Volker Oesau, the CEO of DHL Global Forwarding for Central & Eastern Europe and the country manager for Germany, spoke to Air Cargo News/FlyingTypers about business in Eastern Europe and Russia.

FT:  How will DHL’s air freight business develop in Eastern Europe and Russia in the next several years?
Volker Oesau:  Our current assumption is that the annual growth of the total Eastern European market will amount to 7-8%. In Russia we expect similar annual growth in import, while the growth in export will be considerably lower.
FT:  How does DHL organize its air freight business in the region, which airlines do you choose for cooperation and which airports will be most important for the region in the future?
Volker Oesau:  We established a dense network across the whole Eastern European area consisting of dedicated offices that act as self-contained organizations. This gives us the exact possibilities for future development that we are looking for. Whenever practicable, we cooperate with our preferred carriers (such as Lufthansa, AirFrance-KLM), and others. In addition to this, another important aspect is to work together with the particular national carriers, if they are able to fulfil our high equipment and network requirements. The most important air freight hub in Russia will continue to be Moscow with its three airports (Sheremetyevo 1 and 2 and Domodedovo).
FT:  What type of air freight businesses does DHL currently serve in Eastern Europe and how do you foresee future development?
Volker Oesau:  At present, our main focus is mainly put on the pharmaceutical, high tech and automotive industry as well as oil and gas. Apart from our standard air freight products, the project and charter businesses are important additional areas. To ensure smooth and fast transportation, we use both direct services as well as gateways such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Vienna.
FT:  Are there any other regional particularities that have to be taken into account regarding the air freight business in the region?
Volker Oesau:  Still, business conditions are not ideal in Eastern Europe, as for example, infrastructure is imperfect in many places. There are bottlenecks regarding storage areas and offices. In some countries such as Russia and Ukraine, consolidated shipments are still not allowed.
FT:  What will change within the next years?
Volker Oesau:  The economy in Eastern Europe will continue to grow strongly. However, future investments will show a tendency to relocate towards the East. In 10 years, probably even less, some countries will surely lose some of their current attractiveness as business destinations because of rising labour costs. Even now, the wage level in the Czech Republic already amounts to 50% of the Austrian and 40% of the German wage level. Beyond a doubt, this is a continuing development.
FT:  What are the strategic targets of DHL Global Forwarding in Eastern Europe?
Volker Oesau:  DHL Global Forwarding’s aim is to offer tailored customer solutions from beginning to end of the supply chain – the same high standards throughout the world. In the Eastern European region, this means we will continuously expand our network in important trade places such as Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Kazakhstan and other countries. At present, our main focus is clearly on Russia where we will be present with nine sites altogether. Also we continue to strengthen our presence in Eastern Slovakia and Romania. In product development, we have two ongoing projects: First, we are implementing our air freight product “Airfreight Plus,” a door-to-door service with fixed transit times, in the whole Eastern European region. And second, in the sea freight business we are currently upgrading the frequency of our direct consolidated container services in Eastern Europe.
George Frey