ECS Group set for further expansion and investment

Adrien Thominet, ECS Group. Source: ECS

The ECS Group has this year announced major contracts in two of its target growth areas, South America and Asia, while it is also continuing to invest in its modular service offering.

In April, ECS Group Brazilian subsidiary BCS AIR revealed that it was working with DHL Aviation to set up the airline’s first Brazilian connection and will serve as its exclusive GSSA when flights commence on July 10.

The service will run six days per week between Viracopos and Miami via Bogota.

Meanwhile, in May, another ECS Group subsidiary, Globe Air Cargo (GAC), announced that it had opened a new branch in Seoul, Korea.

The company followed this up with the announcement that Air Premia had selected GAC as its GSSA for services out of its home hub at Incheon International Airport.

ECS Group chairman Adrien Thominet says that the company has further plans to expand in both of these regions.

“We are very proud to represent DHL in Brazil,” says Thominet. “This is a sign of their confidence since we already represent them in Chile.

“We have a good presence in the region with offices also in Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico City.

“This is a region with enormous potential, even more so with the growth of e-commerce. We therefore plan to strengthen our presence there in the short term through new acquisitions.”

He adds: “We see opportunities in all territories, but right now there is a particular interest in Asia.

“Chasing and winning contracts is ECS Group’s DNA as a GSA. Our appetite for expansion is therefore global.”

Thominet adds that GSA services are currently in high demand. He explains that as a result of the Covid pandemic’s impact on aviation, airlines are looking to outsource in order to focus on more “strategic” areas that they can only complete in-house.

“I think that this is a trend that will remain because it is now logical and especially established in terms of business model,” he says.

“This is where we as GSA have a card to play. Actually it is ECS Group’s key expertise.

“We have developed a special ability [service] for this: ‘All-In’, covering the full scope of cargo processes from sales, marketing, revenue optimisation, operations (network operations as well as quality, safety and security), interline management, handling of claims, all the way through to chartering operations.”

He says the move to outsourcing led the company to develop modular services, which ECS calls abilities, that allow airlines to pick and choose different products to suit their needs.

“The abilities are very successful,” Thominet says. “Our goal is to continue to develop and improve them, thanks to our customers.”

One such ability that has proved successful over the past 12 months is the charter solution, named “Just Fly It”.

This year alone the company has completed around 650 charters.

“It allows us to link the two types of demand: those who are looking for capacity, and those who have capacity to offer,” says Thominet. “It is a real added value to respond quickly to the major capacity demand of the moment.”

The company is hoping to add extra abilities in the future, in addition to the 10 already on offer.

“Others have not yet been announced, but are already available such as ECS Inside through which we provide experienced staff for flexible, short or long-term outsourcing solutions, Quality Stars, which is a solution fully dedicated to back-office activities, or Optimum which allows our customers to maximize their cargo revenues,” he explains.

Elsewhere, Thominet says the GSA market, like the rest of the industry, continues to contend with the impact of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict and higher oil prices.

At the same time, port congestion continues, leading to more demand for air cargo, as well as the growth of e-commerce.

Sustainability is another important trend in air cargo, something that the ECS Group is tackling head on, says Thominet.

“[Sustainability] is starting to be more and more in the spotlight, which is a very good thing,” he says.

“There is a real consideration, investments that are made in this direction. At ECS Group this is very clear.

“For us, it is not just a matter of saying, but of putting meaning into our actions with the implementation of a 10-year strategy with precise specifications on our short, medium and long term commitments. The world is moving and so must the industry.”

ECS Group’s Globe Air Cargo expands in Asia

Globe Air Cargo Korea scoops Air Premia deal

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Damian Brett

Damian Brett
I have been writing about the freight and logistics industry since 2007 when I joined International Freighting Weekly to cover the shipping sector.After a stint in PR, I have gone on to work for Containerisation International and Lloyds List - where I was editor of container shipping - before joining Air Cargo News in 2015.Contact me on [email protected]