Air France Cargo – KLM Cargo
Jan Vreeburg – Director Logistics & Industry Affairs

Air France Cargo-KLM Cargo is one of the leading airlines in e-freight development. We believe that e-freight is the future of the cargo business. However, in order to be successful, we need the commitment of the entire supply chain to generate economies of scale. I am happy to see the involvement of more and more major forwarders. They see too that using e-freight is very simple and often fits with their existing tools and processes. 

More than ever, stimulating process innovation like e-freight and implementing new technology is important in our business. Our innovations are really investments with customs and industry to make the airfreight process easier for our customers. We are proud to be one of the first airlines to contribute to this paperless new era in airfreight, but we are well aware of the fact that we still have a challenging road ahead of us.

Rhenus Air
Ivo Aris – Managing Director

Rhenus Air, formerly known as Road Air, has been one of the key participants in the IATA ‘worldwide’ e-Freight project since early 2007. The objective for e-Freight as well as Rhenus Air is to speed up the supply chain, make it safer, more cost-efficient and more sustainable.

Rhenus Air has ranked among the IATA e-Freight scorecard top 10 in respect of the number of shipments sent by e-Freight since the launch of e-Freight in October 2007. Rhenus Air carries out e-freight shipments together with Rhenus Fresh that joined the project at a later date and whose core business is exporting perishables. A completely paperless system is used for shipping flowers to New York by air, for example.

Rhenus Air currently carries out regular e-Freight shipments to Auckland, Dubai,
Hong Kong, Reykjavik, Seoul, Singapore and Sydney. Negotiations are being held with a number of agents to significantly expand the number of e-Freight trade lanes in 2010.
E-Freight shipments are carried out with KLM, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Icelandair and Korean Air amongst other. Talks are also being held with a number of new airlines to launch e-Freight. Rhenus Air is closely pursuing the increased number of e-Freight destinations and airlines recommended by IATA.

Rhenus Air, together with Rhenus Fresh, carries out around 300 e-Freight shipments on a monthly basis. The number of e-Freight shipments is growing steadily. Compared with 2008 Rhenus Air achieved a 55% increase in e-Freight shipments in 2009, with tonnage in fact seeing 69% growth.

In 2009 Rhenus Air received the Cargo Award in recognition of its innovative and revolutionary policy for developing e-Freight at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, and the company’s commitment to the paperless supply chain.