ECS wins GSA work for Astral

KENYAN all-cargo airline, Astral Aviation has awarded a contract to European Cargo Services (ECS) to act as its cargo general sales agent in 15 countries in Europe, marketing the carrier’s extensive network across Africa.

The new contract covers Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.

ECS will feed cargo into the airline’s hub in Nairobi through one of Astral Aviation’s interline partners, Qatar Airways. Qatar operates A300 freighter flights into Kenya via Doha from Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris CdG.

Adrien Thominet (pictured), director of ECS, said: “This new contract highlights the advantages for an airline of working with ECS with our extensive office network across Europe, as well as our increasingly strong position in the Europe-Africa market where we already have a client base of leading airlines. Astral Aviation’s all-cargo operations serving all major points throughout Africa will be extremely appealing to freight forwarders in Europe and will allow ECS to also look at synergies with its other airline customers in the region.”