Air cargo business plan
President & ceo, airline visions, uction to business article provides a briefing on how to take an idea, outline it on paper, and implement the idea resulting in launch of commercial operations. The subject matter concentrates on how to develop a business plan for an air cargo carrier. It should be noted, this article is strictly to be interpreted as a summary and not a comprehensive document to be used for creation of an actual business plan. Four main reasons air carriers fail, including air cargo and passenger operators, are due to undercapitalization, overexpansion, inflexibility, and lack of leadership. A well structured business plan should identify such negative factors well in advance of any decision making process acting as a guide for management to realize when things are on track and when things are off track. The main purpose of a business plan is to act as a selling tool to raise money, develop ideas of how business should be conducted, while at the same time being able to assess the companys performance over too often in this industry, business plans are created but they use a format not suitable for air cargo operations. Air cargo business purpose of a business plan is to act as a selling tool to raise money and to be used as a benchmark or a map of how the company is performing. This article introduces the reader to the main differences between a generic business plan and an air cargo business plan. Although both types of business plans have the same function, they are very much different in terms of format meaning the difference between success and failure for the air cargo carrier. Historically, air cargo carriers have operated using a generic business plan structure with some modifications. For existing air cargo carriers, it has been found that the generic format has resulted in complications for the company mainly in the form of not having the ability to be flexible as the operating environment changes. The elements of the air cargo business plan are tailored to the aviation industry and if written correctly, such a business plan permits flexibility. In order to be successful in a rapidly changing aviation environment, it is important for new companies to be designed using the elements of the air cargo business plan.
Cargo business plan
For existing companies contemplating restructuring operations, step one should be the implementation of a new business plan based on the elements of an air cargo business plan. Such a decision could save thousands or even millions of dollars in the long c business plan. Unfortunately, many people do not understand the concept of a business plan and, therefore, leave out some of these elements leading to a potentially disastrous outcome. Although there is no single template or map to follow when it comes to writing a business plan, most types of businesses will be designed using the elements of a generic business plan. In many cases, these elements are enough to satisfy the requirements of a business plan but when applied to the air cargo industry, these elements are not sufficient because they neglect to concentrate on additional elements that must be focused on. The design of a business plan differs by industry and by type of company and, therefore, must be customized t of a generic business plan usually include the following:• non-disclosure statement. Strategic action previously discussed, although all business plans have the same purpose, there is no such thing as one type of business plan. There is no recognized single source that one can go to in order to determine what the main elements of an air cargo business plan are. Listed below, are the main elements of an air cargo business plan in the order that each element should be addressed in the actual business t of a generic business plan usually include the following:• non-disclosure statement. Invitation to above structure of an air cargo business plan can be applied to any size of business regardless of its nature ranging from a single-engine propeller driven aircraft to an international operation utilizing a fleet of long-range jet aircraft. This structure is useful to a new organization starting out as well as an existing organization seeking to restructure its business plan. Since the events of 9/11, the term restructuring has become a part of virtually every air cargo operators vocabulary. The main focus of any restructuring plan should be on the redevelopment of the business plan.
New air cargo carriers starting out have a major advantage over existing carriers in terms of their potential success if the above mentioned structure is implemented from day one. The generic business plan is no longer valid in the new era of ss plan is important to note that no business plan is perfect and changes will occur once the air cargo carrier is operating which will lead to creating deviations from the original business plan. However, it is possible to create a near perfect business plan if common mistakes are known in advance. This section outlines five key areas where mistakes are frequently made when developing the business plan for an air cargo ing the readers final version of the business plan will be read by numerous individuals for the purposes of raising capital, establishing contracts, and obtaining certification. In short, the business plan must capture the readers interest within the first 90 seconds; otherwise, it might end up on the floor, in the garbage bin, or filed as a reject. The air cargo business plan must have aesthetic appeal at first glance meaning the format must be capturing and well organized encouraging the reader to turn the pages. If the business plan does not meet such requirements, it is possible that it may never be racies, inconsistencies, lack of air cargo business plan must be accurate and thorough at all levels as the reader will be focusing on the content once interest has been captured. It is very important that the reader is not distracted from the content of the airline business plan and negative bias must be avoided at all air cargo business plans have failed because they were unrealistic. When raising money to launch an air cargo carrier, the developer(s) of the business plan often attempts to make the business concept look too good believing that any negativity would cause the idea to fail before it ever got off the ground. A smart investor knows the difference between fantasy and reality, therefore, the business plan should never try to sugar coat reality. The concept stands little chance of coming to life if the developer(s) does not produce an honest business y is extremely important in the design of the air cargo business plan and although the concept might be good, it can go unnoticed because of this factor. The air cargo business plan contains an overwhelming amount of detail and must be structured in a clear and concise format. In todays financial world, a shorter business plan is often more important than a lengthy one.
