Avianca Cargo’s senior vice president, Diogo Elias, talks to Air Cargo Management about plans to enhance cargo services, increasing capacity with fleet expansion, and advancing… The post Building a process-driven organisation appeared first on Aviation Business News.

Avianca Cargo’s senior vice president, Diogo Elias, talks to Air Cargo Management about plans to enhance cargo services, increasing capacity with fleet expansion, and advancing digitalisation to improve the customer experience.

What are your plans for network and fleet expansion?

To support our expansion strategy and fleet renovation, together with a sustainability vision enforcement, we will incorporate four A330 converted from passenger to freighter by 2024/2025. We decided to continue with the A330 family as it is considered the most eco-friendly freighter fleet based in the region. Our purpose in Avianca Cargo with this fleet expansion plan is to increase our capacity offer between the US, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, Central America and other key markets in the region, and also to strengthen other US cargo hubs and Mexico operations by adding value with a more integrated network between Avianca Cargo and AeroUnion, our Mexican-related airline.

Another key factor for our network expansion purposes is the development of strategic partnerships to continue contributing to the development and growth of the air cargo industry between the Americas, Asia, Europe and Africa.

How are you differentiating yourself from other cargo airlines in the region?

Among the most important benefits that differentiate us is that we operate one of the wider networks in the region with both passenger bellies and dedicated freighters, giving customers different possibilities to reach a variety of US destinations. Also, the consistency in our freighter itinerary offers over 85 per cent OTP, with a steady upward trend during the first semester of 2023.

As a result of the recent signing of our Commercial Cooperation and Collaboration Agreement with AeroUnion, we are offering our customers greater connectivity, more efficient service and strengthening our operational capacity between Mexico, other countries in Latin America and the West Coast of the US.

We recently became the first airline in the Americas to achieve the IATA CEIV Pharma, CEIV Fresh, CEIV Lithium Batteries and CEIV Live Animals certifications. This empowers us to instil confidence in our customers through meticulous handling, storage and transportation of sensitive goods. Our commitment to precise product care is complemented by robust tracking and transparency, facilitated by advanced systems and detailed record-keeping.

In what ways are you improving your infrastructure and processes?

One of our main strategic pillars is our aim to build a process-driven organisation that allows scalability, consistency and transparency in our decision-making and value-capture processes.

We have achieved several goals in the past two years, including: reaching the highest service levels in one of our largest and busiest cargo hubs, Bogotá; doubling our cooler capacity for perishables handling in Colombia to more than 120 tonnes with 40 per cent lower import delivery times; investing in capacity and time efficiency in our Miami warehouse making 40 per cent faster processing times; and boosting digitalisation versus manual approach in revenue management and scheduling processes.

Additionally, we’ve simplified the Flight & Ground Ops process by 50 per cent. We are actively working towards centralising processes and transforming our revenue management practices for continued enhancement.

Will the use of technology and innovation play a big role in your future?

We’re actively advancing our digitalisation efforts to enhance the customer experience, make better decisions using real-time data, improve quality and safety, reduce costs and minimise our environment impact. Additionally, in less than a year, we’ve made our capacity available on the world’s leading electronic booking platforms, successfully activating 40 per cent of our network capacity, and our commitment is to achieve 100 per cent integration by year-end.

Furthermore, technology and innovation play a big role in our future, understanding that in our strategy we will still merge technology and human talent, two elements that work hand in hand to drive a more reliable, efficient and sustainable operation. We are committed to advancing technological initiatives that benefit both our industry and the region we serve.

Additionally, in our operations, we are focused on seamless digital integration, implementing ramp tools to forecast and monitor operational requirements and developments and providing digital reports. We are also committed to reducing reliance on paperwork in warehouse procedures and enhancing real-time visibility into logistic milestones.

The potential for improvement is significant, and we’re eager to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to support many of our processes. This technological advantage could revolutionise interactions, data capture and handling, ushering in a new era of efficiency.

What measures are you taking to ensure employee satisfaction and retention?

The fact that the company’s executive committee made the important decision to bet on culture and people as a purpose to achieve its objectives is a milestone to be highlighted. We believe the organisation must move through its people because it is the people who, based on their decisions, drive the execution of different plans and results. In this sense, we have been working on different strategies to ensure the satisfaction and retention of our employees in such a way that they are committed to winning and above all feel proud to be part of Avianca.

These strategies put the needs of our employees first. While competitive benefits and above-average salaries are important, we also prioritise our employees’ professional and personal needs. Examples include career growth and development opportunities that allow them to take on new challenges or advance in their careers, learning and training opportunities that help them develop and improve their capabilities and skills and individually tailored development plans. We also like to celebrate our successes and show our appreciation for their efforts through recognition programmes.

Work-life balance is crucial today, so we provide our staff with flexible scheduling and hybrid working. We help our employees and their families participate in sports and entertainment events away from the office. A free 24-hour assistance line is available to help our people with their health, financial and psychological orientation, among other things.

This feature was first published in Air Cargo Management – November/December 2023. To read the magazine in full, click here.

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