INDUSTRY
INTERVIEW
on our operations but as an opportunity for the industry. It forces
us to find innovative solutions in terms of time savings and
efficiency, and it’s really exciting.”
Hi-tech progress
Technology and the digital world also play an essential role in
ECS’ everyday work.
“It allows us to constantly improve our performance – and
to an ever-greater degree. Through innovation, which is one of
ECS Group’s five central values, we aim to achieve multiple goals.
Ultimately, we of course want to improve our performance, our
processes and our service offerings.
“To give an example, we’ve strengthened our IT teams as well
as our digital strategy department. The business intelligence and
reporting tools that we now offer across all of our subsidiaries are
even more effective. These innovative solutions are completely
revolutionising our ways of working and of understanding our
various markets because they allow us to give our customers
information that is more accurate, more direct and based on
business intelligence. In addition to being easy to use, these
custom-made tools offer considerable time savings and a more
in-depth understanding of our partners’ needs, allowing us to
significantly improve our performance.
“Currently, using data in day-to-day transactions necessarily
requires the use of e-AWB. Whether it involves simplifying
processes, making time or cost savings, increasing reliability or
reducing our carbon footprint, it is in everybody’s interest that it
is fully and quickly implemented across the entire industry.”
Tasks – and talent acquisition
Needless to say, the freight business is not without its obstacles.
“There are many challenges ahead of us, and chief among
these is the need to satisfy our clients and partners on a dayto
day basis with solutions that meet their needs perfectly. We
need to constantly adapt ourselves every day, demonstrate our
responsiveness and offer increasingly innovative solutions.
“Anticipating needs is therefore a priority and our main
challenge for 2019. Put another way, ECS Group is opening a new
destination in 2019 – the future. It’s a matter of simultaneously
creating the solutions of the future for the air cargo industry and
providing unique offerings to our partners.
“Firstly, based on the observation that airlines increasingly
need to streamline their costs while maximising their cargo
revenue, we wanted to offer our partners a unique structure
that allows them to hand over responsibility for their entire
cargo activities to a dedicated expert. The TCM service offering
has been around a while, and we already provide this service
to several airlines (JetStar Asia, Air Italy and, more recently,
NokScoot). However, we’re also capable – thanks in particular to
the investment we’ve made in our digital transformation and the
creation of particularly powerful tools – of creating a cutting-edge
TCM service.
“That’s why at ECS Group, we’ve chosen to set up an
independent entity dedicated solely to TCM, called TCE (Total
Cargo Expertise), bringing together all of ECS Group’s expertise
in this area. For us, it was crucial that we offered an entity of this
A Total Cargo Management package has
been rolled out for start-up NokScoot
challenge to coach or assess
projects. Over a period of
several months, they are giving
us their time because they, like
us, want to increase awareness
of the cargo industry among
talented newcomers as well
as to give the industry a new
drive, a new energy that will
result in innovative, high
added-value ideas for our
industry as a whole.”
Thominet cites several
interested parties, including
TIACA’s Chairman, the
Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar
Airways, the Director of Azura
International and Delta Air
Lines’ Managing Director of
Cargo Global Sales, as well as
the Director of Sales, Marketing
and Products at IAG Cargo.
He adds: “The support
and expertise brought by this
diverse group will help us to
choose the ten best projects
submitted as part of the
challenge. The people behind
these projects will then be
invited to discover the Grand
Jury’s final ranking at the
Air Cargo Europe trade show
awards ceremony in Munich.
This means the whole industry
will be able to benefit from
the challenge by accessing the
projects.”
And the future
“Every scenario has been
considered for 2019, from the
most disastrous to the most
optimistic. At the moment,
we’d prefer to focus on our
adaptability. ECS Group has
always demonstrated an
incredible level of resilience,
and we will continue to do so
in 2019 to stay on course. From
our point of view, there are a
number of opportunities on
the horizon as the new year
begins, and one thing’s for
sure – 2019 will be one more
step forwards in ECS Group’s
growth.”
kind, with dedicated teams of
experts capable of tackling the
complexities of this type of
contract and making sure that
our partners are completely
satisfied. It’s not for nothing
that a major internationally
renowned airline has chosen
to task us with all of its cargo
activities.”
Secondly, Thominet says
that the ECS Group is fully
committed to integrating
this “new normal”, or digital
transformation, by launching
the first weapon of mass
inclusion: #NexGenLeaders.
The idea here is simple: that of
getting new talent involved in
the development of the industry.
“One key aspect is that this
is an international challenge
aimed at students and start-ups,
but it’s also aimed at employees
of our group. Another is that
mentors will play a crucial
role in training and coaching
these teams, helping to
revolutionise our industry in
the areas that matter to us the
most: digital technologies,
added-value services, people
and sustainability. Experts and
those most closely involved
in our industry at every level
of the logistics chain decided
to get involved in this major
ECS Group
is opening a
new destination
in 2019 - the
future
14 February 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
/www.airlogisticsinternational.com