Frankfurt Exclusive—FlyingTypers sat down with Danita Waterfall-Brizzi, Director Cargo Sales EMEIA, and her team to talk about their piece of the pie. Located at the sprawling Cargo-City, Delta is located in the building of WFS, their handling agent.

     Based at Frankfurt am Main’s Rhein Main International airport, this sales-driven organization manages business in 37 online and offline countries and includes 23 cargo GSAs, generating $289 million of westbound production—roughly one third of the carrier’s annual revenue. Delta aircraft fly nonstop to North America from 20 online stations. The remaining 17 offline stations are fed with freight brought in by truck or on another airline into the online Delta network in the region, i.e. KHI-CDG-DTW. Collaborative relationships exist with Emirates Cargo as well as others that also bring freight from Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka to connect with DL flights to the U.S.
     The first thing that is easy to notice is the multicultural aspect of the team, with a wealth of international experience. Danita hails from the Seattle area and has been in Europe since 1996 in a variety of positions that took her to Delta outposts in the UK, Belgium, Russia, and Germany. She is fluent in Russian and German. Irina Koeppen is project manager cargo sales & service EMEIA, comes from St. Petersburg in Russia, and has been in Frankfurt since 1997. Maurice Fuchs is sales manager Germany and Switzerland and is a local, as is Gerhard Wahl. There is also Marco Rincker, Key Account Manager, Sevda Oyanbas Coordinator, and Yusuf Mercan, Sales Coordinator.
     There is a palpable, high level of enthusiasm in this team whose members come across as driven professionals. A testament to this spirit is one of the comments made—that there is “nobody mediocre in the Delta cargo organization”—and the knowledge and conviction that Delta recognizes all the areas that contribute to profit. Senior corporate management—whether it’s CEO Richard Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Cargo Officer Neel Shah, and “cheerleader” par excellence Ray Curtis—are all personally well known in Frankfurt. What it comes down to is very simple: people are motivated and want to contribute; when that contribution is recognized it fuels further success. No MBA needed. Cargo is responsible for a 7 percent contribution to the carrier’s overall profit.
     The way European sales are managed has evolved; Delta has had its own staff in the UK, France, and Germany since 2008, while SkyTeam partner KLM acts in AMS. Both AMS and CDG sales have been growing and the harmonization with the SkyTeam partners is ongoing and making progress. The EMEIA cargo operations are based in London; David Linford serves as regional director with a team of four. The sales team feeds cargo originating in Germany to the UK, AMS, and CDG because there are more flight frequencies there. There is much focus on trade lane management.
     Some of the things of which we weren’t aware include Delta’s operation of some one-way passenger charter flights to European destinations, for which westbound sales generate up to 30 tons of cargo for the otherwise empty return to the U.S. Another perhaps not generally well known fact is that during the period of 2009-2011, along with all U.S. carriers, Delta could not accept shipper-built units for security reasons; needless to say, this resulted in a significant advantage for competing European carriers. The recent U.S./EU security agreements are supposed to have resolved this issue and literally within weeks it should be able to compete on equal terms.
     Danita says that by now “many of the kinks have been worked out and we can focus on going forward, benefit from the reputation Delta has earned as a financially sound carrier.” Talking to the other team members about what they perceive constitutes their competitive advantage, Maurice Fuchs says “DL exceeds in customer service; speed is our secret.” He went on to say that “we prioritize based on customer requirements” and internally there is much collaboration with revenue management and IT.
     While it may sound corny in our fast, digital, global world—a world which can be rather cynical—several people mentioned Delta’s “Rules of the Road", which outlines a set of principles and relatively simple and basic guidelines for doing business. It seems to have resonated. More than one person told us that Delta exceeds at educating its staff, whether it is sales, marketing, or communications. The Delta Cargo Flight Plan at the head office in Atlanta, which FlyingTypers reported about, has its EMEIA version in full display, listing specific objectives for 2012.
