LONDON – The Belgian airport of Ostend-Bruges has announced that they are going to digitize its cargo operations with a new platform in order to future-proof its operations.
The new platform will be able to coordinate freight inspections and freight pick-up and drop-off facilities.
New platform
The airport’s main activity is freight operations, with a handful of commercial transport activities.
For this reason, the airport has determined to make future cargo operations more viable.
If they want to secure themselves from getting into trouble in the future, they need to have a strong and solid foundation before thinking long-term.
Therefore, the airport is investing in a new digital system to increase operational efficiency and visibility.
The airport will also be able to get insights on customer service and use that information to improve it and, at the same time, prepare for growth.
Eric Dumas, CEO at Ostend-Bruges Airport commented: “We have an ambitious cargo community that strives to deliver first-in-class service. It is a robust platform that has proven its worth in many other cargo hubs.”
“Its easy-to-implement, modular approach will allow us to quickly activate functionality and generate first benefits and easily expand in the future.”
“This digital tool will allow Ostend Airport to strengthen its attractiveness and further increase the speed of cargo handling which is already one of its main differentiating assets.”
“It completes the ambitious development project ‘Ostend Cargo Village’, the first building phase of which is already under construction.”
Preparation
The airport is already a well-functioning cargo hub with Qatar Airways Cargo being the main operator with many international flights, such as flights to Mexico City, New York (JFK), Chicago, and more, yet they are not in any way suffering from any challenges related to congestion.
It’s just like the CEO said, they are striving to deliver first-in-class service. In order to deliver first-in-class service, many steps have to be taken to achieve it. It is certainly a good move from the CEO to be many steps ahead compared to other airports.
Comparing now to the peak of the pandemic, it is certainly a good time right now to be investing in a new and modern platform for your airport, as traffic is beginning to rise.
In this way, your staff can adapt to the new system a lot faster as they are getting the on-the-job experience compared to when the airport is doing nothing, as that will leave the crew unexperienced after a while.
Once the system has been fully implemented, the time to process the cargo will be drastically decreased, which in turn means that the staff can handle more cargo than they already can, which means that the total costs per cargo handled can be split over more cargo, reducing the total costs.
This is certainly an attractive investment for not only the airport but also for airlines that want to operate at the airport, creating more opportunities for both interested parties.
The advantages don’t stop at the airport and airline, however, as the new platform is also able to improve the logistical side beyond the airport even more, as it will create more job opportunities too.
Overall it’s a great idea to already begin their investment in the new platform, as it will create more (job) opportunities at the airport.
