The airline serves over 60 destinations in 25 countries in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Central America with a fleet of 18 Airbus A310 and A330 aircraft.
The optimized AFRA product, launched in May 2011, is a completely rewritten and improved version of the cargo rates management tool that, since its launch in 2003, has become a key rate and surcharge distribution mechanism for 955 airlines and 316 cargo GSAs, which together publish more than six million rates for AFRA's 13,230 individual users globally at 900 freight forwarding companies. It is the most widely used global rates communication product in the market today.
Among the many new features added to the application is 'e-acceptance'. This allows airlines and forwarders to communicate and record online rate agreements, reducing subsequent potential billing discrepancies. A second example is 'spot price' capturing, which enables the recording of rates that have been agreed ad-hoc by telephone and email. Additional features include currency conversions of rates, zone-specific rates, as well as multiple pdf and excel templates for mass distribution of rates by email.
Surcharges, particularly fuel, also form an integral part of the newly launched rate management system, having become such an important element in the cost of air freight. As a user of the application, Air Transat Cargo will have various options to personalize the information for specific contracts or relationships, giving it full control over which customers can see its tariffs, spot prices, and surcharges, supported by multiple levels of security to provide unique protection of data.
Air Transat Cargo will also produce a frequent supply of schedules data to the OAG Cargo site and publish operational and marketing information using the Inforwarding Announcements service to reach out to its main customer groups in Canada, North America and Latin America.
Stephen Baggett, Sales Director Americas at OAG Cargo, said: 'In today's highly competitive air cargo market, airlines need to be able to make information instantly accessible to their customers to help them make the best decisions and be very easy to do business with. Air Transat Cargo clearly recognizes this fact and we are confident its decision to use our AFRA, Inforwarding and schedules solutions will be extremely popular with its existing customers. It will also help the airline to attract new business from the thousands of freight forwarders that see our OAG Cargo as a critical business tool.'
