Last Tuesday Ulrich Ogiermann, Managing Director of the new German start-up cargo carrier CargoLogicGermany (CLG) gave members of Frankfurt’s Air Cargo Club a rundown on how far the carrier is in gaining their Aircraft Operator Certificate (AOC).
UPDATE, 09:30am, Sep16, 2019
Today, Cargologic Germany GmbH (“CLG”) has been granted the long-awaited Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the German civil aviation authority
Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA) and is now ready to commence commercial operations. The forthcoming AOC admission by the LBA had been announced by CargoForwarder Global in a report published on 2
September, titled: "Berlin gives green light for CargoLogic Germany flights."
In CLG's release, issued today, the carrier's management states that after many months of hard and dedicated work by the entire team, CLG now looks forward
to providing customers with high quality, reliable air cargo solutions.
Their announcement further reads: "CLG will initially focus on providing short-term capacity to customers across Europe and in time, aims to expand its
offering to include provision of express air cargo solutions to leading integrators and e-commerce providers as well."
According to CEO Uli Ogiermann, his carrier, although not airborne until today, has generated considerable commercial interest in recent months by large and
mid-sized forwarding agents.
CLG’s home base in Saxony, at Leipzig/Halle Airport has a clear cargo focus, excellent infrastructure and the presence of several key customers.
Moreover, the airport benefits from efficient rail and road links for onward transport. LEJ enables cargo carriers 24/7/365 ops.
Currently, CLG has 2 leased B737-400SF aircraft on its books, a type well-suited to the European express air cargo market.
Posted last night:
At the monthly ACD get together which was attended by 70 members and guests, Mr Ogiermann started his presentation with a slide stating that CargoLogicGermany (CLG) will be “empowering the
e-commerce boom in Germany and Europe.”
His presentation was centred around the growth in e-commerce in Europe and the need in the near future for fast, time-sensitive delivery to the consumer. He stated that CLG as a new entrant in
this field has the potential to tap this market and with its location at Leipzig Airport, is ideally situated to also cover the fast-growing market in south eastern Europe, such as Romania,
Bulgaria or Greece.
In order to (rightly) highlight the importance of the e-commerce upswing, Mr Ogiermann showed in his graphics that the general air cargo development between 2000 and 2020 shows a minimal growth
pattern. On the other side, he stated, e-commerce growth has risen in leaps and bounds during the past decade, especially over the last few years. This trend is unstoppable and the need for fast
air last-mile delivery is more apparent than before, particularly because trucks block increasingly roads and highways, making ground transportation of time-definite e-commerce goods a risky
undertaking.
This is what CargoLogicGermany is building on. He (quite rightly) says that Amazon and Alibaba are out to conquer the European market and are moving very fast in this direction.
Fleet will grow considerably by 2023
CLG will not just be happy with two B737-400Fs. A third is on the way and should be positioned in Leipzig by October he says. CLG’s plans are to have at least ten B737Fs online by 2021. These
could also be B737-800 models which offer a 23-ton payload spread over eleven pallet positions. A more attractive formula compared to the B737-400F with around eighteen tons. One could imagine
that CLG may well consider positioning feeder aircraft at airports other than Leipzig in the future.
CLG’s management vision is to become Germany’s leading express cargo airline in the future. That’s the message Uli Ogiermann gave his audience last Tuesday.
However, there is quite some work to be done before that happens.
Who owns what?
That’s the question which seems to be bothering some managers in the German aviation world.
Ogiermann expected the CLG ownership issue to be questioned when he stood in front of his ACD audience.
Allegations that it is a Russian owned carrier, vying for a German AOC, are “false” and a “myth” he says. He spent some time stating that CLG is not a daughter company of the UK CLG Holding Ltd.,
and that it operates solely under German management, now and in the future. That the carrier is a conduit for the Volga-Dnepr Group to sidestep future bilateral negotiations with the Germans - is
another myth Mr Ogiermann says. He further stated that the new CLG is open for cooperation with all airlines, integrators and forwarders as well as being ready to operate ACMI flights on
exclusive contract basis.
That was the final message delivered by CLG’s German Managing Director, who when questioned by CargoForwarder Global whether he will remain on seat once the AOC is granted - stated that his
tenure will then cease and someone else will take up the reins.
John Mc Donagh / Heiner Siegmund
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