News / GSAs eye online booking as the air cargo sector goes omnichannel

© Ozgur Coskun

Omnichannel is a word more often associated with high street retailing than air cargo, but it’s becoming a reality for airlines as options for distribution take off.

Booking platforms, carrier websites and, of course, the traditional phone call all feature in the buying, selling and distribution of capacity – but the lines are blurring.

ECS Group, a large GSSA, is launching a booking platform for its Total Cargo Management customers – airlines which outsource cargo in its entirety.

“We are going further,” said chief executive Adrien Thominet. “We were just doing operations, but we can do so much more, and are intending to develop a web platform with business intelligence.”

He said GSSAs could be at risk from booking platforms like WebCargo and cargo.one, but added: “You can’t book any kind of shipment through them.

“We have a real advantage – direct access to our carriers’ booking systems via API. We are ‘Uber-ising’ capacity.

“Booking platforms aren’t a threat, but distribution channels will change. We don’t want to be just a witness, we want our own integrated platform, with direct access to reservations.”

ECS is working with a start-up technology company in Singapore to develop the platform, which is expected to be ready in the fourth quarter. It will offer an “automated, dynamic system”, using artificial intelligence to help it learn, and will offer a 30-minute guaranteed booking time.

“We need to be able to drive our own destiny,” said chief commercial officer Robert van de Weg, “and the real advantage here is that it saves time.”

However, booking platforms don’t seem worried – and in fact welcome the further digitisation of the industry.

“GSAs are great,” said WebCargo’s global vice president for business development, Camilo Garcia Cervera. “They are good tools for airlines. I am a firm believer that those which add value have a bright future.”

But he added it was not comparable to a booking platform.

“We work with APIs too, but GSAs mainly represent carriers in certain markets. ECS has total control of some airlines, so that specific group may be different. But our goal is to give airlines a global reach. We don’t see GSAs as competition. We don’t buy and sell capacity, we distribute it.

“The whole trade will become multi-channel from a distribution perspective. Our job is to work with every single player in the industry. We are not a digital GSA. Booking is just one component of the sales process.”

Cargo.one, which yesterday added a new airline, TAP Air Cargo, to its portfolio, has been a noisy entrant to the booking platform market. Mr Garcia Cervera said he welcomed that competition too. But he said the industry needed more than just e-bookings.

“We need to look at the entire market, a solution for the entire chain. The industry says it is going to digitise, but that is not just bookings, that’s just one part.

Freightos, which developed WebCargo, also offers airlines the ability to digitise.

“We are developing additional products – not every airline is API-capable and we have products for those – the vast majority are not ready.

“E-booking is not the cheapest of tasks, some airlines don’t have the resolve, the manpower, or the skillset or finances. We can build the API for airlines, it’s a key differentiator. E-booking is one key component of the entire chain; it’s just one of our products.”

And he added that the industry could benefit from looking beyond its own niche.

Camilo Garcia Cervera

“We look outside our industry for innovation, we are constantly looking at what is happening in the global economy and other industries, and how we can adapt that to ours.

“Air freight is not a one-of-a-kind industry. Sure, it has its own challenges, but it’s not immune to the rest of the world, so why not adapt it to customer purchase behaviour?”

He added that carriers’ websites were also an important part of the multi-channel mix.

“We all recognise the value of airline websites, they’re a great exposure tool, but they also understand the benefits of platforms.”