Outsourcing to GSSAs to gather pace

Airlines will continue to outsource to general service and sales agents as they look to reduce costs, according to the ECS Group.
Speaking at a press event at the Air Cargo Europe event in Munich, ECS Group chief executive Bertrand Schmoll said the company had noted increased demand for its GSSA services.
He said this followed a trend for airlines to outsource non-core activities.
“We see some airlines that previously completely managed their cargo operation but now they are thinking of outsourcing because they are looking for savings,” he said.
“More and more airlines will look to outsource their cargo operations because it’s not their core business, which is passenger.
“It’s not their business to sell cargo to the freight forwarders, it’s their business to sell tickets and to transport passengers and cargo.”
ECS Group chief operating officer Adrien Thominet added that airlines looking to outsource activities would also benefit from the local market expertise that GSSAs were able to offer because they tended to have offices in more countries.
Outsourcing also provided airlines with increased access to staffing resource to help create new business.
He gave the example of Royal Air Maroc, which recently outsourced its US sales operation to ECS.
“In the Americas Royal Air Maroc has two daily flights from Casablanca into New York using Dreamliners, but they only have one member of staff whereas we have 56 members of staff.
 “They would never invest from one to ten staff because budget-wise they will be restricted.
“So by outsourcing they are able to benefit from a larger structure and they will also benefit from our expertise.
“We have this expertise that they could not get out of four people so it is also an added value for them. They do not go to a GSSA by default; they go to bring in added value.”
Thominet and Schmoll added that there was also a trend towards total cargo management, where the complete cargo operation is outsourced to a GSSA in return for guaranteed revenues.
The development comes as airlines look to remove fixed costs and follows the trend for the complete outsourcing of other activities, such as fuel purchasing and catering, they said.