The new partnership is expected to greatly reduce the time:matters transport of its Special Speed Solutions and time-critical (emergency) goods by between a minimum of between five to 24 hours, depending on locations and destinations.

According to Franz-Joseph Miller, CEO of time:matters Holding GmbH – the special services provider, which is part of the Lufthansa Group that provides courier, same-day and emergency logistics, the co-operation with Cebu Pacific Cargo was able to reduce the Manila and Europe transport time for its services by a minimum of between five to seven hours; sometimes even more if the next possible delivery would have required an additional overnight leg.

“Between the Philippines and the Americas, time reduced for the services can be cut by between 10-12 hours, and to Africa, the time can be cut by between 10 to 15 hours minimum,” he said. In comparison to normal Express services the time savings can actually be even more significant, usually 1-2 days.

The main base of Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ second largest airline after Philippine Airlines, is at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, with other hubs at Mactan- Cebu International Airport, Francisco Bangoy International Airport (Davao) and Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (Angeles City).

time:matters is able to provide doorto- door services through its access to Cebu’s entire route network, the Lufthansa group’s entire air network and a number of flights offered by other partner airlines, like Swiss International Air Lines, Air Berlin and Condor, to some 400 destinations in 90 countries.

Cebu is a wholly-owned unit of JG Summit Holdings, controlled by the Gokongwei family – one of the richest Filipino-Chinese families in the Philippines. Cebu started operations in March 1996 and the carrier now flies to 31 domestic and 15 international destinations in 10 countries. Presently, Cebu Pacific has a fleet of 29 aircraft, comprising Airbus A320s and ATR 72- 500s, with an average fleet age of just 11 months (as at April 2009).

At the recent Paris Airshow held in June, Airbus announced that Cebu Pacific had increased its outstanding A320 orders to 15 with a new firm order for five aircraft. The additional planes arescheduled for delivery starting 2013.

Individualised solutions
“Individualised solutions are created by selecting the optimum flights to provide a premium service meeting our customer’s needs for speed (Best-Flight- Out) and top quality,” Miller said. In addition to speed time:matters’ services include individualised monitoring of all shipments and full contingency planning based on customer’s needs.

Asked how many Special Speed Solutions shipments on average did time: matters expect in a year between Manila and other destinations, and the kind of growth expected year-on-year, Miller said: “In total, we see the demand for professionalized and truly international ad-hoc and special speed solutions increasing over many industry sectors.

“As companies tend to put more focus on contingency and risk management this reflects also on their choice of service providers in this important niche segment,” he added.

As the Philippines is home to a large number of industries and production facilities, their needs for special logistics services and time-critical transports are high and increasing. ”Through the co-operation with Cebu, time:matters customers have access to a new market that will provide the opportunity for additional growth,” Miller said.

“Since the service was announced, it is being used several times weekly. For one customer time-critical shipments are transported on the highly frequented route Manila / Hong Kong (operated by Cebu Pacific) and then transferred onto our Lufthansa network to continue their journey to the final destinationsworldwide,” he said.

Impact of economic crisis
Asked whether the global financial crisis had any impact on its services, time:matters said logistics and companiesacross the globe are affected by the current economic situation.

“time:matters, although not completely untouched, is still successfully serving special services and emergency needs of the customers. In these times, standardisation has become even more relevant as lowered inventories mean substantial cost savings and improved cash-flow.

“To ensure that goods are still available just-in-time so that the delivery, production or retail cycles can work seamlessly, our customers need a very reliable partner who can provide highly efficient, customised and dependable solutions for special or time-critical situations,” Miller said. This has led to a notable increase in new customers over the first half of 2009.

Regarding its plans to expand its partnership and incorporate further Asian economic centres into its network, he said it was the company’s goal to strengthen its international network and its presence in the region where its customers were active and to meet their logistics needs when they subsequently arose.

“APAC is in our focus because of its interesting industries and economic connections between Europe and Asia,” Miller said, adding that its expansion plans were in various stages of implementation and will be announced soon. Singapore office

In continuing to pursue its ambitious internationalisation strategy, time:matters opened a branch office in Singapore at the beginning of June last year. It was also its first Asian branch office.

In addition, the company is represented locally by sales agents from the parent company Lufthansa Cargo in more than 20 Asian cities. As the Asian headquarters, time:matters Asia Pacific Ltd in Singapore is responsible for on-site customer service in East and Southeast Asia as well as in the Pacific area.

According to Miller, the company will evaluate more own offices and partnerships in Asia over the next years.