Welcome Robert van de Weg

We asked Cargolux’s new head of sales & marketing for his thoughts about the business and the company before starting his job.
Robert van de Weg joined Cargolux as Head of Sales and Marketing on May 19.

Mr. van de Weg graduated from Erasmus University in Rotterdam with a degree in business economics before entering a career in aviation. He joined KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a finance trainee in 1990 and received a posting to the cargo department. After 2 years, he moved to Singapore to join the startup of KLM’s cargo division in Southeast Asia.

Mr. van de Weg subsequently held management positions in KLM cargo in Singapore and Dubai. In 1999, he was appointed vice president of KLM Cargo’s Air Logistics Business Unit in Amsterdam where he participated in the merger plans of KLM and British Airways and in KLM’s baseline cost cutting program in 2000.

In 2001, Mr. van de Weg left KLM for Atlas Air where he became regional vice president for Europe, Middle East, South Asia, and Africa and, the following year, senior vice president of Sales & Marketing.

Robert van de Weg is married and has three children.

What attracted you to Cargolux?
I am very excited about joining this company because I believe it has a great future. It is the primary dedicated cargo airline in Europe. It has an efficient infrastructure, a modern fleet a sophisticated hub in Luxembourg, and a great reputation in the industry. Altogether, this makes great platform for further growth. It is already a very successful company.

What assets do you bring to Cargolux that can help forwarders?
I have seen various sides of the spectrum in our industry. Most recently, at Atlas, I came to understand the economics of operating aircraft. You need to have a feel for that side of the business

Before that, at KLM, I dealt with forwarders. Many people know that I worked at KLM during the period when we approached shippers directly. However, people do not usually know that these were usually tripartite talks involving the airline, forwarder, and shipper. In any event, the experience gave me a deeper understanding of the business and especially the ultimate requirements of shippers.

Do you have any plans to take Cargolux directly to shippers?
Absolutely not.

Where do you see the company’s differentiation?
In Europe, no other carrier is positioned to work with a forwarder in a flexible way similar to Cargolux. In Asia, you have forwarder-friendly airlines, but, in Europe, the Cargolux formula is unique.

The value of Cargolux is its reliability – driven by the 400 freighter fleet - and its network. Cargolux is also a noncompetitive threat as far as forwarders are concerned—we do not deal directly with shippers and have no predescribed product portfolio. Therefore, our business with them is a true partnership. We do not want to change this focus. It is the strength of the company.

Where will you first concentrate your effort?
I think it’s a good idea to complement regional strengths with global relationships. Forwarders are buying capacity locally but selecting their partners globally. Local contacts will continue to be important, but global relationships are gaining ground also. If you want to succeed with the top forwarders, you have to stimulate the business on a global basis and discuss relationships and services on that level. We do not want to displace the local and regional relationship, but any means. We just want to complement them.

If anything, I want to play down my arrival and look at how we can build on the company’s strengths.