More airlines set to join cargo.one booking platform

Cargo.one is set to add new airlines to its spot-market booking portal this year, following on from Finnair announcing it would offer its capacity on the platform.

Cargo.one managing director Moritz Claussen told Air Cargo News that it hoped that at least three new airlines would join the platform in 2019.

These would be in addition to Lufthansa carriers and the capacity sold by Leisure Cargo, which offers the belly capacity of 14 leisure airlines. Meanwhile, Finnair Cargo is set to join in May. On the customer side, 156 forwarders have signed up to use cargo.one.

Claussen said that one of the key consideration when deciding which airlines to work with was whether they would be able to support cargo.one’s “value proposition”.

He explained that cargo.one is able to offer both live spot rates and actual capacity by connecting directly with airline systems through API connections.

With other platforms pricing and capacity are often disconnected.

He explained: “There are other platforms out there that have added many airlines but have diluted their value proposition to a degree where you have rate sheets but you have a price that isn’t bookable. That is not what we are trying to achieve.

“If we are showing an offer that offer should have a price that is bookable in that instance.”

Claussen said he was pleased to be able to add Finnair to the stable of airlines that are using the platform, especially as last year it upgraded its own systems in line with the launch of its new Cool hub in Helsinki.

“I think Finnair has a visionary approach,” said Moritz. “What they did when they implemented their new system was really to make sure they are able to deliver a customer experience that is seamless.

“That is the problem we constantly see – airlines are not ready yet to combine capacity and pricing.

“They know there is a price but they don’t know whether they have capacity for it, or they have capacity but they don’t know what the price is.

“Finnair has taken an approach where they combine this and it fits perfectly into what we are trying to achieve as a platform.”

Also attending the interview was Fredrik Wildtgrube, head of global sales at Finnair Cargo. He said the carrier had decided to begin offering its capacity on cargo.one in order to provide customers the kind of experience they have grown used to in their personal lives.

“Customers have different shopping experiences now,” he said, “There are different booking experiences that the customers are wanting and we need to be very agile.

“We need to try and make Finnair approachable in as many of these channels as possible and cargo.one fits into our strategy. It is about getting things faster.”

Asked if he was concerned whether booking platforms could result in a commoditisation of airfreight services, Wildtgrube said he did not expect that to be the case.

He said that customers book services based on brand reputation and added that Finnair’s recent investments in new systems and the Cool hub re-enforced its commitment to its services offering.

“Everybody has their own procurement strategies and that is absolutely fine,” said Wildtgrube. “If we can make life that a little bit easier for everybody, a little bit faster, then we want to be part of that world.”

Claussen concluded: “It is interesting for us to see that higher value carriers are the ones to come onto the platform first.

“You may have expected that the carriers that just throw capacity at the market would come in first because maybe they are better ranked on price.

“But it really is not about that. It is about quality, it is also about how we build the product to really focus on how the flight is structured, how many layovers you have, what the handling times are – that kind of quality is more important, or at least as important, as price.”