Determining and Evaluating The Strategies of Air Cargo Freight Forwarders to Increase Business Volume with AHP Method

Abstract

Air cargo forwarders plays an essential role in air cargo transportation process. They provide service providing communication between the stakeholders in the supply chain. However, there is a fierce competition in this sector due to huge number of companies. For this reason, this companies need to respond to changes in the globalization era by applying some strategies. In this scope, the aim of this study is to determine and weight the strategies that forwarders operating in the air cargo sector can implement to increase their business volumes, using the studies in the literature, interviews with 10 experts working in different forwarder companies in Turkey, and the AHP method. Although strategies for companies to increase their business volumes examined in various studies, there is no study specifically for 'Air cargo transport companies'. In addition, any study using the AHP method for the sector has not been found in the literature. In this context, the study is unique in terms of sectoral practice and methodology. The finding of the study suggests that staff trainings to improve customer relations is the most important criteria for air cargo freight forwarders.