November 2002

Air France, one of Europe's biggest air freight carriers, has completed its first live transactions on the Global Freight Exchange (GF-X) electronic reservations system for forwarders and airlines. Initially, its use will be limited to the "Dimension" and "Cohesion" services for forwarders in Paris only. But the pilot will be extended by next March to customers in the UK, Germany, Milan and Hong Kong, and by June to the rest of the worldwide network. It will also be extended to the full range of Air France Cargo products.

While a rival airline online booking service has now emerged, Air France Cargo executive vice president Marc Boudier insists that GF-X is "the globally accepted standard." It has proven itself as the only viable electronic reservations system for the industry, he says, and Air France will be proactively marketing a full electronic booking service to global forwarders.

For GF-X, managing director Demetrios Zoppos said that monthly transactions through the exchange had already topped 40,000. Moreover, Air France Cargo and Delta Air Logistics saw GF-X "as providing a vital trading platform for their SkyTeam Cargo alliance," following Delta's recent announcement that it, too, would be joining GF-X.

Other clients of the system are American Airlines, British Airways, Cargolux, Continental Airlines Cargo, DHL, Emirates and Lufthansa, along with many of the world's largest freight forwarders.

Global forwarder and logistics operator Exel earlier said it would integrate its Unitel 21 operating system with GF-X. This would simplify bookings for Exel customers, and confirmations would be received directly into Unitel from GF-X airlines. Exel already uses GF-X to make bookings from several countries including the UK and other parts of Europe, plus China, Japan, Singapore and the US, and the system is being rolled out to its offices around the world.

as Brussels gives its blessing

GF-X is meanwhile celebrating the European Commission's decision to grant formal regulatory approval for its electronic trading platform under EU merger rules on 28 October. The Commission said its rapid growth would not lead to any single company gaining a dominant position in the market or damage competition.

The Commission ruled that GF-X was an additional distribution channel for air freight capacity, and would face competition from other electronic distribution channels including Web links, cargo community systems and business-to-business trading platforms. Moreover, GF-X does not give preferential treatment to member-carriers, and carriers do not have to offer better rates for GF-X than other distribution channels; and the system has been designed to prevent the exchange of commercially sensitive information between members.