Amid significant growth in recent years, Bob Matharoo, head of cargo, explains Cargo First’s strategic vision, which centres on flexibility, sustainability and becoming the preferred… The post Cargo First: A steadfast focus appeared first on Aviation Business News.

Amid significant growth in recent years, Bob Matharoo, head of cargo, explains Cargo First’s strategic vision, which centres on flexibility, sustainability and becoming the preferred airport hub for e-commerce goods.

It has been a very busy first couple of years for Cargo First; can you give us an overview of what’s been going on?

The urgent need to move goods by air during the pandemic effectively accelerated our existing plans for Bournemouth Airport to enter the air cargo market. Almost as soon as operations kicked off in 2020, focus turned to how we could develop into a long-term, sustainable, commercial cargo facility – hence, the last two years have essentially seen a massive effort by the whole team to reach this point.

Whilst there has been a particular focus on setting up Customs-bonded warehouse facilities on site as a ‘one-stop-shop’ operation, the increase in cargo activity has also seen us invest across the airport in everything from additional apron space and new ATC radar equipment to aviation fuel capacity and new fire tenders, as well as a significant increase in staff numbers.

Following all this effort and investment, we’re now reaching a point where the Cargo First – Bournemouth Airport brand is recognised and accepted globally across our key target markets which, in turn, is bearing fruit in terms of the increase in pace of growth we are now experiencing.

With e-commerce demand growing, how is Cargo First making sure it meets customer expectations around speed of delivery?

From day one, the entire ethos of our cargo handling operation has always been around ensuring speed to market. Whether a Covid-19 test kit or an e-commerce parcel, fundamentally the end customer wants the same thing in terms of speed and efficiency of delivery. We’re lucky in that we’re not sitting within a big hub location with a lot of historic infrastructure and process that slows things down, but equally we fully appreciate that as we grow, we cannot afford to lose sight of this fundamental objective.

We place particular emphasis upon understanding each client’s individual needs. And because Cargo First and Bournemouth Airport have the same ownership, it means we have control of the whole on-site process from aircraft touchdown to dispatch onto the highway. That means we’ve been able to remain flexible and nimble to react to new opportunities and to understand, absorb and deliver new bespoke processes client-by-client to ensure time efficiency is not compromised. That responsiveness is at the core of our ‘Faster Air Freight’ pledge.

To what extent do you think Bournemouth Airport’s location, open slot availability and flexibility plays a part in attracting cargo traffic, and how do you see these advantages evolving in the coming years?

This obviously plays a massive part in attracting new business. Not only are we just 90 minutes from London by road, but we’ve also consistently proven that we can deliver goods through Bournemouth Airport to the same London warehouse quicker than goods arriving at one of the congested London hub airports.

Furthermore, we’re starting to see a real ‘return to type’ of some of the big London airports with cargo once again being treated as low priority now that passenger traffic has returned. That’s a real opportunity for us.

We are determined to further cement our position in the market by continuing to offer an open and flexible service, and very much see the value of our offering becoming further amplified as constraints for cargo at the big hub airports tighten.

We also benefit from being co?located with Bournemouth Airport’s 200?acre Aviation Business Park. This has the potential to offer over one million square feet of development, including custom-built warehousing capacity. This could include, for example, a single handling facility where you have an airside handling operation seamlessly connected to a landside client facility, all geared toward speed of transit making the cargo ownership chain as short as possible.

Tell us more about the cargo route between Bournemouth and China; what is being moved and what tonnage figures are you seeing?

Fundamentally we’re moving time sensitive e-commerce products, both import to and export from the UK, with multiple daily flights currently being handled at around 70 tonnes per flight. Typical consignments might include clothing, small electronic goods and a vast range of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs). We believe that the pace of growth of interest in Bournemouth is a testament to the hard work of our entire team in providing a consistent and efficient service. In September, we announced that capacity on our Chengdu (CTU) to Bournemouth route had doubled within months of being launched, and we hope to be able to announce further developments soon. We are also encouraged by the growing proportion – around 30 per cent currently – of consignments from China clearing customs locally with us, bypassing Heathrow warehouses altogether for onward travel in the UK. We have a very clear objective to become known as the UK’s number one preferred airport hub for e-commerce goods.

Is playing a part in sustainability and environmental objectives important for Cargo First?

As you’d expect, this is now ingrained in our business. The entire aviation industry is well aware of its environmental obligations and we are committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions from our own operations by 2040 at the latest.

Bournemouth Airport is part of the internationally recognised Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme and our parent company, Regional and City Airports, is working in collaboration with Cranfield University and other industry partners to develop new initiatives in sustainable aviation practice and technology.

As Cargo First’s operations grow, what workforce development plans do you have in place to ensure you attract and retain the right talent?

Right now, we’re entering a really exciting phase of our development: the acceleration of growth we’re experiencing means that not only are we expanding our teams overall, but there’s an increasing level of fast-track opportunities for people to join us and advance their careers. Our ‘One Team’ set-up also means that there are a huge range of opportunities for people to expand their knowledge and experience of operations right across the airport business, thus also giving us a unique tool to attract and retain talent.

What core values or principles guide Cargo First, and how do these influence strategic decisions and the long?term vision?

Our core objective right now is to firmly establish ourselves as the UK’s number one preferred air gateway for e-commerce imports to and exports from the UK. We believe that our steadfast focus on maintaining our commitment to speed of delivery is the fundamental aspect to achieving this and that naturally guides and directs how we must develop in terms of infrastructure and labour.

We’ve made very solid steps towards setting up a motivated, flexible and scalable team operation and have a similarly flexible site with significant opportunity for development. With further near-term developments to come, we’re both proud of our achievements to date and excited about opportunities to come.

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

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