© Noipornpan
Cargo airlines are increasingly embracing multichannel sales approaches as they attempt to cater for all types of customer.
Whether its via bots, highly trained staff or booking platforms, carriers want to make themselves easily available to any customer – it’s no longer a case of booking solely via a carrier’s own website.
“We know personal relationships are important in selling to the market,” said Dorothea von Boxberg, chief executive of Lufthansa Cargo.
“We are very strong in this. But we have also seen that people like to buy differently. They don’t need that consultation. So we have invested in digital capabilities.
“We have our own e-booking, but we also want to make our bookings available to others, so our API can offer our inventory in their systems.”
Ms von Boxberg said larger customers would want to incorporate the data into their own systems, but smaller customers needed a different approach.
“SME forwarders might not be as IT-savvy, or want to invest, so we also need to be on platforms such as cargo.one or Webcargo, where they can compare rates, routings, stopovers and capacity, and make their choice directly.
“We are looking at which platforms are valuable, and which ones bring in new revenue, not just more revenue. I think digital channels will grow a lot because it’s easier and faster than sending out requests to 10 airlines.”
Qatar Airways Cargo has a similar policy. In January, it finally joined Freightos’s WebCargo booking platform.
“It took us a while to get there,” admitted Guillaume Halleux, chief cargo officer. “We have been improving our business and giving priority to e-bookings on our website. That’s less visible to the world, but now about one-third of our bookings come through our web portal.
“It was a definite strategy to accommodate ebookings in-house, where we could keep…