SAS Cargo to start independent cargo handling company for Scandinavia

SAS Cargo to start independent cargo handling company for Scandinavia    SAS Cargo will Saturday expand its Swedish cargo handling company, Spirit Air Cargo Handling, into a wholly owned group serving 12 airport terminals throughout Scandinavia.
   Spirit Air Cargo Handling Group AB will employ 950 staff and handle cargo at the terminals in Copenhagen and Billund in Denmark; Malmo, Gothenburg, and Stockholm in Sweden; Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Kristiansand, Trondheim, Bodo, and Tromso in Norway.
   In 2004, the smaller Spirit Air Cargo Handling was established in Sweden to move freight at the terminals in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
   “We ‘corporatize’ our air cargo handling activities in order to make it possible to create an increased focus on the business area, which experiences increasing competition these years. The independence will make it easier for the terminals to create their own profile in the Scandinavian market for air cargo handling. This will improve the terminals opportunities to maintain and increase the amount of customers,” said Kenneth Marx, SAS Cargo’s president and chief executive officer.
   With the start of Spirit Air Cargo Handling Group, SAS Cargo will have outsourced all of its global its air cargo handling activities. In April, it contracted Total Airport Services to handle its terminal activities at Newark, N.J.
   “SAS Cargo now can increase focus on acquiring, maintaining and selling air cargo capacity to the right destinations,” the airline said.