ony Charaf is an optimist.
When the Delta Airlines Senior Vice President and Chief Cargo Officer speaks, it doesn’t matter what the current situation is—you get the clear sense that he is both in the moment but also able to look ahead, weighing options and never allowing things to get out of hand.
In an atmosphere where others shed some doubt, or are unable to predict what will happen or—worse still—go around predicting that the sky is falling, Tony Charaf is always the coolest customer in the room. He’s the closest air cargo has ever gotten to having someone as smart, smooth, and sensible as the character Paul Newman played in the movie Cool Hand Luke.

      Every time we speak to Tony, it’s always the same; he is unflappable.
     Does that work?
     Today Delta will share profits from 2013 with its employees, and the happiest guy up in the air or down on the ground is none other than “Cool Hand” Tony Charaf, who once explained things this way:
     “In a position of leadership, shrink your head and grow your heart.”
     But to get a handle on 2014, we wonder this mid-February what shippers can expect and as usual, Tony Charaf is ready.

     “Delta is building a better airline and a stronger cargo business by expanding product offerings, improving customer service, and investing in technology, all in an effort to enhance the customer experience.
     “When customers ship with us, they expect a seamless shipping experience throughout the shipment lifecycle, with special care and attention paid to ensuring their freight arrives quickly and safely no matter where in the world it’s destined.
     “And when a shipment doesn’t move as planned, our customers can take comfort knowing that Delta Cargo people worldwide have their backs.”

     “By all accounts, 2013 was a banner year for Delta Air Lines, and the Delta Cargo team played an important part in that success.
     “While 2013 was a challenging year for the cargo industry, the Delta Cargo team pulled together to deliver solid financial results, improve operational performance and enhance our eCommerce business, a strategic priority for Delta as we work to remove paper from our business.
     “Our focus on premium products and improvements in customer service and the overall customer experience drove our solid revenue performance for the year, and our premium products will remain a primary area of focus. Mail has also been a strong area of growth for us, one that we’ll work to develop going forward.
     “We have also made investments in our products, facilities and technology as we look for ways to add value for our customers.
     “From an operational standpoint, Delta people recorded operational performance, unheard of in our industry—including 72 days of no mainline cancellations and 119 days of no maintenance-related cancellations—resulting in greater reliability for our customers.
     “We have made solid progress toward improving operational reliability and will keep on striving toward achieving our aim to run the most reliable cargo operation in the industry, knowing that it is the foundation for many other areas of our business.”

     “In 2013, we also made progress in our efforts to remove paper from the cargo side of our business and to become the industry leader in eCommerce.
     “We finished the year with a domestic e-airwaybill penetration of 50 percent and surpassed the IATA goal of 20 percent international penetration.
     “But there is still much work to be done in this area, not just at Delta, but throughout the air cargo industry.
     “As we look ahead in 2014, we plan to invest in technology and other improvements, including our improved deltacargo.com platform, and in cooperation with our customers to assist them to complete their transactions with us electronically under the guidance of our eCommerce and Technology team.
     “These accomplishments will serve as the foundation of our success as we move forward to achieve our goal of becoming the industry leader for customers who want their freight to arrive safely and quickly at destinations throughout the world.”

     “The cargo industry is in a state of change, and we need to innovate our products and services to provide value to our customers.
     “Lackluster demand growth and excess capacity will be prevalent in our industry.
     “Air cargo remains integral to the transport of goods around the globe; we have to earn business from our customers by providing them with consistent and reliable service—we need to earn their confidence day in and day out.
     “Removing paper from our business provides efficiencies for everyone in the supply chain.
     “Partnering with everyone in the supply chain and providing alternative solutions will grow adoption.
     “This is in the best interest of our industry.”

     “We can’t sit still; we must work harder every day to serve our customers, and we must be a valued business partner.
     “Relationships and being a valued and respected business partner are key to success in our industry.”

     “Much like the passenger side, Delta Cargo remains focused on growing our revenue from premium products, which include shipments like automobiles, pharmaceuticals, perishables, and DASH, our express domestic small package product.
     “As in 2013, we’ll concentrate heavily on our line of Variation branded products.
     “We saw strong growth in our Variation Pharma product toward the end of last year and will move to expand this area of our business.
     “Variation Wheels continues to perform well out of the Europe markets.
     “Our perishable business has been strong in many parts of the world, and this is an important area for us.
     “We’ve made investments in infrastructure at several of our warehouses to allow us to transport many temperature-sensitive items, including much of our perishable business. “

     “In 2014, we intend to expand our joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia where we have antitrust immunity for our trans-Atlantic flights.
     “Our teams are working closely together to achieve metal-neutrality across the Atlantic so that our customers are able to ship with any carrier using the AWB of their choice.
     “A key aspect of this revolves around the integration of our product portfolios to enable seamless transportation of freight, regardless of which carrier is used.
     “We have a clear vision of where we need to be and are working on the business processes and IT system integration to achieve this.”

     “Another significant opportunity is our new joint venture with Virgin Atlantic, where we have been granted antitrust immunity on service between the United Kingdom and North America.
     “This is an incredible opportunity for both airlines, and our teams are working together to develop synergies—including cooperating at common locations—which provides value for our customers with one-stop drop-off and pick-up for their shipments.”

