Executive Has Held Various Key Roles With CMA CGM Since 2007
France-based shipping and logistics group CMA CGM has named Guillaume Lathelize as the new head of its air freight division, CMA CGM Air Cargo, taking over from Olivier Casanova.
Lathelize has been with CMA CGM for more than 15 years, holding several roles including vice president of short sea lines and, most recently, vice president of global commercial. Prior to that, the executive spent nearly a decade with Bolloré Transport and Logistics.
A spokesperson for CMA CGM in Marseille confirmed Lathelize’s appointment.
CMA CGM Air Cargo was launched in March 2021, and is based out of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Its fleet comprises four Airbus A330s and two Boeing 777s with payloads of 61 tonnes and 102 tonnes, respectively. An additional four Airbus A350s, each with a payload of 104 tonnes, are set to join the fleet in 2025 and 2026.
CMA CGM this year joined forces with Air France-KLM in an initial 10-year commercial partnership in global air cargo. The deal would combine Air France-KLM’s air transport know-how with CMA CGM’s global supply chain expertise and assets, the companies said.
Lathelize’s appointment comes at a time of tightening capacity in the air cargo market, as wide-body freighters designed to transport project cargo are increasingly assigned on long-term contracts to commodity manufacturers and large-scale forwarders.
The challenge of accessing aircraft and specialized equipment for moving out-of-gauge components has been compounded by the conflict in Ukraine, which has seriously curtailed the operations of Russian carrier Volga-Dnepr, one of the market’s main suppliers of wide-body, heavy-lift aircraft such as the B747-F, the Ilyushin IL76TD-90VD and the Antonov AN124-100.
The hostilities have also impacted Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines, who earlier this year were forced to relocate to Leipzig in Germany. The carrier had been operating out of the Gostomel airbase close to capital city Kyiv.
