Freight Sales Agent ECS Lands Next Coup in SE Asia

The new year couldn’t have started better for sales agent European Cargo Service Group by winning Finnish flag carrier Finnair (code: AY) as a client. In their announcement, the ECS management emphasizes that they will market, promote and sell air freight products on behalf of Finnair on the airline’s passenger flights from several Southeast Asian destinations into Europe and North America.

AY offers a strong Asian network
Currently, Finnair operates two daily flights from Bangkok, daily flights from Hong Kong and five flights a week from Singapore into their home base Helsinki Vantaa Airport, deploying Airbus A350s or A330s. The aircraft are capable of uplifting between 15 to 20 tons of freight per departure, depending on passenger baggage loads.
In addition, the Nordic carrier offers roundtrips from Helsinki to Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Xi'an and Guangzhou in China, Incheon in South Korea, and Narita, Nagoya, Osaka and seasonal Fukuoka in Japan.
However, these last-mentioned routes are not part of the now signed sales agreement, but they well illustrate the importance of the different local Asian markets for the airline.

Providing additional value
After both parties had signed the contract, Jonas Drewsen, ECS Group’s CEO Middle East and Far East commented on the deal by stating: “Our aim is to structure the whole sales organization, performing yield, cargo capacity, sales and finance management from our central location in Singapore for all countries - in the best possible manner to align with the goals of Finnair.” This way, ECS significantly provides value addition in order to achieve the maximum benefit.

Sparkling GSA star in Asia
The latter should also apply to ECS who  as of late have remarkably spread their wings in the Far East. Until the beginning of last year, the company had only offices in Singapore and Vietnam. However, things changed rapidly last June when Bangkok-based sales agent AVS who ran stations in 10 SE Asian countries was acquired by ECS. A step that catapulted ECS right up front in the region. The next coup was announced with great fanfare on 22 October when ECS contracted Singapore-headquartered budget airline Jetstar Asia as cargo partner. Jetstar operates a fleet of 18 A320 passenger jetliners, offering travelers a network comprising 25 cities in 13 Asian countries. The low cost carrier got on the ECS radar because their management decided very early that flying air freight consignments would well complement their passenger business and build an additional source of income.

Combining air freight transports
Finnair is the third major move taken by ECS for pushing their business activities ahead in SE Asia. By managing the cargo business of different carriers like Jetstar, DHL Aviation, Finnair and some others, this enables ECS to combine transports involving two or even three of their clients, thus generating additional business for each of the parties involved. This way, the GSSA ups its client’s tonnage, creating a win-win situation. 

Heiner Siegmund