WAG is more than just a group, it is according to its published material Asia’s largest GSA alliance network. “The objective is to unlock the value from the alliances. This WAG will achieve through cooperation,” WAG’s executive director Roland Quah told Payload Asia.
Not that this is feel-good rhetoric. WAG pitches itself on the strengths of its partners.
“The Alliance benefits airlines because each alliance member has strength in different geographical markets and airlines will have access to a wider international market,” WAG’s Quah said. There is though a twist to this.
One which can make WAG hard to understand. Then again maybe we are too direct. WAG admits to being linked to the Sri Lankan conglomerate Expolanka adding it is by affiliation only. Expolanka it points out has its own GSA outfit. Air Cargo Resources.
WAG thriving on the strength of cooperation “We work on the basis of cross representation and network support,” said Quah. “You may say World Alliance GSA concept is non-partisan. Everyone has the right to work with anyone they can leverage with, either through WAG or directly,” he added One reason for the emphasis on alliances is the history of the group.
The public bits of this are short as the company was only incorporated in Singapore in 2013 and emerged out of the ending of Tiger Group/ECS relationship as various regional bits of Tiger were sold off. That meant though there was a pool of people with the know-how who could work together and across boundaries and help other companies move their cargo.
“The senior management of WAG is distinguished for their hands on experience and expertise in their past positions for designing and demonstrating their professionalism in the provision of total cargo management for airlines such as Jetstar Asia, Viva Macau, Tiger Air, Tiger Air Philippines and Tiger Mandala. The total cargo management programme in the context of the low cost carrier model is much more demanding and complex than the traditional services accorded legacy and ‘new age’ carriers,” Quah said.
Total cargo management is very much a part of WAG’s pitch and among the services the group offers, the range goes from pre-entry preparation and market study which includes designing strategies for specific markets, implementing and managing sales objectives, destination network service support, airport operations supervisions, accounting and settlement, as well as insurance and claims settlement.
“The network advantage WAG has created, ensures that the entire portfolio of alliance re-discover their competitive advantage and achieve their objectives. In the course of which we have recombined our existing alliance partners’ knowledge, experience and resources,” Quah said in his answers to Payload Asia.
“Our ideal customer would be a low cost carrier, or a new start-up airline that requires full organising, implementing of processes, network market entry, operating control and financial security,” Quah added.
Not that is the only thing it does: E-commerce cargo, postal shipments and perishables are priorities and group members are competent in handling all kinds of specialty cargo.
“Depending on network destinations, we are capable of fulfilling more than 70 per cent of total network capacity around Asia Pacific. Our core competency is not limited to low cost carriers, we are well versed with marketing and sales programmes of legacy and cargo carriers,” Quah said.
This goes further too. WAG acknowledges it is working with a potential cargo airline and has plans to enter the ACMI provider business, as well as cargo charters.
“The network structures are being planned such as schedule design and fleet assignment. Subsequently into maintenance routing and crew scheduling. This airline will use WAG as its Global GSA and WAG is assisting with the marketing strategy,” he added .
Given this, its general outlook for the future is optimistic. “The overall market in Asia will be positive and continue to recover with expected high growth rate especially in the Vietnam export market.
We expect strong export growth from Japan as well. North Asia will continue to lead as the world’s largest export region,” he said.
