Press room

Finally ready for action

At long last the Temptainer has been approved by the European EASA authorities, and Wednesday five Temptainers arrive in Copenhagen. This means the state-of-the-art containers providing active cooling will be in operation from around 15th October.

The Temptainer weighs 200 kilo less than similar containers, due to a relatively small battery. This means that it is more economic in relation to space control and fuel consumption and has a better environmental profile. In other words, technical specifications alone have made the Temptainer worth waiting for.

- The approval process has taken considerably longer than anticipated. This is partly due to administrative problems in relation to EASA, and partly because the first prototypes transmitted unacceptable levels of electronic noise. With the assistance of various experts from SAAB in Linköping and others, the control system has now been effectively shielded, making the Temptainer virtually noise-free, Stig Søndergaard explains.

The electronic noise derived from the compressor, which is active all the time in a Temptainer. While other containers with active cooling use a switch to turn the compressor on and off in order to maintain a specific temperature, the Temptainer's temperature is regulated by adjusting the impact. The advantage of this approach consists of more constant temperatures with a comparatively small battery.

Now Stig is looking forward to testing the new equipment in operation. There is a high demand for active cooling airfreight containers in the market, especially from pharmaceutical companies in Scandinavia, and the first Temptainer operations will undoubtedly be on routes from Copenhagen and Stockholm to New York, Chicago, Seattle and Narita.

- Still, the Temptainer can be used throughout the A340/A330 network, says Stig, who is genuinely excited about the prospects offered by the new equipment.

SAS Cargo appoints new VP Global Sales

SAS Cargo VP for Global Sales Nils Pries Knudsen has decided to leave SAS Cargo and will head for new challenges in Swissport International. Michael Sandberg (47) has been appointed new VP Global Sales, and he is very experienced within logistics, sales and management.

"We are sorry to lose Nils Pries Knudsen, who has contributed significantly to SAS Cargo's present results, but we wish him all the best with the new challenges. At the same time I am very proud to have appointed a highly competent and experienced successor as VP Global Sales in SAS Cargo", says SAS Cargo's President and CEO, Kenneth Marx.

Michael Sandberg joins SAS Cargo from a position as Sales Director in Forbruger-Kontakt, a company owned by the group Søndagsavisen and specializing in distribution and logistics. Special competencies are sales management, marketing and pricing strategies.

Michael Sandberg is a trained freight forwarder. He started his career in Mahé Freight A/S, where he became sales and marketing manager, before moving on to TNT Denmark as sales and marketing director and Universal FDX as managing director. In 2001 Michael Sandberg co-founded the consultancy company Doit Global.

Nils Pries Knudsen will continue in SAS Cargo until the end of the year, while Michael Sandberg starts in his new job at the beginning of December at the latest. This means that there will be plenty of time to ensure a seamless change of guard along with the continuation of ongoing activities.

For further information please contact:
Head of Corporate Communications, SAS Cargo Group, Mette Vaabengaard, +4523226733 or sas.cargo@sas.dk

SAS Cargo further extends electronic booking channels

SAS Cargo wishes to offer customers high flexibility and a wide range of choice when it comes to online booking. Two new electronic booking solutions are being added to existing options, giving the agents a total of four e-booking channels.

The latest options are Descartes GF-X Exchange and SAS Cargo Online Service Center, which appeal to different groups of forwarding agents.

“Descartes has been our preferred provider for air messaging for almost 20 years so joining Descartes’ Global GF-X Exchange is a natural progression in our relationship and complements our existing Descartes services, which have been very successful to date,” says Nils Pries Knudsen, Vice President, Global Sales at SAS Cargo. “We are responding to the interest from freight forwarders in being able to book cargo shipments electronically through this channel as well. This is an integral part of our continuing commitment to improve service, accuracy and efficiency in the air cargo shipment management process”.

