ACL Airshop continues expanding geographically to keep pace with rising industry trends and investing for growth in each of its lines of business.
The unit load device (ULD) company is developing new Operations Centres in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and New York, and a state-of-the-art ultramodern new factory that is soon opening in South Carolina USA.
Other focus areas are investments in ULD Control logistics programs, Bluetooth track and trace on ULDs, and upgraded internal IT assets and ERP systems
ACL Airshop has doubled each of its operational dimensions in the past 36 months. Its own large ULD fleet has grown from under 25,000 units to over 50,000. Its airport services capabilities have expanded the global footprint from 25 locations to over 50.
The supply chain has been expanded and now taps manufacturing resources in South Carolina USA, Germany, China, and Taiwan.
ACL Airshop chairman and chief executive officer and founder of owner Ranger Aerospace, Steve Townes, said: “Certainly, we are indeed investing aggressively, but it’s not JUST about money. We are improving every aspect of the service delivery, global scale, technical efficiencies, and people factors in ACL Airshop.
“We have become a technology-driven ULD logistics solutions enterprise with deep skills and long history in the air cargo sector. It’s a wall-to-wall comprehensive worldwide game-plan, and we are executing it with precision and speed.”
Over the past 35 years, ACL Airshop has become a leading worldwide one-stop shop for leasing, sales, repairs, logistics control of Unit Load Devices, and cargo control manufacturing. Today the company operates around the world on six continents, at over half of the world’s Top 100 air cargo hub airports.
The company has also begun rolling out innovative Bluetooth tracking technology for its air cargo and airlines customers, an industry first. ACL Airshop is actually underway with several major airlines with the actual implementation of Bluetooth tracking systems, and has also begun installing the Bluetooth Low Energy tags directly at its manufacturing suppliers.
Another speed aspect of ACL Airshop’s technology arc manifests with its key suppliers, such as PalNet in Germany. ACL Airshop and PalNet have enjoyed a significant strategic manufacturing alliance for many years. The two firms are now producing directly from the PalNet factory a pre-installed CORE Insight Bluetooth tag for ACL Airshop customers.
Airlines are utilising the combination of CORE Insight Bluetooth real-time track & trace technology alongside ACL Airshop’s proprietary ‘ULD Control’ logistics management program. This is happening now for two major airlines clients of ACL Airshop, and will also be a new technology upgrade for ACL Airshop’s own huge and growing fleet of ULDs.
The company will hold a press briefing at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium in Singapore which is taking place from 12-14 March.
