Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Korea's Incheon International Airport have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), in which the two major cargo gateways will cooperate to develop e-freight, paperless air cargo as a means of facilitating business between them.
The MoU requires the two airports to encourage the formulation of agreements for the use of e-freight between local parties to their supply chain. It also provides for the exchange of e-freight knowledge and expertise between the two hubs, and paves the way for research and development into projects that will further stimulate the use of e-freight between, and from, both Schiphol and Incheon.
Young-Geun Lee, Executive VP signed the MoU for Incheon Airport, Enno Osinga, Senior VP Cargo, signed on behalf of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The signing ceremony took place at IATA's World Cargo Symposium in Istanbul, witnessed by a large audience of senior executives from the world's leading airlines and freight forwarders.
Like Schiphol, which is one of the hubs of Skyteam Alliance member Air France KLM, Incheon Airport is also a Skyteam hub, being home to Korean Airlines. A number of major shippers are involved in this trade lane, including Korea's manufacturing giant Samsung Electronics, and Netherlands- based ASML, which was a founding member of the E-freight@NL project.
Says Saskia van Pelt, Schiphol's director business development for cargo, who is responsible for the airport's e-freight activities: "E-freight is a vital initiative that will strengthen the air cargo industry, improve efficiency and profitability for all parties in the supply chain, and make a significant contribution to aviation's sustainability efforts.
"Our growth strategy is to develop e-freight on a route-by-route basis, partnering with like-minded hubs in other continents. This agreement with IncheonAirport is a significant step forward in our goals to become a paperless hub for air cargo, and Europe's cargo gateway of choice."
Adds Young-Geun Lee, executive vice president of Incheon International Airport: "We want to differentiate our cargo service by providing "Fast & Easy" service to our customers. E-freight is the core project to achieve this goal, as it can save an average 24 hours' lead time, and simplify the process through one-time keying of data. This also enhances data accuracy, and improves supply chain visibility."
"Korea achieved excellent e-freight performance in 2010, generating 68% of the world's international and domestic e-Freight volumes. But as it is a two-way process, we cannot reach our goal to provide efficient service to our customer through our own effort alone. Thus we are very happy to have Schiphol as our partner, as another leading airport in this field and also the hub for Europe. By introducing the efficiency of e-Freight between these two major hubs, we are also expecting an increase in cargo volumes," he said.
