BA tightens express after discarding the loose

Nigel Baty, general manager of BA’s Special Handling unit has been involved with the Heathrow operation for 12 years. Having spent three years at Gatwick he was moved back to BA’s stand alone Heathrow facility, last August, where he has rung in the changes.
“There have been a lot of initiatives put in place to make sure the products are brought back from the aircraft in time. Since last August, our productivity has increased by 20%,” says Baty.
BA has focused on global conformance in its effort to push its express and courier products. There is a daily global conference call for its stations, and two regional customer service managers assigned to deal with ground handling operations that fail to conform.
While BA has seen its air cargo volumes fall in line with the general slow down in global cargo, its express products have held firm, down just 1% on the year to date.
In June, the Special Handling unit, which covers courier, express, mail, and animal
and livestock (AVI), reported its performance figures for the year.
Courier baggage for time-definite products weighing up to 32kg accounted for 7,700 tonnes of shipped cargo lact year For June 99% of BA’s outbound bookings were flown as booked (FAB) within its 60 minute lodgement target and 95% was achieved for a 60 minute customer collection availability, (known as Status 1).
For Express Parcels, which carries parcels up to 32 kgs per piece, and up to 1000 kgs per consignment, 90 minute lodgement and collection times meant a 100% FAB figure was reported with a 92% rate for Status 1.
The AVI unit saw a four hour lodgement and 60 minute collection deadline result in 99% FAB and 100% Statusi.
BA withdrew from the loose transhipment of mail last year, focusing instead on unitised mail containers.
It currently moves 1 60 tonnes a month of ULD express traffic, through its Enhanced
Rapid Transit Shed (ERTS) mainly for FedEx. In this field it has achieved a 100% standard
on a 90 minute deadline at Heathrow.
Baty says: “The mail market is amazingly strong, with FedEx now the main carrier in that field. A lot of the big integrated com
pa flies are now going for that market.”
Baty has also recently seen BA complete a next day deal with a major shipper between Australia and European destinations. He says: “We have tried out this particular route since January, and launched in the last few weeks. So far, we have reported only four single bag service failures.N
Despite gloomy forecasts from some economists Baty is upbeat about BA’s express prospects: “The success of these products has enabled us to maintain volumes, and more and more large companies are turning to us with their business.”