Examples of mistakes often associated with clarity are: unclear and overoptimistic, too detailed, too much useless information, too many numbers, not able to present the need for funding in a simple manner, and difficulty explaining the real leteness is a common mistake made in the development of the air cargo business plan. Too many air cargo business plans make assumptions rather than presenting the actual ishing sustainable, competitive advantage in the air cargo business plan is difficult but it must be done. Failure to identify market need is a common mistake made in the development of the air cargo business plan. The business plan must be superior to any potential competitors business plan and should be able to gain the investors attention and money. Adding uniqueness to the business concept is important otherwise, the airline is like any other and will most likely fail to raise the funds needed to ng the right person for the right job is important in the management team selection process. In many air cargo business plans, the importance of the management team is often underestimated. A strong management team will help reduce any doubts the investor might have about the ability of the air cargo carrier to be successful. The business plan must promote the team and introduce key advisors that will assist in the companys success. The management team becomes important in outlining strategic objectives and implementation of the business plan. A good team will be fully aware of all risks involved and such risks should be highlighted in the actual business plan. With each risk should appear a solution or strategy on how the airline will deal with each air cargo business plans fail to demonstrate revenue growth and profitability. In order to sell the business concept, bottom line growth is essential and this growth must be based on credible financial assumptions. Examples of common mistakes made associated with revenue growth and profitability are: failure to show how roi (return on investment) will be generated for investors, no clear roi, lack of return on investment figures, too much concentration on financial numbers, vague assumptions regarding potential cash flow, lack of understanding business start up costs, and lack of are many lessons to be learned prior to writing an air cargo business plan.
It is important for the developer(s) to thoroughly research the business concept in detail and analyze the successes and failures of other air cargo operators. The air cargo operator of today and tomorrow is to be much different than the air cargo carrier of yesterday. The keys to future success include a solid business plan that encompasses the following: flexibility, diversity, the right management team, the right organizational structure, the right corporate culture, constant training and development for all levels of employees, steady and moderate growth strategies, effective cost cutting strategies that do not jeopardize safety, operation of modern and fuel efficient aircraft, fleet commonality, reasonable capital requirements, and a long-term ss intelligence. Business factors favor inauguration of a new airline to meet the demand for additional, higher-quality passenger and cargo service linking western europe with the rapidly expanding markets of southeastern europe and turkey, and linking southeastern european destinations, via western european hubs, to trans-atlantic and global new airline will base its business and marketing strategies on achieving high, and profitable, load factors through absorption of unmet demand in three key air-traffic categories: unserved and under-served routes on which high unmet demand currently exists or can be readily developed; serving key niche markets where demand is either unmet or poorly served; and meeting peak traffic demands on certain key regional, seasonal, and variable routes where very high load factors can be predicted despite existing but lower-quality competition, or where competition cannot meet the addition, the proposed new airline will be designed around, and operated utilizing, the most up-to-date electronic, informational, and aviation technologies to ensure low operating and marketing costs, maximum efficiency in deployment of its resources, and a high level of customer service and