Many ingredients come into play the moment a transportation challenge is accepted: ingredients that are all available within Challenge Group, but that require expert coordination and planning. Once the commodity, size and weight, origin and destination, special requirements, and other relevant information are known, the search begins for the best routing, air cargo capacity, road feeder connections and logistics ancillary services. This is where the group’s in-house commercial arm comes in: Challenge Air Cargo was founded in 2018. It has meanwhile established itself as an expert in orchestrating unique door-to-door solutions for time-sensitive and complex shipments.
Challenge Group’s dedicated commercial team operates mainly out of a centralised call centre in Malta. Not only is the island known for its “aviation friendliness”, but it is also geographically perfectly placed, at the Europe-Africa intersection between East and West – a traffic channel that is becoming increasingly important for the group. Challenge Air Cargo consists of around 100 staff worldwide, some of whom are assigned to specific verticals where dedicated effort is required to deliver commodity-specific high-quality standards.
The team provides 24/7 access in a variety of languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Arabic. Challenge Air Cargo takes care of capacity sales on Challenge Group’s three airlines: Challenge Airlines IL, Challenge Airlines BE, and Challenge Airlines MT. It also interfaces closely with Challenge Logistics in setting up first and last mile transport, and interlines with quality partner airlines to ensure uninterrupted, end-to-end supply chain solutions.
“Every day brings us new challenges, and these go far beyond simply arranging to transport an unusually large and bulky piece of cargo. Flexibility and agility are required when it comes to arranging the successful shipment and delivery of critical goods to various global locations on short notice. Challenge Air Cargo is proud to serve a very varied cross-section of industries and a growing customer group. Our customers can look forward to an even broader service offer in future as Challenge Group is heavily investing in fleet expansion, amongst other things. Whatever your logistics challenge, you can be certain that we will be able to deliver on it,” Or Zak, Commercial Vice President of Challenge Group, says.
