Cargolux Airlines, Sita form IT joint venture

Cargolux Airlines, Sita form IT joint venture Luxembourg airline Cargolux and Amsterdam-based air transport information technology firm Sita Inc. have combined forces to form a joint venture specialized in providing IT services to the air cargo industry.
   The venture will be the result of merging Sita subsidiary Sita Cargo (UK) Ltd. and Cargolux’s Champ Cargosystems SA. The combined operation, to be based in Luxembourg, will be 51 percent owned by Sita and 49 percent owned by Cargolux.
   The main staff locations will be Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States. There will be no job losses and a major investment program is planned over the next five years, the two parent companies said in a joint statement.
   The new company will have a customer base of more than 50 cargo airlines and a combined workforce of over 150 employees. John Johnston, chief executive of Cargolux's Champ Cargosystems, will be CEO of the new entity.
   “The industry needs a strong force with the know-how and experience to enable a new generation of systems that can deliver the functionality required at a cost the industry can afford. We can achieve this faster and more effectively through this partnership,” said Uli Ogiermann, CEO of Cargolux.
   The two parent companies cited possibilities to improve data exchange with third parties and third party systems, piece level processing, open systems, radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging, warehouse management system integration and PDA interfaces. These developments will ensure the capability to meet current and future standards such as Cargo2000 initiatives and paperless airway bills, they said.