convenience. Outfitting these aircraft with the latest aviation technologies and navigational equipment will help ensure the highest level of reliability, punctuality, safety, and customer ation of the latest electronic and informational technologies in sales and marketing; reservations, ticketing and check-in; scheduling and resource planning; cargo tracking; and operational oversight. Such techniques as internet marketing, reservations, and sales; electronic ticketing and check-in; online quality control, resource planning, operational oversight, cargo and baggage tracking, and customer service, all will reduce staffing requirements while offering ease-of-use and greatly enhanced access by, and convenience to, the ition that not everyone is geared for the electronic world, leading the proposed airline to provide a high level of non-electronic service as well, particularly to the many newer, less-experienced travelers - but future loyal customers - found in the ng a friendly, cooperative, enjoyable, yet highly professional face to the pment and implementation of cooperations, associations, and partnerships with other larger, more established, and highly regarded airlines both within and beyond the region to provide an extensive range of connections, through fares, frequent-flyer mileage sharing, and other passenger and client advantages through interline arrangements, code shares, common hubbing, and so short, the goal of this new airline is to be known to the passenger and the cargo customer by its proposed motto: "we've got a job to do, and we do it every day - for you! This is applying a very conservative business model, and is achieved on an initial investment of less than [xyz] million usd, yielding a return on equity of [xyz] percent. Corporation that is regionally based in southeast europe and which knows the region and its business needs. Balkconsort, together with its partner companies and associations throughout the countries of southeast europe and beyond, identifies business and profit opportunities and develops projects and strategic partnerships to implement and benefit from explained in the company summary that follows later in this business plan, balkconsort usa's interest and ownership in the proposed airline will transfer first to a new off-shore holding company, bc holdings international ltd, and then to a daughter company registered in a member state of the european union ("balkconsort eu"), both of which will be established prior to the airline's start-up. Air operators certificate (aoc) to the new airline's overall business plan, a majority ownership stake in the new airline, either directly or through "bc holdings eu," must be by e. This organizational and management team, which is described in greater detail in the section of the business plan dealing with the management team, will help reduce the risk and ensure the success of the proposed new recommend using liveplan as the easiest way to create graphs for your own business your own business proposed airline will have as its primary objectives the following elements:1. To achieve the projected results starting with three mid-to-large-size regional aircraft, growing to five by the end of the first year of operations, similar to the 99-passenger british aerospace avro rj100 or 85 - 99-seat avro rj85 regional jet aircraft, obtained on either a dry-lease or purchase basis; supplementing those aircraft with larger, longer-range passenger aircraft and cargo liners on a charter or wet-lease basis to serve peak-demand and intermittent routes and periods, as well as cargo demands, as called for by the business plan; and incrementally expanding the fleet size and scope on a dry-lease or purchase basis to at least double its initial capacity by the beginning of the third year of operations to accommodate projected passenger and cargo growth in the business plan's out-years. To gear operations, and present a professional, serious, growth-oriented image from the outset, that will set the stage for reasoned, planned expansion, mirroring growth rates projected for the first year of operations, and that will enable the airline to extend its regional scope and, in future years, to transition from its initial regional status into a larger continental and intercontinental carrier.
