Swissport Cargo Services reports further growth in the North American market
Zurich/Washington, 26 March 2010 - Swissport Cargo Services North America has concluded or renewed a number of cargo handling agreements commencing in the first half of 2010. The new accords are an impressive sign of business recovery and growth.
The air transport sector is slowly recovering from its crisis year of 2009. The recent improvements have been particularly strong in the cargo sector, on all its various fronts. The massive efforts made by all partners and in all markets here seem to be finally paying off, and are being increasingly reflected in concrete results.
Swissport Cargo Services North America is leading the way. The unit has recently concluded major new cargo handling agreements with British Airways at Los Angeles and Boston, Air Canada at Denver, Aer Lingus at Washington-Dulles and Air New Zealand and LAN Cargo at San Francisco. The unit also renewed its existing accord with Continental Airlines at Toronto Airport.
We're delighted with these agreements, says Jerry Finn, Vice President Sales & Marketing for Swissport Cargo Services in North America. And we look forward to providing quality cargo handling solutions for our new customers in accordance with our reputation as the leading supplier of global ground services.
Most of the contracts concluded are for at least three years, and their total (annual) business volume amounts to some 50 000 tonnes. Their conclusion is all the more encouraging in that they represent key accounts at major airport locations where Swissport's competitors are also extremely active.
We've been working hard on various further enhancements to our handling product over the past few months, explains John Batten, Executive Vice President Cargo Services at Swissport International. We've improved the monitoring of our own activities with key performance indicators; we've optimised our structures and processes to give ourselves greater flexibility; we've achieved more standardisation and product consistency; we've enhanced our speed of response, with the active involvement of all our management corps; and we've made further improvements in our day-to-day operations. We look forward to continuing to pursue all these initiatives, in the interests of our partners and ourselves; and I'm sure our customers will clearly feel the benefit throughout our daily business.
Swissport International Ltd., which is owned by Spanish-based Ferrovial, one of the world's leading infrastructure and service corporations, provides ground services for over 70 million passengers and 3.5 million tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 650 client companies. With its workforce of around 32 000 personnel, Swissport is active at 176 airports in 38 countries on five continents, and generated consolidated operating revenue of CHF 1.7 billion (EUR 1.1 billion or USD 1.7 billion) in 2009. Swissport was also named Global Cargo Handling Agent of the Year by ACW for 2009.