Goldair Group, Greece We are proud to achieve further expansion internationally in addition to 26 airports in Greece. Today Goldair Handling operates in two airports in Cyprus, Larnaca and Paphos, and three in Bulgaria. We have been granted a license to provide full ground handling services at Bulgaria’s third largest airport, Varna Airport, from April 2014.
Goldair is already active in Bulgaria, as it offers handling services at the airport in Sofia from 2010 and Burgas from 2012. Another important achievement is the network agreement we have entered with German ground handling company AeroGround. Last but not least, this year we have added Singapore Airlines (for Greece) and Tarom (for Bulgaria) to our clientele and renewed the contacts with major customers including Aeroflot, Emirates, Novair, Small Planet and Turkish Airlines (cargo).
The main challenge has been the current global and national economic and political crisis and its consequences, resulting in constant pressure for reduction of prices from airlines. Therefore, we have been urged to minimise our costs while we have to keep a high level of safety and quality of services offered.
In the coming year, for the industry in general, we can foresee global stabilisation with a tendency of slight development. For our business, and Greece as a tourism destination, there seems to be an increase in demand towards our country and an estimate of 18 million international arrivals this year. We are happy to see the effectiveness of the measures taken to reduce the issue of high seasonality of Greek tourism. There are positive signs that are encouraging for all fields of the tourism industry. Political stability in Greece will ensure that long-term tourist targets and objectives will be achieved.
Menzies Aviation, UK
2013 was a good year for Menzies. We met the financial expectations of our institutional shareholders, we bettered our safety and security record of 2012 and we completed three acquisitions. All in all a good year.
Airline procurement departments are doing a great job and we have had to balance the demands of our biggest cost, our labour force expecting small inflationary pay awards and the airlines not wanting this cost passed on. It means we have to improve our productivity relentlessly every year while continuing to grow our customer base and number of stations.
In the next 12 moths we see more consolidation. The Swissport-Servisair combination is good for the sector and we believe will lead to many opportunities for Menzies. Also we have a large war-chest and expect to complete another minimum three, maximum five acquisitions in 2014. We have the funds to ensure that we are the second largest ground handler in the world but the number one when it comes to safety, security and service delivery.
WFS Global, France
We intend to serve our customers, airlines and airports. Their recognition is our main satisfaction, and it is expressed through the confidence they place in us. Our recent developments in Northern Europe, the United Kingdom, Jordan, in Africa and those to come are a good example. They include our new station start-up in Manchester for ramp and passenger handling: four handling contracts in Manchester within the first year and the positive image of WFS in Manchester with the airlines and airport authority. We have also finalised the agreement for the cargo franchise in Dar es Salaam.
One of the challenges we face is continuing to support the business growth of our customers by providing the same high quality service in an unfavourable economic environment. Our competitiveness is the result of a full synergy between our operational and commercial strategy. In this respect, the growth of our group has never wavered. To counter external events that may impact our business, we identified the need to develop a multi-service structure in a multi-market environment. Wherever possible within our network, we strive to offer a ‘full handling’ solution that combines both ground and cargo handling. Another challenge is obtaining the right contracts at the right price in competitive markets.
While the field of ground handling assistance was mostly limited to an implementing role, our customers can see the benefit of relying on a group like WFS. Indeed with the increasing integration of these sectors, sign of a growing global demand, the ground handling industry cannot escape the logic of consolidation. We believe that the industry overall will continue to give more opportunities for expansion. We anticipate strong demand in areas hitherto little or not explored by ground handling companies. We aim to play a major role in the identification, design and implementation of these additional services.
Fraport AG, Germany
Departure punctuality could be even further improved here in Frankfurt. In 2013 82.8 percent of all departing flights were on time, meaning that Frankfurt ranks among the most punctual hub airports worldwide. This is due to an increase in runway capacity but also a result of our excellent performance in ground handling services and infrastructure.
This year we are celebrating the 40th birthday of our fully automated baggage handling system. With a total length of 80 kilometers the system is worldwide unique. It truly represents the ‘heart’ of our state-of-the-art central ground handling infrastructure, which is of great advantage for all our airline customers here at Frankfurt Airport.
Traffic figures at Frankfurt Airport developed better than expected in 2013. Despite challenging framework conditions, we have been able to achieve traffic growth, as we are working meticulously on our infrastructure and services. Passenger figures rose by nearly one percent to more than 58 million. Also cargo traffic developed positively rising by 1.4 percent to almost 2.1 million metric tons.