     “Delta’s industry-leading global network and the frequency of our flights provide us with a comparative advantage when shippers want to ensure that their freight arrives safely and quickly.
     “Many customers want ‘from anywhere to anywhere’ service—this is where our joint venture provides tremendous value, because we can provide a seamless shipping experience to more destinations.”

     “For more than 80 years, Delta has been a values-based airline driven by the collaborative and dedicated efforts of our people—and therein lies the spirit of Delta.
     “Their resilience has shone through during the tough winter weather challenges we’ve had in the first month and a half of 2014.
     “The communication, coordination and dedication of the Delta Cargo team during this time has been nothing short of amazing as they worked together to take care of our customers and each other.
     “Cargo employees and leaders all together, as they do every day, joined hands with our partners in Airport Customer Service to shovel and remove snow, start and dig out frozen equipment and load and offload aircraft.
     “For this, they have my absolute admiration and respect, and I am fortunate to work beside them.”

     “This teamwork and hardy spirit that they’ve shown during these operational challenges and every day when they come to work is exactly why they have earned more than $500 million in profit sharing for 2013 and will receive a record payout on our profit sharing celebration day today, along with the rest of their Delta colleagues.
     “It is a privilege to work alongside this team, and I look forward to celebrating with them.
     “Delta has the best people in the airline business; they come to work each day invigorated and motivated by a desire to take care of our customers and preserve the unique culture we’ve built—and our people and culture cannot be replicated.
     “As we move forward toward our goal of becoming the industry’s preferred and most reliable air cargo carrier, we cannot and will not rest on our laurels—we must keep our backpacks on, as we say here at Delta.
     “Through good times and challenging times, we’ve seen that when we work together, we can accomplish great things. It is clear to us that our people are the difference makers.”
Geoffrey/Flossie

   Recent announcement that Carsten Spohr has been named as Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa brought to mind an interview we conducted with him in Leipzig a few years back, as the company Aerologic (the cooperation between Lufthansa Cargo and DHL) was launched.
   In this video, Mr. Spohr reveals forward thinking and a determined balance that have held him in good stead all the way to the top of the German national airline.
   We send out our best wishes to Carsten Spohr in his time ahead.
Geoffrey

Michael Webber
Webber Air Cargo
Airport Consulting

Everybody's Valentine

     “Over the last year, Saudia Cargo has significantly increased its scheduled capacity in the Kenyan export market by 40 percent,” commented Ken Mbogo, Regional Sales Director Africa, as Saudia Cargo added a series of four extra freighter flights from Nairobi to Amsterdam this month to meet the high demand of flower exports for Valentines Day.
     “Deployment of these extra frequencies in February is a part of our continued strategic growth plan and a further testament of our long term commitment to the Kenyan floricultural industry,” he added.

     “The biggest worry for the airlines industry right now is probably cargo. Air cargo continues to be weak and for the big airlines in this region (Asia), it is a very important component of their revenue,” IATA Director General Tony Tyler told a news conference at the Singapore Airshow.
     The biggest air cargo show so far this year took place in Mumbai last week, but according to Des Vertannes, IATA head of cargo, the major issue on his agenda was pushing the CASS settlement system in that country; at least, that is what made the headlines.
     Not much has been said or reported to provide a clue about the Singapore bombshell dropped at a trade show that closed last Thursday.
     It makes you wonder if these guys are on the same page, or if news released by IATA to the public is just blowin’ in the wind?
     Your move . . .

     It may seem peculiar reading this from someone in snow-locked New York City, but this week all we can do is pray for snow in Sochi, Russia.
     Right now, teams from around the world are in Sochi with dreams of bringing home glory and gold medals during the 17 (Feb 7-23) days of winter events and 9 days of Paralympic games.
     Despite unseasonably warm temperatures that have caused some ski events to be more like efforts in “slush booming,” it’s all about youth, dedication, country, and hope for 2014, and bringing a positive message from Sochi to the world for the next couple of weeks.
     The Winter Games also bring home that a country like tiny Norway can play, compete, and win against the mega-powers of the world; that reality is comfort news to the media stream.
     Russia spent an estimated $51 billion on the Sochi Winter Olympics, making it one of the costliest Olympics in history.
     But enhanced road and rail infrastructure will be a lasting legacy to the event, and don’t forget—air cargo was there.
     The fact is these Winter Olympics included one of the largest freight and shipping efforts ever.
     To handle the traffic, Sochi Organizing Committee appointed an official freight forwarder for every avenue of freight access to Sochi.
     Aeroflot as the official airline was also designated as air cargo carrier to Sochi.
     Russian Railways (RZhd) is the official freight services provider.
     After being cleared by Customs, goods and equipment were shipped to one of two distribution centers based on the type of freight.
     Managing large amounts of freight for the Olympic games did not go without a hitch. Problems attendant to massive amounts of cargo passing through Sochi were recorded.
     But now the games are on and all the only thing left to do—for everybody up and down the chain—is pray for snow.
Geoffrey

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Themes Like Old Times . . . Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo, center left with Pradeep Kumar, Emirates Senior Vice President Cargo Revenue Optimization and Systems (holding award) and a great cross section of the Emirates SkyCargo team received ‘International Cargo Airline of the Year’ at Air Cargo India 2014 last week in Mumbai.

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