CMA CGM Air Cargo needs a la carte organisation: Adrien Thominet

With the Air France KLM deal scrapped CMA CGM Air Cargo has returned to its initial General Sales and Service Agent (GSSA) ECS Group to commercialise its air freight capacities.

For Italy and Spain, ECS Group will be providing a complete GSSA offering while for other markets, ECS is working along with the CMA CGM team operating in those countries and in France, the scope of the contract is limited to the back office operations.

“CMA CGM Air Cargo needs a la carte partner organisation because they have different needs in different countries. ECS can provide them with tailor-made solutions in each country. For instance, in France, we are helping them in the back office only. In Germany, it's a hybrid GSSA solution. In Italy and Spain, it would be a full GSSA solution. In Asia, it would be a mix of back-office or hybrid. This means that country per country, we have been able to design an adequate sales network or support according to their needs.”

This is how ECS Group’s executive chairman Adrien Thominet spoke to The STAT Trade Times after winning back the contract from the French cargo airline.

Launched in March 2021 with its first flight from Liege to Chicago, CMA CGM Air Cargo has worked with ECS Group from the beginning.

“When they started their aviation journey, they've been working with us. We have been helping them from the first day to implement the first flights,” he said.

In May 2022, the then one-year-old CMA CGM Air Cargo signed a long-term partnership with Air France-KLM to combine their cargo networks and full freighter capacity. which came into effect from April 2023. The CMA CGM Group also became Air France-KLM's main private shareholder by taking a 9 percent stake for €400 million ($428 million). This caused CMA CGM Air Cargo and ECS Group to end their cooperation.

However, earlier this year in January 2024, CMA CGM and Air France-KLM announced their decision to withdraw from their existing agreements from March 31, 2024.

“They didn't form the right synergies between the two networks because CMA CGM has a very isolated network and is on very specific destinations while Air France is a worldwide network. So the synergies were complicated to get optimised and then they decided to grow by themselves again,” Thominet pointed out.

Thus CMA CGM decided to dial ECS Group and bring them back as the sales and service partner.

“They naturally came back to us because the first experience together was fruitful and we never ended up on a negative tone and it was more of a change in strategy,” he said.

“They have their own staff in Shanghai and Hong Kong already. So they will be driving the sales activity and we will come as a hybrid solution. We'll complete the commercial activity and we'll manage all the back office functions.”
Adrien Thominet, Executive Chairman, ECS Group

CMA CGM Air Cargo currently operates two Boeing 777 freighters with 102 tonnes of payload each, and three Airbus A330 freighters with 61 tonnes of payload each.

“In 2024, three new B777 and starting 2026, 4 new generation A350 freighters will join the fleet carrying a payload of 104 tonnes,” as per the CMA CGM website.

Thominet noted, “They have additional Boeing B777 freighters joining the fleet this year, and they were the first one to place an order of the Airbus A350 freighter that would be delivered in 2026. This means in two to three years they're going to have more than ten full freighters, and they would be much stronger than Air France themselves in terms of freighter fleet. If they need to open a new country immediately, ECS will have a local organisation to match with this need.”

CMA CGM currently operates a total of nine B777 flights per week between France and China/Hong Kong, five on the Paris (CDG) - Shangai (PVG) - Paris (CDG) route and four on the Paris (CDG) - Hong Kong (HKG) - Paris (CDG).

“The flights are mainly, for the time being, part chartered ex China and Hong Kong, which is logical because the market is booming. So it's a hybrid sales mechanism between part charter and free sales out of Asia,” said Thominet.

Even though he acknowledges that e-commerce is driving the boom in ex-China, he also reported that CMA CGM is diversifying their customer base.

“So they don’t want to rely only on e-commerce players and are working with freight forwarders and integrators. We have business from integrators which is consolidation but mainly courier. There are a lot of electronic components as well,” he added.

He also mentioned the business driven by commodities which are getting transferred from sea to air due to the crisis in the Red Sea.

“We have a lot of fashion business. With the Red Sea effect, we see a lot of fashion business moving from sea to air,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the Paris to China/Hong Kong route, CMA CGM carries pharmaceuticals, luxury products, and perishables.

“All the Hong Kong and Shanghai flights are full while the average load factor is 85 to 90 percent on Paris to China,” he added.

Talking about the solution offered by ECS in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said, “They have their own staff in Shanghai and Hong Kong already. So they will be driving the sales activity and we will come as a hybrid solution. We'll complete the commercial activity and we'll manage all the back office functions.”

With Paris as its hub, ECS Group will have a sales network distributed across the planet even though the two B777 freighter operations are concentrated on Asia routes.

Thominet informed, “We are sending cargo in and out of Europe, East Europe and even Africa. We are feeding Paris as a hub to go to China. Then, on the way back, China is also sending cargo to Paris and we are helping them to distribute to several destinations. It could even be South America.”

While talking about the chances of CMA CGM operating flights to the United States, he pointed out the market challenges.

“USA is not an immediate need because operating a full freighter on transatlantic is not economically viable,” he said.

Talking about the expansion plans, he noted that the priority is to work on the fleet and then see if the boom in Asian markets will be sustained even after the Red Sea is gone.

Also, watch our latest interview with Thominet recorded recently during air cargo India 2024.