Descartes GF-X Exchange is one of the largest electronic information and reservation systems in the airfreight industry and the preferred choice of global freight forwarders. Airfreight forwarders can access carrier information, make e-bookings and track shipments via a web browser around the clock.

Online Service Center is an additional easy-to-use e-booking function directed at small/medium sized customers, who are not using other e-booking facilities. This system is a part of SAS Cargos backbone system, Sirius. The functionalities that Online Service Center offers is online booking, flight schedules, rate quotes, shipment status and multiple shipment status

In addition to these new online booking systems SAS Cargo offers the e-booking facilities through CCS (Cargo Community System) and CPS (Cargo Portal Services).

Facts about SAS Cargo
SAS Cargo is the leading air cargo provider to, from and within Scandinavia. In order to fulfill the industry's need for fast and reliable transport solutions based on airfreight SAS Cargo offers direct air cargo capacity to all major European destinations and to New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok. In October additional intercontinental routes to Dubai and New Delhi will be launched.

SAS Cargo Group A/S is an independent company 100% owned by the SAS Group. SAS Cargo's revenue in 2007 was 3 336 MSEK. SAS Cargo employs     1 350 people within Scandinavia and 130 outside Scandinavia.

 

SAS Cargo strengthens presence in Northern Germany

In view of customer demand and market potential, SAS Cargo has decided to strengthen own sales representation in Central and Northern Germany. SAS Cargo's German sales office will be located in Hamburg in close proximity to the main customers and within easy reach of the Copenhagen air cargo hub.

- We want to increase focus on North Germany, where our products are most competitive in terms of transit- and lead-times. We have approximately 50 direct flights from Germany every day and daily airline trucking connections between Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Scandinavia. This, combined with the fast transit times in Copenhagen of 1-4 hours depending on the product, means we can offer same- or next-day deliveries in Europe, United States and Asia, says Nils Pries-Knudsen, SAS Cargo VP Global Sales.

In order to have the sales presence needed to provide optimal services, SAS Cargo consolidates all German activities in Hamburg. Call center and sales staff from Munich, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt will therefore be transferred to Hamburg.

- Instead of having five small representations in various parts of Germany, we will have one office geared to meet all requirements of Central and North German customers. This will improve our service and reduce costs, Nils Pries-Knudsen explains.

A general sales agent selling SAS Cargo capacity on routes from Munich and Stuttgart will be appointed in the near future. The aim is to have the new German sales organization in place before the end of the year.

SAS Cargo's future German setup reflects SAS' overall concept of Service and Simplicity.

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SAS Cargo appoints General Sales Agent in India

October 27, 2008, SAS Cargo inaugurates a new route between Scandinavia and India. The route is operated by SAS International with Airbus A340/330 and three weekly round-trips.
 
In the winter traffic programme, the flight leaves Copenhagen for Delhi on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and returns from Delhi on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Each flight offers an approximate pay-load of 16 tonnes.
 
SAS Cargo's newly appointed general sales agent in Delhi is InterGlobe, which is the largest airline management company in India. InterGlobe has representations in 12 cities throughout the subcontinent, and years' experience at managing all sorts of cargo products and aircraft types.
 
- The partnership with InterGlobe ensures SAS Cargo a highly competent and professional sales agent in India. I am sure that everyone involved will do their utmost to make the new route between Delhi and Copenhagen a success, says Per Vransøe, Director Asia & Pacific in SAS Cargo.
 
At present, India accounts for 3% of the 27 million tonnes global airfreight market, and volumes are steadily growing.
 
Exports from India include carpets, cold storage, tea & coffee, electronics/engineering goods, readymade garments, pharmaceuticals, perishables and printed matter with Europe as key market.
 
Imports comprise chemicals, electrical and electronic goods, spares and diplomatic mail and cargo. 

