Air Austral operates a widebody aircraft fleet of three Boeing 777, and took delivery of its first B787-8 Dreamliner in May this year. The carrier has chosen CHEP's unique pooling model to drive efficiency and reduce its costs, whilst benefitting from the increased fuel and CO2 savings that are made possible by CHEP's lightweight containers.
Air Austral VP Ground Operations and Security, Jean-Jacques Roy, commented on the contract. "Our partnership with CHEP provides us with immediate cost savings as we don't have to buy ULDs for our new Dreamliners. Due to the seasonality of our flights and peak periods in our schedule, we appreciate that we can flexibly adapt the ULD inventory in our stations and only pay for the units we use, as well as being able to generate additional cargo revenue opportunities due to the weight savings of CHEP's lightweight containers."
Speaking on behalf of CHEP Aerospace Solutions, President Dr Ludwig Bertsch said that Air Austral was a perfect fit for the network, and particularly for leisure carrier customers, thanks to the overlap of destinations which further increased the synergies of the ULD pooling model. "As CHEP's entire baggage container fleet consists of environmentally-friendly lightweight units, our customers are able to benefit from quick savings opportunities and improve their sustainability. Our outsourcing solutions will help Air Austral to focus on its core business of flying passengers while CHEP takes care of the management of ULDs."
