Cargo First, Bournemouth Airport’s dedicated cargo handling service, is strengthening its fast-track ‘One Team’ operation by bringing its on-site customs bonded warehouse facilities fully in-house. 

The move further streamlines its ground handling operation which is geared towards providing a faster alternative to the congested London airport system for freight customers. 

Citing e-commerce growth as a catalyst, Bob Matharoo, Head of Cargo Development at Cargo First, said the company is fine-tuning their system to make the cargo ownership chain as short and responsive as it can be, with no third parties.

“Our focus is speed to market and being a cost-effective alternative to the hub airports,” he noted.

“E-commerce continues to grow, and with it customer expectations around speed of delivery. Capacity at the big London hub airports is severely constrained but we’re not. We think that’s a real opportunity for Bournemouth Airport and Cargo First, especially bearing in mind our location just 90 minutes from the capital.” 

Cargo First shared it was initially working with a logistics partner to handle customs processing through the bonded facilities on the airport site. It now has full control over the whole cargo process, from offloading aircraft through to processing, onward loading and delivery. 

The company spent 18 months benchmarking freight deliveries via Bournemouth to London warehouses and found it could halve the time of delivery to the same end destinations compared with using a London hub airport. 

Cargo First and Bournemouth Airport are part of the UK’s privately-owned Regional and City Airports (RCA) group, which also owns Coventry Airport, Exeter Airport and Norwich Airport. RCA also operates the XLR Executive Jet Centre FBO facilities at Birmingham, Bournemouth, Exeter and Liverpool airports. Cargo First was launched in April of this year.