Facts about SAS Cargo

SAS Cargo has direct air cargo capacity directly between Scandinavia and Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok. SAS Cargo Group A/S is an independent company 100% owned by the SAS Group. SAS Cargo's revenue in 2007 was 3 336 MSEK. SAS Cargo employs 1 350 people within Scandinavia and 130 outside Scandinavia. SAS Cargo Group's revenue comes primarily from transportation of airfreight and mail from airport to airport and from the handling of air cargo for other airlines at SAS Cargo's terminals in Scandinavia.
 
For further information please contact:

Head of Corporate Communications, SAS Cargo Group, Mette Vaabengaard, +4523226733 or sas.cargo@sas.dk

SAS Cargo admits violation of U.S. competition laws

As earlier communicated in the annual and interim reports of SAS Group, the European Commission and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) are conducting investigations of a number of parties in the air cargo industry, including the cargo business of SAS.

SAS Cargo Group A/S, the cargo subsidiary of SAS Group, has reached a resolution with the DOJ in the ongoing investigation of anti-competitive activity in the air cargo business. SAS Cargo will enter a guilty plea, and under the terms of a plea agreement with DOJ, it will pay a fine of 52 MUSD. The guilty plea and fine relate to conduct during the period February 2002 through February 2006.

The fine amount was reduced to reflect the cooperation that SAS provided to DOJ in its investigation, and its acceptance of responsibility for the conduct at issue. The DOJ also recognized SAS?s commitment to an improved corporate compliance program, and SAS has already undertaken measures to strengthen its internal compliance policy. SAS will continue to cooperate with U.S. authorities in their continuing investigation of other air cargo carriers.

"Infringement of competition rules is and has always been entirely unacceptable and I condemn it unreservedly. SAS has, for many years, had a strict policy in place for compliance with competition rules as well as various control mechanisms. It is very unfortunate and a serious problem that our policies were not fully observed in this case" said SAS Group CEO and President Mats Jansson. Mr. Jansson further stated that SAS has reinforced its ongoing work on compliance with competition rules in all parts of the organization, through supplementary training for staff and the introduction of more control mechanisms.

The plea agreement concludes the investigation by DOJ into SAS's cargo business. A separate investigation by the European Commission is underway, and SAS is cooperating in that investigation as well. The Commission issued a Statement of Objections on 20 December 2007 to a large number of air carriers, including SAS Cargo. In the Statement of Objections, the Commission alleges that certain investigated practices in the air cargo sector constituted infringements of EC competition rules. SAS Cargo has submitted its response. The Commission's final decision in the European investigation is not expected until late in 2008. It is not possible at this time for SAS to predict the outcome, but taking the nature of the allegations into account, an adverse outcome is likely to have a substantial negative financial
impact on SAS.

For further information, please contact Claus Sonberg, EVP Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, +46 8 7971660

SAS Cargo's result hit by hard competition

SAS Cargo presents today the annual result for 2007. It is affected by the hard competition on the key markets, and therefore it does not live up to the record result from 2006. Turnover was 3,355 MSEK (363 MEUR) and profit (EBT) was 22 MSEK (2,4 MEUR).

- The air cargo industry is experiencing some big changes these years with consolidation among the customers and over capacity on key markets. SAS Cargo is going through a transition process in order to adapt to these changes. This has affected the result for 2007, which is not at a satisfactory level, says President and CEO of SAS Cargo Group A/S, Kenneth Marx.

Looking back at the positive development SAS Cargo experienced in the years up to 2007, last year was a challenging year for the company. The new market situation resulted in a changed strategy for SAS Cargo and they made a number of structural changes in order to adjust to the changed market conditions.

- The purpose with the organisational change was to create a simpler organisation that could work even more close with our customers. And they already feel the difference, here, from the start of 2008, says Kenneth Marx, who has positive expectations for this year.

- This year, we have just opened Vietnam as a new market and later we will open both San Francisco and Delhi. These are interesting markets, which we look forward to be able to offer our customers direct capacity to, says Kenneth Marx.

