Speculation that Qatar Airways Cargo was not going to replace chief cargo officer Guillaume Halleux has been quashed by today’s announcement that the carrier has chosen Mark Drusch, an internal appointment.
Mr Drusch, a US aviation veteran of some 30 years, with stints at Delta and Continental, has been at Qatar since 2019, as SVP revenue management, alliances and strategy.
The role in cargo, he told The Loadstar this morning, came “out of the blue”. But he seems highly enthusiastic, fresh and energetic about his “challenging, exciting” new job.
“I’m not coming into a turnaround situation. I’m coming in to a company that has been really very successful. I’m just here now to take it to that next level. That’s the real challenge.”
Just 14 days into his first role in cargo, Mr Drusch can already talk fluently about priorities: first and foremost, of course, is safety – also a top aim of his predecessor, Mr Halleux, who emphasised the safe shipping of lithium ion batteries.
Another “meta” ambition is innovation – “to elevate all of us in terms of our business action, in terms of our innovation, in terms of our thinking outside the box and creating things that are industry-leading”.
But within that, Mr Drusch’s experience on the passenger side – particularly developed during Covid – is to drive better integration between the cargo and passenger businesses. Many airlines already seem to have forgotten this crucial link, but Mr Drusch thinks it should be improved upon, not ignored, and that the teams “contribute to each other”.
“During Covid, we had what we called ‘the golden triangle’, which was cargo, revenue management and corporate planning. All three met every morning and planned the airline for the next day. So I saw cargo beautifully integrated into the passenger airline. In fact, it was thanks to cargo, we were able to operate most of the passenger airline, particularly when everything was shut down.
“I think we can take that to an even higher level. More integration can drive more efficiencies and deliver more value.”
Mr Drusch’s experience with partnerships, which saw the carrier forge closer ties with IAG, American, Latam and Alaska among others, will also feature in his new-look cargo department.
“Partnerships can be extraordinarily powerful. They brought value to our joint customers, as well as to us as an industry, and allowed us to grow.
“If you look at our footprint today, which includes cargo, we are much bigger in North America and in London, because we built partnerships that allowed us to bring more product and more connections to our customers.”
Digitisation is another priority for cargo, again in part owing to Mr Drusch’s passenger experience, where digitisation is much further ahead.
“There’s no reason we can’t continue to not only push internally, but drive as an industry more adoption of digitisation, because it delivers value to customers, it delivers value to the airlines.”
Along with digitisation is technology, particularly on new aircraft. Qatar has on order 34 777-8Fs and 16 options, with deliveries expected to begin in 2027.
“I am going to put a lot of cool technology on to the 777-8 aircraft,” he said. “I want this airplane to be able to adopt anything that comes five years down the road.
“Technology will yield benefit for all of us, will allow all of us to know; where is your product at this moment? Is it where you want it to be? Is it at the right temperature? Do I have more room so I can give a customer a last-minute shipment? I want to do all of that so that we provide the customers and our business even more value.”
His final priority is sustainability, but he acknowledges that there are, as yet, no real answers to the problems.
“Five years ago, everybody talked about it, because your board wanted to hear what you were doing. There wasn’t the real effort behind finding solutions. And now I see that we’re all starting to try to figure out how to find these solutions.”
All of that is a lot to take onboard – and challenges like digitisation, and even partnerships, have often failed to land in cargo. But it’s not impossible, he said.
“Yeah, it’s not easy. But we’re not trying to solve faster-than-light travel. We’re trying to solve logistics problems, and we’re struggling with regulatory issues. It’s not trying to change Einstein’s laws of physics.”
Will his enthusiasm for the problems dim once he discovers how sluggish this industry can be about change? And will he be able to achieve all of his priorities, particularly when he notes that, as yet, he’s not sure of the solutions?
“Honestly, I am one of the geekiest people you’ll ever meet about solving business problems. I like multi-variate problems because I’m a firm believer that to make the best solution you need multiple pillars. Because, sometimes one pillar will fail, but if you have got another you still succeed.”
Mr Drusch also has a personal interest in wildlife – he has been on the boards of several US zoos – and he hopes to bring “huge plans” to the airline, but the details are yet to be unveiled.
Already, his enthusiasm for the role shines through clearly, and he adds that he will be happy to take a role in industry leadership – but in a selective, pinpointed way.
So let’s hope the industry can harness his energy, and use it to improve.
And, perhaps more importantly, let’s hope that energy remains undimmed as he digs further into the cargo business, and starts to discover its depths.
