| Cargolux IT Turns Independent Luxembourg, 15 January 2004 – On 1 January 2004, Cargolux’s IT division became an independent company, Champ Cargosystems S.A. This wholly-owned subsidiary of Cargolux Airlines International S.A. aims to draw increased benefits from its core product, the cargo management system e-Champ. For the past years, Cargolux has heavily invested in the development of e-Champ, launched in June 2003 as the first completely web-browser based cargo management system. An independent study concluded that e-Champ currently benefits from a 12 to 24-month advance over its competitors, offering excellent prospects for returns on the investments made. As an independent company, Champ Cargosystems intends to secure its highly competitive position by increasing its sales activity and focusing on the further development of e-Champ. “Six new customers have adopted e-Champ since its launch in June 2003, and we are receiving many enquiries from other airlines” says John Johnston, CEO of Champ Cargosystems. “Champ Cargosystems foresees to double its revenues from the sale of its cargo management systems in 2004 alone and expects to gradually increase its customer base on a market valued at around USD 1 billion. Our objective is to become the largest provider of hosted air cargo management systems within the next 5 years”, Mr. Johnston points out. According to Ulrich Ogiermann, President and CEO of Cargolux Airlines International S.A., the creation of Champ Cargosystems will benefit the air cargo community as a whole. “Champ Cargosystems enters the market armed with Cargolux’s 30-year experience of worldwide air freight with an efficient air freight management and a sizeable portfolio of existing customers. As an independent entity, it can fully utilize the expertise of its IT engineers and will rapidly develop as a market leader. As a customer, Cargolux is highly interested in ensuring that the system it uses for the management of its own cargo remains the best product available”, says Ulrich Ogiermann. Champ Cargosystems is registered and based in Luxembourg and employs approximately 100 persons from 15 countries. Its core product, e-Champ, is an application designed to automate the business of air cargo for airlines and ground handlers. Its functionalities cover the complete range of cargo management requirements from operations management to revenue accounting to ground handling. e-Champ is the only completely browser-based complete cargo management system available today, offering a light-weight, flexible and cost-efficient alternative to heavy mainframe-based systems while retaining the same robust, secure and high availability performance features. For further information please
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