Facts about SAS Cargo Group A/S
SAS Cargo is an independent company owned by SAS Group. Revenue comes primarily from sale of air cargo capacity on aircrafts and from handling air cargo at 12 terminals in Scandinavia. SAS Cargo has 1336 employees. Cargo handling will not continue to be a part of SAS Cargo's business as SAS board has decided to sell off the cargo handling unit, Spirit Air Cargo Handling, which is now owned by SAS Cargo.

For further information
Head of Corporate Communications, Ulrik Marschall, +45 23226733 or sas.cargo@sas.dk
SAS Cargo Corporate Communications

Birkart Globistics and Trust Forwarding in cooperation

• Partnership began in January 2008
• Birkart Globistics nominates Trust Forwarding as a new logistics partner in Scandinavia
• Trust now able to utilise intercontinental Birkart network

 

Aschaffenburg / Stockholm

Birkart Globistics air + ocean, a Thiel group company, and Trust Forwarding, an independent business unit of the Swedish company SAS Cargo, have been working in close cooperation since January 2008. Trust is able to operate internationally via the worldwide Birkart network.

Accordingly, Birkart Globistics is now able to offer its services right across Scandinavia via one company in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

- We are pleased to have found a strong partner for all of Scandinavia. This facilitates operations and enhances our efficiency, says Hauke Müller, Regional Managing Director Europe Middle East of Birkart Globistics air + ocean.

Common objectives

These two suppliers of logistics make equally stringent demands when it comes to developing efficient solutions for their clients. In particular, this entails offering them a complete service which involves extensive additional facilities.

- We have a lot in common and are pursuing the same objectives, says Robert Skoog, General Manager of Trust Forwarding.
- Individual logistics solutions are a primary consideration for Birkart ? as is the case with Trust.

A shared IT link, used to coordinate all processes precisely with one another, is just one of the elements ensuring smooth cooperation between the two companies.

Special expertise

Both companies will also benefit from each other's industrial expertise as a result of this partnership. Among other things, Birkart Globistics has many years of experience of logistics in the fields of textiles, automotive equipment and medical equipment.

Trust Forwarding has special expertise in the transport of items such as foods or hazardous materials.

- Given this basis, we can offer our clients an even better service in future, explains Hauke Müller.
- Following the successful launch of our partnership, we look forward now to long-term cooperation, adds Robert Skoog.

For further information:
Head of Corporate Communications SAS Cargo Group, Ulrik Marschall, +4523226733 or sas.cargo@sas.dk

SAS Cargo opens in Vietnam

SAS Cargo is now entering the Vietnamese air cargo market and has assigned general sales agent, Vector Aviation, to develop the Vietnamese market. This means shorter lead times for air cargo between Vietnam and Scandinavia.

- The growing production of especially textiles, footwear and foodstuff in Vietnam has created a market for air cargo, which we would like to develop further. At the same time we will also be able to offer our Scandinavian customers with a need for sending air cargo to Vietnam a better service, says Nils Pries-Knudsen, Vice President Global Sales in SAS Cargo.

The air cargo will be transported via Bangkok, Thailand, and hence benefit from the fast transfer and connection to SAS' daily departures to Copenhagen and Stockholm in Scandinavia. The transit time from Vietnam to Scandinavia will thereby be shortened to a mere 24 hours.

Facts about SAS Cargo
SAS Cargo has direct air cargo capacity directly between Scandinavia and Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Bangkok. SAS Cargo Group A/S is an independent company 100% owned by the SAS Group. SAS Cargo's revenue in 2006 was 3,600 MSEK (387 MEUR). SAS Cargo employs 1300 people within Scandinavia and 130 outside Scandinavia. SAS Cargo Group's revenue comes primarily from transportation of airfreight and mail from airport to airport and from the handling of air cargo for other airlines at SAS Cargo's terminals in Scandinavia.

For further information
Head of Corporate Communications, Ulrik Marschall, +45 23226733 or sas.cargo@sas.dk
SAS Cargo Corporate Communications