More Latest Travel News

  

New partner for WOW: Japan Airlines Cargo joins Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo in air cargo alliance

5 July 2002

Japan Airlines' Cargo Division (hereinafter refered to Japan Airlines Cargo) will join the WOW airfreight alliance today, July 5 2002. The announcement was made in Tokyo today by Juntaro Shimizu, Senior Vice President, Cargo & Mail of Japan Airlines, Dr. Andreas Otto, Member of the Executive Board at Lufthansa Cargo AG, Peter Gronlund, President & CEO of the SAS Cargo Group and Hwang Teng Aun, President of Singapore Airlines Cargo. With them at the conference were Isao Kaneko, President of Japan Airlines, and Takashi Masuko, Executive Vice President , Chief Officer, Cargo & Mail of Japan Airlines. 

Japan Airlines Cargo's decision means the WOW alliance has gained one of the major players in the air cargo business. The WOW alliance now boasts a combined fleet of 43 dedicated freighters, and the bellyhold capacity of more than 760 passenger aircraft, many of them widebodied jets. Between them, Lufthansa Cargo, Singapore Airlines Cargo, SAS Cargo and now JAL Cargo offer an unparalleled network of destinations, linking the world's major trading centres. 

"We believe that by this strategic step we are able to enhance the global approach of JAL Cargo. By adding to WOW's harmonized product portfolio and worldwide air cargo network we will keep the pace of our customers' demands and the trends of globalization", stated Juntaro Shimizu, Japan Airlines Cargo.

"We are extremely pleased to have found such a prestigious partner. Japan Airlines Cargo will ideally enhance our global network. Like the existing
WOW partner airlines, Japan Airlines Cargo is sharply focused on the airfreight business. That is very important for us," said Dr. Andreas Otto, Lufthansa Cargo. 

President of Singapore Airlines Cargo, Mr. Hwang Teng Aun, said JAL's stable of products would fit easily into the WOW alliance's services. "We have invested in the processes and IT systems to ensure that we add more value for our customers. J Speed and J Freight will integrate well with the WOW joint express and general cargo products."

"Japan Airlines Cargo joining WOW is a natural development of our prior bilateral and also tripartite co-operation including Lufthansa Cargo. With JAL Cargo's extensive network, and exclusive know-how on the Japanese market, we can offer our customers even better solutions", says Mr. Peter Grønlund, President and CEO of SAS Cargo Group AS.

The inclusion of Japan Airlines Cargo will significantly expand the alliance network in northern Asia. With Japan Airlines Cargo as a fourth partner, the WOW alliance will establish a major presence in Japan, Asia's largest economy.

Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo laid the foundations for the airline grouping, initially under the "New Global Cargo" project name, in Kronberg near Frankfurt on April 26 2000. The alliance assumed the new name of WOW on March 14 2002. 

Through close cooperation, the alliance partners aim to offer customers a greatly expanded network. They have also harmonised their air cargo services so that their individual products, such as express services, can be transported seamlessly throughout the alliance network. 

On October 1 2001, Lufthansa Cargo, SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo began offering their harmonised premium express Services "td.Flash", "SAS Priority" and "Swiftrider", to customers as a time-definite service across their network. Although the three products have retained their established brand names, they now shares key features. No matter which of the partner airlines transports a shipment in the alliance's worldwide express network, the customer can count on the same product promises and service guarantees. 

From April 1 this year, the WOW partner airlines also harmonised their general cargo products, continuing the alliance's commitment to offering customers "Three Products - One Promise". The general cargo products from SAS Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo as well as "td.Pro" from Lufthansa Cargo are transported time-definite by airfreight. Any of three products can be booked to the destinations within the common network. 

Japan Airlines Cargo will play an active part in the alliance's ongoing development. The Japanese cargo carrier is already cooperating in the WOW project team, which is at work harmonising the individual product portfolios, networking the partner airlines' IT systems, standardising handling processes and exploiting synergies in sales.