Our goal at Fraport Ground Services is to provide and support a successful hub operation in the heart of Europe to all our airline customers here in Frankfurt. Therefore the successful management of growth and quality will always remain our focus.
AMC Group, France
In October 2013 we proudly announced the renewal of the licence of MAP Handling (a subsidiary company of AMC Group) at Nice Airport for seven years. The renewal of the licence shows the trust of our clients and the authorities, which is our greatest strength. MAP Handling opened its ninth lounge dedicated to general aviation at Strasbourg airport in a joint venture with Landmark Aviation. The highly professional team operates with the same helpfulness as at Bordeaux, Le Bourget, Lyons, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice and Toulouse lounges.
As we handle all types of airlines, our challenge is to adapt to different commercial policies and procedures in compliance with safety and security regulations. Thanks to our proactive and qualified staff who welcome new procedures, the support of our QSSE department and GSE investments, we are able to satisfy all our customers regardless of their profile. We have achieved our objectives to provide high levels of quality services to our customer airlines in line with their requirements.
New GHA services are blooming due to leading-edge technologies. The only way to thrive is an innovation-oriented culture. Some major ground handling companies which left the regional market a decade ago are now coming back on the scene. This new trend combined with a tough competition environment, pushes us to define new development strategies and assess complementary partnerships. Our experience of the French market with its specificities in terms of HR regulations and the know-how of tailored ground handling services make the difference.
Hactl, Hong Kong
The management of Hactl handled the difficult labour market exceptionally well in 2013. We were able to retain all of our key staff, in particular very technical and technically trained staff who are so essential for the smooth operations of our terminal. This is in an environment where there is a general shortage of labour of nearly 6000 people at the airport and in certain disciplines relating to ground handling and the ramp business the demand is extremely high, which was exacerbated by Cathay Pacific opening their own terminal and trying to attract labour from other sources.
We face constant challenges, since we operate in a highly dynamic industry in an extremely competitive world. However, by having the right people in the right jobs and working together with a common goal we will be able to overcome the challenges, which we will inevitably face.
Over the next 12 months we expect the air cargo industry in general to show growth over 2013, and we will focus a lot of time and effort cooperating with customers on how to work together to meet the challenges faced by the industry. The importance of progressing with the third runway for Hong Kong is essential for the future well-being of the air cargo industry in Hong Kong and further delay would have a very negative impact on the industry as a whole and to Hactl.
The cost of fuel for aircraft and the increasing concerns of security impact on our business, since both will have the tendency of increasing cost, which makes alternative forms of transport of cargo more attractive. Air cargo survives by sufficiency and making the reduced travel time an attractive proposition to its customer base.
Aviapartner, Belgium
The users committee of Paris-Orly airport voted on the attribution of handling licenses. The massive vote by the airlines for Aviapartner puts our group in second place in the overall voting, raising the possibility for us to operate in Orly Ouest, if the authorities confirm the choice of the airlines. This is the reward of an excellent collective performance in all our stations in France and in the Group.
We are proud of our close customer partnerships. Proof of our success are the several contract renewals and acquisition in different airports including FCO, VCE, MXP and NCE with Air Canada; DUS with ANA, Turkish, SAS, Germanwings, SunExpress and Germania; In France and the Netherlands with Vueling; and in Belgium with TAP, Ethiopian, Iberia, British Airways and Jetairfly. On April 1st, Aviapartner Italy will open its eighth station at BLQ.
The market is changing rapidly and the pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency and quality is high. At Aviapartner, we try to understand in depth the needs of our customer airlines and strongly believe that close customer communication, continuous improvement and operational excellence (both in terms of safety and quality) go hand in hand with improved efficiency and cost reduction.
The pace of the changes in the market will remain. The large airline groups will continue to integrate products, services and operations to reduce costs as much as possible whilst the low cost airlines will move gradually towards the traditional segment. As a ground handler it is important to have a good mix in your customer portfolio and to think outside of the box. Aviapartner has the reasonable size, personal approach and close customer contact to be able to react quickly in this changing environment. In a quickly changing aviation industry, the ground handling market continues to consolidate. Aviapartner’s network in Europe is a key element to play an important role in this trend without jeopardising the personal approach and intimacy of a privately owned local business.
