 Jim
Butler, the relaxed, plain-speaking new President of American Airlines
Cargo, squares the ball up on the tee as World Cargo Symposium opens in
Los Angeles this week, declaring:
“I want everyone to know American
Airlines Cargo is committed to the industry.
“This
week at IATA World Cargo Symposium we have more than 30 employees actively
participating in industry workshops and customer meetings, and we see
this event as an opportunity to listen and learn—from our customers,
our partners, and others in the industry.
“As
a new member of the IATA Cargo Committee, I am personally looking forward
to our committee meetings and becoming more actively involved in shaping
the future of this industry.”
| New Face
On Familiar Ground |
“Although I may
be a relatively new face to the cargo industry, I’m certainly no
stranger to the airline business.
“Throughout my career, I’ve
worked in many areas at American where cargo was quite visible, including
my most recent position as Managing Director of Commercial Planning and
Performance, where I led the airline’s strategic business plan.”
“If I had to articulate
my ‘must achieve’ goal this year, it would be leading a successful
integration.”
“It’s a big job to integrate
two airlines, and thankfully, we have the best in the business working
hard behind the scenes to make this as seamless as possible for our customers.”
“While we continue to operate as
two separate airlines today, we’re moving forward with important
integration milestones, pushing us one step closer to operating under
a single air waybill.
“In January, I announced my leadership
team, and just this month, we’ll begin co-locating select cargo
facilities to prepare us for operating as one airline.”
“Post merger, American
offers so many incredible opportunities for our customers—an even
larger network and broader opportunities—and it allows us to bring
together what our customers love most about both airlines and teams at
American and US Airways.
“So, where do we start?
“I know we’ve said it before,
but it all starts with our customers.
“As we continue to build and shape
our new cargo organization, our customers remain our top priority.
“And, yes, Kenji Hashimoto who led
air cargo prior to my posting has been a great friend and partner to me
through the transition.”
| AA Cargo
Celebrates 75 Years |
“We’ve been
doing this well for quite a while. In fact, this year, we’re celebrating
our 75th cargo anniversary.
“So, what’s our secret?
“Our customer focus.
“We see ourselves as partners to
our customers, and our team works hard every day to provide creative solutions
to meet their needs.
“Collaboration is key here, and that’s
really the mantra for our new marketing campaign: ‘With you all
the way.’
“We stay well attuned to the needs
of our customers and work with them to be successful together.”
“One of the great
things about this merger is the strength of our combined network and the
many new opportunities it presents.
“With a Philadelphia hub, which sits
right in the heart of the U.S. pharmaceutical corridor, we’ll now
be able to offer our ExpediteTC customers even more options for shipping
their cold chain shipments. Right now, work is already underway to create
a new, dedicated pharma facility for this hub.
“We’re also continuing to build
our presence in Asia, a key component in our long-term network strategy.
“On June 11, we’ll add daily
nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Hong Kong (HKG), as
well as daily nonstop service between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Shanghai
(PVG).
“Looking at the full picture, our
expanding presence in Asia will soon connect 68 different cities across
Latin America creating hundreds of routes where shipments can start and
end their journeys between the two regions alone, not to mention all of
the U.S. domestic and Transatlantic locations where we can ship our customers’
cargo.
“We’ve seen
some signs of a modal shift, particularly among sectors that are more
price-sensitive and less transit sensitive, but there’s always going
to be a place for air freight.
“We can point to many instances where
we’ve grown business, such as perishable goods and in the cold chain—one
of our fastest growing products over the last five years.
“In these areas, we’re eager
to offer our customers new, more fuel-efficient widebody aircraft, such
as our new 777-300ER and soon-to-be delivered 787s.
“These aircraft will allow us to
offer our customers even more capacity than ever before.”
| Butler
Talks Career Moves |
“This has been
an excellent opportunity for me, and it’s been an honor to join
the cargo industry and lead the new American Airlines Cargo.
“I’ve been busy immersing myself
in the business and getting to personally meet many of our customers.
“At the end of this month, I’m
traveling to Brazil to meet with customers at Intermodal South America,
and I’m pretty sure by the end of the year my passport will need
a few extra pages.
“The biggest surprise?
“We all know we ship a wide array
of interesting commodities underneath our passengers, but I think we sometimes
forget the truly important impact we make in this business.
“Whether we’re transporting
time-critical organ donations, the newest life-saving vaccines, vegetables
shared at the dinner table or simply the flowers that make someone smile,
it’s nice to know we’ve had a hand in making this all happen.”
“We’re making
great strides in this area, and I think it starts with telling the unique
stories of what we do.
“Each shipment we transport has a
unique story and, at American, we’ve been leveraging our social
media channels to share these stories with an audience who generally has
limited to no knowledge of our industry.
“We share our stories with our more
than 4 million followers —whether it’s about blueberries from
Latin America, the latest phones from Asia, or lobsters en route to Japan—and
the responses have been positive.
“One American traveler wrote that
he had no idea that the fruit in his grocery store shipped by air from
Latin America.
“Internally, we will be launching
a campaign across our airline to showcase the importance of our cargo
business and the major role we play in the world’s supply chain.”
Geoffrey/Flossie |
