Dynamic new IAG Cargo chief brings a breath of fresh air and warmth

A fresh wind has blown in at IAG Cargo. The atmosphere is different – less stuffy, more open.

One year into his job as CEO, Drew Crawley has brought ideas and direction which will have a direct impact on customers.

IAG has in the past had a sense of impenetrability: defensive, closed, costly. While Mr Crawley’s predecessor Steve Gunning brought in processes and ideas which sharpened the product offering and business case for cargo, the carrier kept hold of its rather cold, slightly unwelcoming character.

But it feels as if there is change, in the form of the direct and open Mr Crawley – perhaps the perfect successor to the more wary Mr Gunning.

Mr Crawley says he has been thinking hard, and has isolated areas which will be key to the carrier’s future – all of which are essentially customer driven, offering a more user-friendly experience.

Transparency and accessibility seem the focus. The carrier is soon to announce a few key changes which will help its customers interact and book. There is a particularly warm welcome for SMEs, a sector IAG admits it had failed to reach properly in the past.

IAG’s decision to join CargoiQ also reflects this wind of change – it now offers transparent data, giving a warts-and-all view of its standards and achievements, something in the past held close to its chest.

Mr Crawley is also passionate about modernisation across the industry, and aims to try to push IATA to do more (although he may be slightly dismayed with the results of that. IATA, for its faults, has certainly tried on that front).

But perhaps there is more IAG Cargo can do.

Just an hour after visiting Mr Crawley, The Loadstar had an almost identical conversation with another passionate, driven man about modernising and digitising the air cargo industry. Both had similar visions of the future. Yet despite them working at the same place, having much the same goals, drive and ability to get things done, they have not worked together.

The other man is Nick Platts, head of Heathrow Cargo, whose biggest customer is of course IAG Cargo.

But with the rather public spat between the airport and IAG CEO Willie Walsh, who seems to be negotiating over the third runway costs in public, there is little love lost between the two interdependent companies.

While that may make sense for IAG, it seems a shame that in cargo these two companies are not working together for the industry – and their own – good. It’s a missed opportunity for two driven people, who are likely stronger together, to push for better results all round.

Aside of that, Mr Crawley says he wants to change “ingrained behaviour”. And it seems likely that someone so enthusiastic could do so.

Drew Crawley

He says his first year has been great fun and enjoyable.

“What I like is driven by what I don’t like. The industry is super-commercial, very dynamic and responsive, but the transparency over the forward outlook is very short. It’s a very focused, highly commercial industry which must adapt and cut its cloth accordingly.”

Something that IAG Cargo appears to be doing with newfound aplomb.

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