As an element critical to achieving the airline's other key objectives, to identify and develop key interline alliances, cooperations, associations, and partnerships with other larger, more established, and highly regarded airlines both within and beyond the target region that will enable the proposed airline to provide an extensive range of connections, through fares, frequent-flyer mileage sharing, and other passenger and client advantages through interline arrangements, code shares, common hubbing, and so proposed new airline's mission, simply stated, is to fill a niche in the growing air-travel and cargo markets linking western europe, and points beyond, to southeastern europe and turkey; to achieve high, and profitable, load factors by identifying and serving key routes and city pairs currently unserved, under-served, or poorly served, and where significant unmet demand exists; and to set a new standard for air service and professionalism both within the target market region and utilizing the latest aviation, electronic, and informational technologies, and by designing effective and efficient systems and building in quality control from the outset, we aim to ensure the highest level of service, operations, and safety, all based around the needs, wants, comfort, and convenience of the passenger and the cargo client. Descending order of importance, the five critical keys to success for the proposed new regional airline are:employing an experienced, highly professional management team that combines vision; realism; financial ability; solid knowledge of the aviation business; familiarity with, and belief in, the utilization and benefits of the latest aviation, electronic, and informational technologies; on-the-ground knowledge of the region and markets to be served; realization of the crucial importance of an organization's personnel to its success; and a total familiarity with, and commitment to, the overall mission and goals of the proposed new igent, progressive, and aggressive marketing that identifies the airline as a different kind of player, one that is sharper and smarter, and with a higher level of professionalism and operational standard than is the norm in the target region. Concentration on safety, with highly trained, dedicated, and professional personnel, caring for the passenger and the passenger's needs and wants, the advantages offered by advanced technology, and straightforward, understandable, highly competitive tariffs and fare pricing, all will form key pillars of the marketing fication, through careful market research, of unserved or under-served routes and city pairs in the target market area with sufficient passenger demand to enable high load factors and profitable operations utilizing the category of aircraft of an all-jet fleet of newer, modern, western-built regional aircraft that offer a high level of comfort, safety, and fuel and operational efficiency and flexibility, which meet all normal aviation standards, and which offer sufficient, but not excessive, passenger and cargo capacity on the envisaged of advanced electronic and information technology to reduce staffing and other operational costs; expand the potential market base; readily capture sales opportunities; simplify and speed passenger, baggage, and cargo handling; and enhance customer convenience and onal important, though less critical, keys to assuring the airline's success include the following:identifying, negotiating, and entering into, in the pre-operational stage and early on, beneficial associations, cooperations, and partnerships with larger, more established, highly regarded carriers both within and beyond the target market region to offer interline arrangements, through fares, frequent-flyer mileage sharing, and convenient hubbing and long-distance onward connections to passengers. Successful execution of this element of the business plan is crucial to the overall success and growth of the airline, and must be kept in mind in the organizational plan and structuring of the ishing a high level of operational oversight and quality control that will ensure that the airline always lives up to its marketing commitments and fulfills the promise of a high level of service, customer satisfaction, convenience, and safety, at a reasonable, highly competitive ng the temptation to go head-to-head with established carriers on routes that already are well-served, unless solid evidence exists of additional, significant pent-up demand, or widespread customer dissatisfaction with existing ining flexibility that enables the airline to always respond and adapt to changing market conditions and opportunities, without being erratic, and employing equipment, scheduling, and staffing on a basis that is sufficient to get the job done properly, efficiently, and at a high rate of return, without "overkill" or fielding costly excess capacity or, conversely, unduly cancelling scheduled flight fying, developing, and quickly and cost-effectively exploiting opportunities for new markets, new market concepts, and expanded sales menting regularly scheduled passenger service with both regularly scheduled and also special cargo services when and where sufficient demand exists, and also with seasonal, peak-period, and other intermittent passenger services on certain key regional, seasonal, and variable routes where very high load factors can be predicted despite existing but lower-quality competition, or where competition cannot meet the demand. Larger, longer-range, or specialized aircraft may be employed on a charter or wet-lease basis to provide these supplemental, but potentially highly profitable, passenger and cargo g to combine the core aviation business with ancillary marketing concepts and activities and ground-based operations that support, supplement, and complement the aviation elements of the business, including such activities as package-, group-, and charter-travel program offerings; value-added sales and customer services, both land- and internet-based; construction and operation of enhanced passenger-, baggage-, and cargo-handling facilities and services; and other logical business pursuits both within and outside the immediate aviation ng growth for growth's sake, and instead looking for solid niche-enlargement opportunities that will allow incremental, but always profitable, your own business plan »your business plan can look as polished and professional as this sample plan. Just wrote my first business plan in 24 hours using liveplan and it's beautiful and complete. With 500 complete sample plans, easy financials, and access anywhere, liveplan turns your great idea into a great plan for more about research reports for transportation by air d business l freight trucking business planregional airline business plantaxi business services plansmore transportation plansmore packing and shipping plansmore airline and aviation 't bother with copy & can download this complete sample plan as a text document for the #1 business planning software risk-free for 60 contract, no risk. Built for entrepreneurs like purpose of this e to this short introduction to air cargo and air mail. Even though i have been working in or around the air cargo industry for 20 years already, i seldomly have to tell how the air cargo process works from scratch to someone who does not know anything about it yet. Then i found out it is very hard, or almost impossible, to find general information on air cargo basics on the internet, or elsewhere in the poublic domain. Most information inside cargo companies handles only parts of the process, and is for the largest part aimed at people already working in the air cargo industry. The purpose is to provide general information or a framework on the setup of air cargo processes, for people new to the business. Of course details of the processes will in the end vary per you looking for a more general explanation, e.
