newstodate.aero
May 13, 2011 (newstodate): Sweden's Stockholm Arlanda Airport's new perishables handling facility, APH Logistics opened Autumn 2010 but is still struggling to fill out all corners of its business plan.
-As for import perishables shipments we are at full speed and enjoys a very fruitful cooperation with the handling companies at the airport, Cargo Center Sweden and SAS Cargo's Spirit. This has developed very satisfactorily, says Einar Longva, APG Logistics managing director.
-But on the export side, we still have a long way to go. It has proved even more difficult than expected to convince shippers and forwarders of the benefits from using our facilities, and turn around deep-rooted traditional patterns.
-Especially in the case of Norway's exports of fresh salmon that would be a very attractive business for us to handle, exporters still prefer palletizing the shipments in Norway for transportation by road feeder services into continental airport. We are certainly working hard to gain a foothold in this business, but it is obvious that it requires even longer time than we have foreseen.
-Also contributing to the rather slow progress in this field is of course the fact that the volumes of Norwegian exports of fresh salmon by air has been almost halved in 2011 due to both Chinese restrictions on imports and the effects from the recent catastrophes in Japan that are otherwise Norway's largest markets.
-Add to this that the boom in the US markets proved rather short-lived as to salmon as the Chilean producers are now regaining their capacity while Norwegian producers have invested heavily in production plants in Chile and Canada, exporters directly into USA from there.
-So it will take time to build up, and compared to airports like Amsterdam, Oslo, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and many others, Stockholm Airport still has only a small share of the perishables handling market, says Mr Longva.
-As for import perishables shipments we are at full speed and enjoys a very fruitful cooperation with the handling companies at the airport, Cargo Center Sweden and SAS Cargo's Spirit. This has developed very satisfactorily, says Einar Longva, APG Logistics managing director.
-But on the export side, we still have a long way to go. It has proved even more difficult than expected to convince shippers and forwarders of the benefits from using our facilities, and turn around deep-rooted traditional patterns.
-Especially in the case of Norway's exports of fresh salmon that would be a very attractive business for us to handle, exporters still prefer palletizing the shipments in Norway for transportation by road feeder services into continental airport. We are certainly working hard to gain a foothold in this business, but it is obvious that it requires even longer time than we have foreseen.
-Also contributing to the rather slow progress in this field is of course the fact that the volumes of Norwegian exports of fresh salmon by air has been almost halved in 2011 due to both Chinese restrictions on imports and the effects from the recent catastrophes in Japan that are otherwise Norway's largest markets.
-Add to this that the boom in the US markets proved rather short-lived as to salmon as the Chilean producers are now regaining their capacity while Norwegian producers have invested heavily in production plants in Chile and Canada, exporters directly into USA from there.
-So it will take time to build up, and compared to airports like Amsterdam, Oslo, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and many others, Stockholm Airport still has only a small share of the perishables handling market, says Mr Longva.