NewGlobalCargo, the cargo alliance between Lufthansa, SAS and Singapore Airlines, formally rebranded itself as WOW in March and announced that it would offer harmonised general cargo services from April.
The move, which follows the harmonisation of express products in October, means that 80% of WOW's business will now be transported on joint products, according to Lufthansa Cargo board member Dr Andreas Otto. This will allow genuine interlining all the way across the three carriers' networks for the first time.
Curiously, however, despite WOW's elaborate launch each alliance member is keeping its own brand names for both express and general cargo products. Thus, Singapore Airlines continues to roll out its Swiftrider and Timerider products, while SAS is keeping its Priority express brand. President of SAS Cargo, Peter Grønlund, justifies this by saying that "these are brands that have high recognition and which we have been investing in for 20 years, so we are not yet in a position to forget about them".
Rival SkyTeam Cargo, by contrast, is adopting Air France's four-tier product portfolio. Delta Air Lines has already rolled out the Air France Equation express product on all international routes; Korean Air and CSA Czech Airlines are doing so. Delta and Korean Air are also planning to roll out the door-to-door Cohesion and special cargo Variation products during 2001.
SkyTeam has also gone further on sales integration. Its US cargo sales joint venture - pooling the international sales force of Delta and the US teams of Korean and Air France - started work in January under unified management and with its own IT system, revenue management and customer database. CSA and new SkyTeam member Alitalia are both keen to join the US joint venture.
For its part, WOW has brought together the European sales teams of Lufthansa and SAS, but arrangements vary from genuine integration to mere single-roof solutions. The clear goal is full integration, with arrangements dependent on local market conditions. Singapore Airlines shows no signs of wanting to join in with any sales integration for the timebeing.
WOW also suffers from gaps in its coverage. Critics point to North America, where it has no partner. However, Hwang Teng Aun, president of Singapore Airlines Cargo, says finding a partner to cover north Pacific routes is more of a priority, suggesting a north-east Asian partner.
The new partner need not necessarily come from within the Star Alliance, however, even though all current WOW members are in Star. "Star is a passenger alliance. It has no connectivity with WOW," Otto says.
Source: Airline Business
