mail bags around the warehouse at 2m per second. These are automatically dropped down inclined chutes leading to 41 different ULDs. There are also 10 bulk stands and 19 standby stands. The equipment is capable of handling parcels weighing up to 32kg and measuring up to 130cm x 90cm x 80cm.

 

The facility has a sorting capacity of up to 6,000 parcels per hour, but there is another more significant statistic, according to Balbi. “We collect parcels from and deliver parcels to 450 commercial flights per day, which is huge,” he said. “We’re talking about passenger flights, and these aircraft won’t wait for parcels. So we have to be on time.”

 

Everything is automated and controlled by IT. Every parcel has a barcode which is scanned before it enters the system of conveyor belts.

 

“We cannot fight against Emirates’ capacity,” said Balbi. “The point on which we can compete is technology and IT systems. When a parcel enters the HubExpress, our system can immediately calculate the next flight available to its destination and ensure that it can take this flight.”

 

Air France KLM Martinair Cargo is adopting a unified approach to IT. A brand new management system called “Cargobus AFLS” for general and express cargo is in the first phase of implementation, while a complete overhaul of the system dealing with mail will be implemented in 2016.

 

The major hurdle which the company had to overcome, said Delpuech, was securing approval to locate the HubExpress on the piece of land it now occupies, at the far eastern end of the airport. “It has been a real challenge to be able to use a site on the tarmac so close to the passenger aircraft,” she said. “Normally, airport authorities would designate these spaces to be used for passenger activity like catering or terminals.”

 

The opening of the HubExpress at Paris means that Air France KLM Martinair Cargo’s parallel hub at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is now not in line in terms of efficiencies and performance, but Gräber hinted at the possibility of a mirror express facility there.

 

“The basic airport-to-airport service is standardized and is the same, but with the new hub we now have more capabilities at CDG,” he said. “Given that we have to reinvest anyway at Schiphol, I think what we see here today could soon be a good and inspiring example.”

 

As for the rest of the SkyTeam alliance, Gräber said that there were plans to start piloting more intense interlining of packages later this year, enabling more alliance partners to use the HubExpress.

 

But the relationship with one airline may soon change. Alitalia very recently announced that it would be ending its partnership with Air France KLM which it had formed in 2009.

 

Acknowledging that the company had received Alitalia’s notice, Gräber said that there wouldn’t be any changes for the time being. “The show goes on,” he said. “We will continue to market Alitalia’s bellies without any change and we will see how things will evolve later in time. January 2017 in cargo terms is a long time from now.”

 

 

By Jeffrey Lee

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