CargoForwarder Global’s ‘Spotlight On…’ series highlights a different aspect of the air cargo industry every week to illustrate its many career opportunities. This week, Denis de Farias Duarte (DD), Senior Manager Sales at FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services GmbH takes us through his experiences – what his responsibilities are, how he came to the industry, and what he advises to those considering becoming a part of it. His story alone showcases the very varied and international opportunities available if you happen to be ‘in the right place, at the right time’.
CFG: What is your current function and company? And what are your responsibilities?
DD: Since April 2024, I work as Senior Sales and Marketing Manager at Frankfurt Cargo Services GmbH, a joint venture between Fraport AG and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).
I am responsible for the commercial management of China Airlines, Etihad Airways, IAG Cargo, Egypt Air Cargo, Asiana Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo, Singapore Airlines Cargo and Saudi Arabian Cargo.
Besides the airlines, I am responsible for business development with freight forwarders and other members of the air cargo community.
And to conclude my responsibilities, I am leading the project to enable FCS to handle eCommerce. This project has a higher priority for our organization, because we aim to serve the eCommerce with a robust procedure and mitigation plan. These last aspects will allow us to identify our maximum capacities to handle eCommerce without jeopardizing our core business – air freight.
CFG: What does a normal day look like for you?
DD: The exciting part of my job is that I do not have a normal day. Through the interactions with such different client portfolios (airlines, freight forwarders, and eCommerce players), not even a Monday has a classical path.
I can state that, daily, I over-do my goal of 10,000 steps (FCS Warehouse is over 55.000 m²), and I have meetings with clients in all the languages I speak: Portuguese, English, German, French, and Spanish. And I hope I can soon add Mandarin, too. The contact with our Chinese clients and colleagues motivates me a lot to embark on this challenge.
CFG: How long have you been in the air cargo industry, and what brought you to it?
DD: This journey started on 1st March 1998, over 9672 days ago. And the initiator of this career was an encounter with Juliano Graf at a student party in my University – Unicamp, in Brazil.
I was at the beer stand on a cold July day (yes, South Hemisphere! [Winks]) so not so many people were buying beer, and he was a friend of a friend. We engaged in a conversation about Germany, and he told me that he worked for Lufthansa Cargo and that the company would open a position for intern. I still remember the day of the interview: I wanted to wear a tie. In my family, nobody ever wore ties. Only my neighbor knew how to knot a tie. I remember how careful I was to keep my tie. Then I arrived at the interview, and Michael Nicholson start explaining the business, and destinations Lufthansa Cargo covered. Then he turned to me and asked: ‘If we have to land in Mauritania, what would be an alternate airport?’ And I said ‘Nouakchott’. At the time, he didn’t know that my birthday present when I turned 8, was a world map poster. And whenever a place was reported on the news, I would run to the map and look for that place.
CFG: What do you enjoy most about your job?
DD: The air freight industry offers different positions with completely different scopes. I have been lucky enough to experience all types of activities from Pricing to Warehouse Management, from Sales Planning to Designing and establishing KPIs.
I was sometimes simply in the right place at the right time: Working for the Eastern and Southeastern European Region, when the EU started adding the new members and establishing Euro as single currency. Working for Qatar Airways in the year of the move from the old to the new airport. Working for Lufthansa Consulting at Rio Galeao assisting the airport to cope with the recently added new Terminal and the Olympics.
CFG: What do you see the greatest challenges in our industry?
DD: The major challenge for the air freight industry is to gain total transparency. In the months when I worked for Hellman Worldwide Logistics, one of my responsibilities was the roll out of cargowise: a software that should support the freight forwarders with their activities. To my surprise, there were not a single standard among the users. The same applies to the airlines, where some use a different definition for the milestones established by IATA. And moving to the industry, then the aspects of purchase order and transport request gain nanomolecular nuances.
Seeing some of the barriers of transparency for all members of the supply chain, I have greater admiration for the ONE Record IATA initiative. And I do hope that its implementation in a transport chain can open ways for all others.
CFG: What advice would you give to people to get into the air cargo industry? Any particular training they should aim for?
DD: I studied Molecular Biology and Anthropology. That was my initial background for my carrier. And I believe if the industries would apply the principle of diversity in their recruitment, they would see enormous growth in their business, because the responsible actors bring different approaches to solving a problem. And students of other subjects different to Business Administration will have more alternatives in their career path.
So, my advice is to embrace the goal and try different strategies to enter the industry. If you are learning Geography, add new languages or start working in the industry as external data entry support. The most pleasant part of this industry is that once you are in, you are part of a big family. And there will always be someone to give you the right advice in the most difficult moment.
CFG: If the air cargo industry were a film/book, what would its title be?
DD: Daruma. Now please google it and find out about this powerful Japanese legend [Smiles!]
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Denis!
If you would like to share your personal air cargo story with our CargoForwarder Global readers, feel free to send your answers to the above questions to cargoforwarderglobal@kopfpilot.at We look forward to shining a spotlight on your job area, views, and experiences.
