Air Charter Service beats the street by playing cargo niche markets

AIR Charter Service CEO Chris Leach doubts what he did 22 years ago, that is, grow a tiny basement business into a major enterprise - one of the top three European air charter firms - can be done again as the world is too large and complex.

Mr Leach told Atlanta area Air Cargo World that there is little room for a "new, scrappy start-up", certainly not one taking a general approach to air freight as he did more than two decades ago.

"You've got to get a niche these days. It would be very hard for them to join this race. But there's always room for a hard-working, entrepreneurial guy in any line of business," he said.

Mr Leach started in 1990. Employing skills learned at university, he started his London-based Air Charter Service as a humanitarian-focused brokerage, out of the basement of his modest home.

Since then, Mr Leach grew his company into a multinational corporation with 16 offices worldwide and expects more than 30 offices to open in years to come.

"We've been opening three offices a year for two or three years," he said. "Off this relatively tough year, I think our emphasis will be on consolidation, building up the offices we have."

Air Charter Service fortunes have fared badly, he said, but not nearly as badly as rivals, whose revenues were down 38 per cent year on year while his Air Charter Service only suffered a seven per cent drop.

The main challenge next year starts with uncertainty, a state that has plagued the industry for years.

But unpredictability is a characteristic of the business that is chronically subject to big swings. In 1985, he recalls working at Transamerica Airlines when general cargo flights from London and Europe to North America grew to hundreds of flights, but when the rates changed the next year, charter flights dropped to near zero.

Mr Leach now works hard at establishing an oil and gas business, saying this niche is as near recession-proof as possible.

But all in all, he is satisfied with progress to date. Air Charter Service is now one of the top three global players in Europe, which have a US$1 billion turnover of the $2 billion annually spent on cargo charters.