Original Article By Pacific Business News
PBN recently chatted with Paul Skellon, the director of marketing, communications and public relations at Pacific Air Cargo, about the company’s current demand, industry trends and more. Pacific Air Cargo ranked No. 4 on this week’s List of Freight Shipping Companies, as ranked by the number of employees.
How is business? Any plans for expansion, new products, etc.?
Business is strong and continues pick-up steadily. Pacific Air Cargo has this month begun a new bi-monthly service from Honolulu to Guam and the islands beyond. In late 2022, we launched an extensive road feeder service, PAC RFS, that now connects Hawaii and Los Angeles with almost all the major gateway cities across the U.S.Mainland, allowing businesses in Hawaii to ship anywhere in the lower 48 States, using a single Air Waybill. This greatly simplifies the shipping process for them. Pacific Air Cargo also recently introduced PACTRAK, providing our customers with state-of-the-art, real-time information of the whereabouts of their shipments, via email and/or text messaging. This helps our customers better schedule pick-up and delivery resources, improving their operational efficiency and saving them money.
What demands are you seeing for freight and shipping services right now?
As airline traffic across the Pacific to Hawaii returns, we are seeing increased cargo volumes out of Asia, New Zealand and Australia, much of which continues to the Mainland on Pacific Air Cargo with our six-flights weekly service.
What is the most important challenge that your industry is currently facing? What can the industry do to address this issue?
The biggest single challenge for us currently is without doubt, manpower. Following the impacts of Covid-19, many industries, including ours, are finding it harder to recruit suitable, reliable people, although generous employment packages, such as those offered by Pacific Air Cargo, mean that we are not as impacted as some other businesses in the market.
What direction do you see the freight industry in Hawaii is going? What are the most important trends?
We see a bright future ahead especially for those of us who remain single-minded in our focus on exceptional customer service. People have choices, so outstanding service from friendly air cargo professionals continues to earn us a very loyal base of customers and industry partners. Local growers are increasingly finding Mainland markets for their fresh produce, especially in California, and we work closely with these island entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses. It’s not just good for them but it’s also good for Hawaii.
