During a “Press Briefing” just before the start of the Nordic Air Cargo Symposium last week in Stockholm, Karl Ulrich Garnardt, LH Cargo’s Chairman & CEO surprised his audience with the statement that they are “on the lookout for Oil & Gas.”
However, not in the form of raw material, but as a new industry focus for his Scandinavian sales team.
The Scandinavian team will join forces with other LH cargo experts around the globe in order to offer tailor made solutions for the oil and gas industry.
Just how is this planned to work?
A dedicated Oil & Gas Core Team under the leadership of Wouter Boekee, LH’s Key Account & Business Development Manager Oil & Gas, will base itself in Oslo.
The carrier will also base specialized sales representatives at major worldwide Oil & Gas hubs.
The team will work on producing and putting into effect customized solutions for the transport of equipment and spare parts according to the Oil & Gas client’s requirements.
The airline claims that the teams in place will have an in-depth knowledge of the industry’s needs and will therefore be able to react quickly and effectively.
Apart from Oslo, as the coordination point, LH Cargo will supply representatives in Vancouver, Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Baku, Houston Rio, Lagos, Dubai Seoul and Singapore. This, in their view will
give the necessary worldwide oil and gas coverage and enable the airline to react fast to the dynamic demands of emergency situations as well as design customized transportation solutions to
remote areas in cooperation with their forwarding partners.
Alexander Kohnen, Director Nordic and Baltic Countries for LH Cargo, sees this new step as a challenge for his cargo team in Scandinavia and at the same time notes that the Norwegian Oil & Gas industry has great potential for future movement of equipment worldwide.
The German carrier has no all-freighter service into Scandinavia at the present time.
Most cargo is carried through to FRA via Road Feeder Services (RFS) or in the bellies of the A320/A321 passenger aircraft.
Lufthansa works closely with Chapman Freeborn with regards to the chartering of “additional cargo capacity” out of Scandinavia, when needed.
The question, so far unanswered, remains as to whether LH Cargo will eventually consider placing scheduled wide body freighter capacity into this market in order to be able to position itself as
the “carrier of choice” for the Oil & Gas community.
But, first things first!
The project is in its infancy stages and there is still a large amount of legwork involved before one can look at pushing larger capacity into Scandinavia.
We find the project has much merit and will follow its progress closely.
John Mc Donagh