A nice video showing the air cargo process from beginning to end can be found here on teachertube (elsewhere on my site you will find several videos as well, by the way). Invite all of you in the industry to contact me for corrections or additions,And who are new in the business to question order to improve the information on this site! The site you will find the following information (click on the item to go there):The air cargo process:Air transport 2 - one step deeper into the 2000 (c2k) / cargo iq air cargo quality system. Freight electronic air cargo cargo interest cargo glossary, terms, abbreviations, cargo law, claims, complaints, s on the future of air cargo or air freight and air your air cargo cargo facts & history of air cargo or air freight and air items and links can be found in the right-hand column of this website ---->. To twittershare to facebookshare to purpose of this e to this short introduction to air cargo and air mail. You just might see what one startup thinks could be the future of international cargo isementthe idea is simple: shipping by air is fast, but expensive. So why not send all those boxes and packages on an un-piloted, amphibious boeing 777-sized drone that can fly point to point and eventually drop off as much as 200,000 pounds of cargo at a seaside port? It would carry that cargo at about half the cost of normal air freight thanks to a more efficient use of fuel and the lack of an expensive ’s the thinking behind natilus, a richmond, california-based startup that this summer plans on flying faa-approved tests of a 30-foot prototype that’s about the size and weight of a military predator drone. Eventually, ceo aleksey matyushev says, the company hopes to fly the prototype on 30-hour test runs, carrying up to 700 pounds of cargo, between los angeles and s, which has raised $750,000 from venture capitalist tim draper and was incubated at the aviation-oriented starburst accelerator in los angeles, will power its drones with turboprop and turbofan engines and standard jet fuel, sending them on missions at an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet. Matyushev says trips across oceans would cost about half of what current commercial air freight transport runs, traveling a bit slower than manned cargo s’s founding team: lz zhang, aleksey matyushev, and anatoly e the drones would be unlikely to receive government approval to fly over populated areas, they are designed to take off and land in the water. The expectation is that after landing, they would taxi into a standard port, where cargo would be unloaded using goal is to finish production of the full-scale, over 200-foot drone by 2020, then have it undergo testing and certification before beginning actual commercial flights. When asked to comment on natilus’s plans or the future of drone delivery in general, a ups spokesperson declined to comment, “other than to say that we see promising potential applications in a number of areas. Though natilus is still several years away from delivering drones—it currently operates with just three core staffers and less than a million dollars in funding—chris connell, president of the global perishable goods transporter cfi, says he is “intrigued” by the company’s isement“air cargo is all about speed at high price,” he says.
Prototype of natilus’ l says he’s used to end-to-end transit times of as much as seven days to send cargo from the west coast to hawaii by ship. He has the option to pay a premium to send it by air cargo for same-day arrival. But in many cases, there could be an argument for the middle ground that natilus is aiming for, where cargo can be delivered to its destination in about three days, once loading and unloading is taken into that much of a time savings, connell considers the 20% premium over ocean freight prices that natilus would charge well worth it, especially when it comes to pre-prepared perishables such as salad kits, sandwiches, and other items that could be assembled off-shore, in places where labor is less of natilus’s goals is to use lower shipping costs to reduce the price of goods to consumers. But ever since amazon famously unveiled its plans for drone deliveries during a 2013 episode of 60 minutes, there’s been substantial interest in unmanned shipping, connell isementamazon and other companies are talking about using small drones for their deliveries, but connell thinks an advance like what natilus is pursuing, which could exploit a big gap in the current shipping markets, is inevitable.