     Maurice Fuchs told us how how the “Variation Wheels” product line came about. The Delta operations person in Stuttgart was convinced there was an opportunity to develop a car shipping program. It didn’t take him long to get Maurice onboard and—to make a long story short—it took them one year to get everyone onboard and formalize the program. They first trialed loading the company car in the B767 and the rest, as they say, is history. The STR ops guy was brought to ATL to train other staff and in 2011 Delta Cargo shipped a total of 29 cars, averaging nearly $10,000 each in revenue. A Porsche project is underway with 11 test shipments completed successfully and a “fly & drive” package is in process. Flight DL107 FRA/JFK on June 16, 2012, carried a vintage 1963 Aston Martin DB4 GT valued at $919,000.
     Cars have been flown for years, but the point that Maurice makes is finding new ways of doing things, taking the initiative, and working it internally and with the customers until something profitable develops. Having the support of his colleagues and management team mean more to him than words can describe and it is what fuels him every day.
     Trends change, and lately there have been more perishables from Latin America to North America than from Europe, which has evolved into exporting more temperature controlled products, including pharmaceuticals. Another deal is UPS business flying cargo on Delta aircraft.
     Gerhard Wahl came on board Delta in 1991 from Pan Am and left a few years later to join GateGourmet, a catering company where he stayed for nearly 10 years before returning “home” to cargo in 2006. His first remark is about how much things have changed since Neel took over in 2008. “There is a much warmer atmosphere, management is more in touch with the people, and it’s appreciated.” Gerhard took over from Irina, who used to do his Excel work for regional revenue management. He says that revenue per flight is higher in 2012 than last year despite the impact of rate exchange fluctuations.
      It’s a good day in Frankfurt.
Ted Braun/Flossie

     David Lara, Vice President of Global Airfreight Procurement at CEVA Logistics, is not usually downbeat. But when asked if he sees anything on Asia-Europe and Transpacific air freight lanes to inspire hope, unsurprisingly, he found it hard to pinpoint positives given current global economic uncertainty.
     “There is little optimism in the industry until possibly Q4, and we’ll see how the global markets are by then,” he said.
     Lara said continuing doubt over European demand and the future of the Euro was hitting import markets there, although U.S. demand was “expected to be marginally stronger.”
     “Some of the hi-tech companies will likely be launching new products for the Christmas period, but these are expected to be limited,” he added.
     The poor demand outlook on major lanes and bearish rates will leave airlines with few supply-side options, according to Lara. “Carriers will not continue to trade in reducing rates as they fight for profitability and will look to take capacity out to force rates up,” he said.
     He did predict that airlines would turn to niche markets to drive revenues, however.
     “Throughout 2012 the industry expects carriers may try to launch various new products in the high-tech sector and most will be from Asia with a global distribution requirement.
     “Many carriers continue to focus on providing high yield products for the pharma and health care sectors and this will continue to grow.”
     As a 3PL, CEVA provides a full range of global air services including expedite, consolidation, charter, hand carry/obc and sea-air. “We work with all of the global carriers,” said Lara. “However, we have strategic partnerships with select carriers to meet our customers’ service requirements while delivering cost effective and service solutions.”
     Although the airfreight industry had been operating in a challenging environment, CEVA had been able to “perform consistently well in terms of tonnage split” due to the strength of its global network and multi-service offering.
     Unlike some of his peers who have complained that sea-air shipments have been affected by high fuel surcharges because shippers have had to double pay, Lara said CEVA was seeing stable dual mode movements but had detected some traces of overall modal shift.
     “In terms of dual mode competitiveness, it really depends on the needs of the customer at the point in time,” he said. “From the general market perspective, we have seen more freight moved from air to sea as the financial costs of inventory associated with sea are lower.”
     Lara expects some persistent trends of the last few years to accelerate. This will mean continued “low percentage” export growth from Europe to Asia from “the usual vertical industries—hi-tech, pharma, healthcare, automotive” and more demand for exports out of China from interior regions.
     “Manufacturing will migrate from east to west China as manufacturers look at lower production costs in the west,” he added. “With it, uplift and capacity from the carriers will also develop to accommodate the need.
     “On an industry-wide basis, we do not see this as having a dramatic impact on Hong Kong in the short term.
     “For CEVA, we have our strategy for China and will continue to ensure that we match our customers’ needs with the right coverage and service quality.”
SkyKing