Acting as outsourced cargo division boosts growth for EAS

Thanks to innovation and a focus on constant improvement, Express Air Services has succeeded in growing in a shrinking market. This, says managing director Garry Marshall, is due to the implementation of strategies that address specific client demands, making Express Air a trusted airfreight partner in Africa. “Express Air has developed and perfected a unique business model where airlines outsource their cargo division in totality to us. This model is ideally suited to low fare airlines, which typically do not have a cargo operation due to turnaround times of the aircraft, as well as typical African carriers,” says Marshall. “The airline does not employ a single resource, be it people or assets, dedicated to cargo. Express Air does it all – sales, handling, documentation, administration, accounting, risk – the entire cargo package.” Representing the cargo division of three of the four low cost carriers in South Africa the business model can be adapted to suit the specific needs of a client. “We can replicate our business model, almost like ‘Express Air in a Box – Plug-In and Play’,” says Marshall, yet the components are sufficiently adaptable to suit market conditions different from South Africa. Operating in mainly specialist markets, Express Air has grown significantly due to this business model in recent times despite the market shrinking and challenges around market sizes resulting in low economies of scale. “The volatility of both financial and political arenas as well as the high cost of increased regulated compliance, the shortage of qualified skills and the language and communications barriers on the continent continue to pose challenges but we believe the emergence of new airlines, whose core focus and competency lies in passengers, creates an opportunity for us to become the airline’s total cargo division.”