Virgin Atlantic Cargo chief copes with the problems of enormous growth

VIRGIN Atlantic Cargo director John Lloyd finds himself running flat out these days coping with the internal challenges thrown up because of his division's enormous growth in recent years.

While the air cargo industry is suffering from a global slowdown, Virgin Atlantic Cargo's 2012 financial results are the best ever, Mr Lloyd told Atlanta area Air Cargo World.

"We are getting our e-commerce strategy up to speed, switching to online booking in the next couple of months. That will allow interfacing with revenue management systems in real time, launching our modified Mercator system - Voyager," he said reflecting on his immediate problem.

An ex-banker, Mr Lloyd's only regret is that his shift to air cargo was not preceded with some forwarding experience before he joined Virgin in 1987.

"If I had spent time in a logistics company when I was younger, that would have helped a lot. If you have a handle on both the logistics and airline side, that would be a good grounding," Mr Lloyd said.

"But you do not often see many moving from handling to forwarding or into airlines or vice versa. The industry feels fractured and segmented. If you have a broad experience across all the sectors of the industry, you will have far more opportunities," he said.

In frank admiration of his boss, he said: "One thing that sets us apart is the influence from Richard [Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic]. His whole attitude has been: 'Why can't you do it? Why can't you improve things?'

"That attitude is spread all the way through the company. Directors still try to think of what Richard would do. Mind you, that has changed since I started. As the company has matured, we have tried to keep the challenging culture, but we have also become more disciplined and balanced," he said.

Mr Lloyd is annoyed by two things - fuel prices and the British government's unfriendly attitude to aviation.

"High fuel prices really are not helping anyone. Fuel costs are 47 per cent of our turnover," he said.

"But what really annoys me is the attitude in the UK to business, especially aviation. It's like no one wants the economy to improve. Things like new airports just take forever to develop here, whereas other countries just get on with it.

"Security regulations are a problem, too. I know of some cargo being trucked to the continent and then flown onward from there because it is easier than clearing it in the UK," Mr Lloyd said.

But still - there's no life like it! "It is interesting and exciting, and the public needs to understand that and how much their lives would change without it. Half the shelves in supermarkets would be empty. People have forgotten how lucky they are to be able to walk into a shop and be able to buy food all year round, no matter the season. We need to raise that awareness, and if we did, I think we would have more weight behind changing governmental policy decisions."