New shareholder

At the time this article is written, ASL Group is still owned by CMB (51%) and 3P Freighters (49%). However a few weeks after the new year, ASL group announced that 100% of the shares will be sold to a new EU owner without mentioning who it was. It was only on 13/02/2019 (nearly a month after the announcement) that Hugh Flynn revealed that StarCapital, a London based private equity firm with a track record of investing in asset-based companies holding a strong strategic market position, proposed the acquisition.

The looming threat of Brexit raises the usual questions that an EU airline can only be owned up to a maximum of 49% by a non-EU shareholder. The transaction has not been signed yet given that the whole agreement still needs regulatory approval which is expected by mid-2019.

The ASL Group is well known in the European and international aviation landscape. In 2017, almost 3,3 million passengers were carried on board sister company fleets and a total of 564,222 tons of air freight. The Group manages a fleet of 130 aircraft that conducted flights totalling 202,080 hours. Many services are operated on behalf of integrators, done so predominantly by ASL Airlines Belgium from Liege covering key routes particularly for the U.S. package delivery company FedEx and from Leipzig for DHL.

Perspectives and understaffing

Last winter we emphasized that great business perspectives and better working conditions were required to improve pilot loyalty and company attractiveness.

Current ASL shareholders accepted the risk and approved the rebirth of long haul operations in 2017 just after the phase-out of the 777 which was a direct consequence of the TNT Express takeover by Fedex. Today ASLB pilots hope that StarCapital has a long term vision for the ASL group which could benefit to the long haul. What we know today is that ASL group has shown commitment budgeting 4 B747 aircraft for 2019 even though OOTHA and OOTHB are meant to leave the company at the beginning of the second quarter 2019. The total number of aircraft in October 2019 should be 4 if negotiations go as planned.

The 757 fleet is still flying out of MRS to CDG for FDX and out of LEJ for DHL. OO-TFA (NATO Combi) left the fleet for 6 months in order to be converted as a full freighter and will be coming back in July 2019 for a “still to be confirmed” type of operation.

The 737 fleet is the biggest fleet with 23 aircraft. 2 additional aircraft should be joining the company in 2019. One is secured and the other one is still to be confirmed. 2018 was a very demanding year for 737 pilots. The planned duties linked to the understaffing and the related cascade of trainings on other fleets wore pilots out even though we are slowly getting up to speed in terms of crew staffing situation.

The ASL management set up an action plan to solve the understaffing. The aim is to keep our pilots while attracting more from the outside.

To reach this goal, ASLB advertised externally by building a brand new ASLB website, published on LinkedIn, Aviation24, AviationCV… A new induction program has been set up and the selection and recruitment process has been optimized. Should ab-initio fits ASLB standard once interviewed ASLB is now able to immediately produce a hiring letter which is an asset in a world where young pilots have plenty of opportunities everywhere.

The result was an explosion in the number of trainings in 2018 by an order of magnitude that had never been seen before. In order to cope with this training burst, ASLB acquired booking exclusivity on one 737 simulator at CAE Brussels and contracted many CAE instructors so our own instructors can absorb the subsequent line training. From now on, training is going to be even more flawless. Indeed, following the approval from BCAA, our training department has recently introduced Logitude ETR iPad app for trainers and examiners which aims to replace the whole training paperwork logistic. This is an important milestone as this project is the first one of this kind to be approved by Belgian authorities. Talking about paperless, ASLB is planning to get rid of all the paperwork in 2019 by rolling out more and more features on iPads.

According to newcomers, ASLB’s reputation has dramatically improved in a year and our company became the place to be for young ab-initio pilots but not only…

Unprecedented!

2018 will be remembered as well for being the year where crew situation and training planning was expected to deplete the seniority list to the very bottom. Indeed for the first time in the history of TNT Airways / ASL Airlines Belgium, all eligible First officers would get access to captain seat according to requirement predictions.

All eligible FOs got/will get access to captain seat according to the crew situation projections. Understaffing was such that we had to hire 737 direct entry captains and 747 direct entry FOs. This had not happened since the booming 2007-2008 years. Lots of new ab-initios therefore joined the company in 2018 bringing the overall pilot community to a stunning total of 291 pilots which is a record since 1999.

The fact that experienced newcomers being currently trained as FOs are already eligible for an open captain position is unprecedented and a very good incentive to attract the amount of pilots that will be required.

Conclusion

We can definitely attest that ASL tackled seriously the 2017 understaffing issue. However, ASLB needs to be able to sustain this training rate over time as major airlines continue to hire more and more experienced pilots which drains other airlines from their experienced workforce.

Rémi Thirion, VP ASL Airlines Belgium