Statement of Isao Kaneko, President , Japan Airlines

The new fiscal year has brought revival of demand for air cargo. With the recovery of the U.S. economy, it appears that demand for U.S. bound cargo from Asia will pick up first, followed by Asia-bound cargo from Japan and U.S.-bound cargo from Japan. IATA (International Air Transport Association) statistics predict that demand for air cargo will increase by more than 5% during the 2003~2005 period. Rebound in air cargo transport, the so-called "leading indicator of the economy," is a favorable sign, and we are confident that the air cargo industry will continue to develop in the future. 

Meanwhile, as the business environment of shippers in the air cargo market becomes globalized, their needs have become more and more demanding, that is an extensive transport network and safe, time-definite and speedy transport.

Given expectations for increasing demand, airlines must respond accurately to the market's needs such as the above, and we feel that by doing so, new business chances are bound to be born.

The admission of JAL to "WOW," a large-scale global alliance, which we are about to announce, is precisely a decision in order to create new business chances. As a result, JAL hopes to respond accurately to the market's needs by pursuing the world's highest level of quality in air cargo transport.

JAL has not yet joined a global alliance such as this for our passenger operations. However, we recognize the necessity for joining such an alliance for cargo, whose business is completely different from the passenger business. The Japan Airlines Cargo Division is currently at work to become an independent cargo company by 2004 and to establish an independent operation system. We 
hope to see the Cargo Division continue to take such proactive steps for aggressive and speedy operations, the WOW cargo alliance for one, based on its individual judgement.

Statement of Takashi Masuko, Executive Vice President, Chief Officer , Cargo & Mail, Japan Airlines, and of Juntaro Shimizu, Senior Vice President, Cargo & Mail, Japan Airlines

The Japan Airlines Cargo Division duly recognizes the need to build a global network and improve traffic quality in order to respond swiftly to the shippers' heightened needs for globalization and value-added services.

Through talks spanning over one and a half years, we realized that WOW's global air cargo alliance precisely fulfills this need, and decided to become a member airline.

Yesterday (July 4, 2002) we signed an agreement with the 3 WOW cargo partners; Lufthansa Cargo, Singapore Airlines Cargo and SAS Cargo Group , marking our admission to WOW.

WOW boasts a highly advanced logistics system for air cargo in terms of transport time and traffic quality, and has a worldwide transportation network. On joining WOW, JAL hopes to make our share of contributions, which are certain to further strengthen WOW.

On becoming a WOW member, JAL will engage in developing an innovative, seamless worldwide transport service in cooperation with the 3 partners. This encompasses harmonizing JAL's products on-line with the products of the 3 partners, and providing speedy and reliable transport through the worldwide networks of the 4 partners. Our new express service will be sold with features harmonized with WOW partners' product features by within the second half of the fiscal year 2003.

In developing the service, the 4 partners will keep apace in conducting detailed studies in various fields such as harmonizing the products of each airline, standardizing traffic quality and linking IT systems. 

The 4 partners will cooperate in WOW alliance to make the slogan "4 Products - 1 Promise" true and respond perfectly to the needs of the partners' customers by the leading airfreight logistics system. We are very happy to become a member of such a fresh, creative and innovative alliance. The Japan Airlines Cargo Division will continue to do our utmost, as we take a step forward to fulfilling our customers' needs.

Subscribe to our Travel Industry News RSS Feed Travel Industry News RSS Feed from TravelNewsAsia.com. To do that in Outlook, right-click the RSS Feeds folder, select Add a New RSS Feed, enter the URL of our RSS Feed which is: https://www.travelnewsasia.com/travelnews.xml and click Add. The feed can also be used to add the headlines to your website or channel via a customisable applet. Have questions? Please read our Travel News FAQ. Thank you.
     
 
Copyright © 1997-2024 TravelNewsAsia.com