Qantas Freight joins Cargo 2000

VANCOUVER, 10 March 2010: Qantas Freight announced today that it would join Cargo 2000, the air freight industry’s premier quality management program as an associate member.

Qantas Freight Head of Commercial, Mr Theo Triantafillides, said membership of Cargo 2000 would help Qantas to continue to differentiate itself through the provision of outstanding customer service and bring together many of the process improvements the business had made over the past 12 months.

“Joining a quality management system like Cargo 2000 is a natural extension of the business transformation work we are undertaking through our Freight Futures program,” Mr Triantafillides said. “We are at a point in our transformation program where it makes sense to ensure our internal processes are aligned with that of the industry’s preferred quality measurement tool.” Mr Triantafillides said Cargo 2000 had a proven track record of benefiting the customers of the world’s leading air cargo providers. “Our customers have a choice and we want to make sure they continue to choose Qantas Freight as their preferred carrier and ground handler,” he said. “Cargo 2000 has proven that it can generate productivity improvements and efficiency gains by standardising and optimising internal processes.”

Director Asia Pacific of Cargo 2000, Mr Tom Presnail, welcomed Qantas Freight to the program, saying that with the addition of an Australian carrier, Cargo 2000’s membership now spanned five continents. “We are delighted to welcome a world-class airline such as Qantas to the Cargo 2000 program. The airline has been very supportive of the Cargo 2000 initiative for some time, recognising the potential benefits it represents both within its own organisation as well as for its customers,” he said. “Advancing to actual membership is a result of the success the airline is having in implementing its new cargo operational and management system.”

Qantas Freight will first join the program as an associate member to allow it to fully align its processes and reporting with the strict requirements of the Cargo 2000 system. Progression to full membership is expected within 12-18 months.

About Qantas Freight

Qantas Freight, the international air freight division of the Qantas Group, markets the freight capacity on Qantas and Jetstar international passenger aircraft and operates a fleet of three Boeing 747 and one Boeing 767 freighter aircraft. With more than 800 employees based in Australia and across the world, Qantas Freight operates its own handling facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Los Angeles, and has strategic investments in specialist logistic businesses around the world.

Freight Futures is a multi-million dollar systems and business transformation program. At the core of the program is the replacement of the business’s IT systems with iCargo, an end-to-end, industry specific application. The program is being implemented in a number of phases and is expected to be completed by mid-2011.

About Cargo 2000

Cargo 2000 is an industry initiative aimed at implementing a standardised quality management system for the worldwide air cargo industry. The objective is simple: to implement processes, backed by quality standards, which are measurable to improve the efficiency of air cargo and cut down on operational costs and enhance customer service.

Membership of Cargo 2000 means Qantas Freight will report and receive monthly performance updates including benchmark data showing how it is performing against competitors using like for like data, a structured audit program to validate its performance against the same criteria as all other members, participation in regional and global forum and technical working groups and electronic messaging connectivity with most major airlines and freight forwarders around the globe.