The Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas: An Application to Brussels Airport (BRU)

Abstract

Assessing air cargo strategy from an airport's perspective is relatively novel, and it seems little attention has been paid to this research area. This chapter will address this research gap by introducing an Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas, designed to help build cargo strategies for individual airports.

The Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas can be used as a tool to analyze and improve the air cargo strategy of an airport. The first part of this chapter will explain the different components of the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas more in detail. The horizontal axis on the canvas differentiates between exogenous and endogenous drivers of airport competitiveness. The vertical axis distinguishes between the airport product and the airport market. The canvas also considers potential disruptors and principal shareholders' objectives. The different components of the canvas allow the analyst to dig into the main features and differentiators of respective airports. The canvas might also be helpful to structure and compare the strategic components and framework of their own or competitors' cargo strategies.

In the second part, the Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas was applied to Brussels Airport to analyze its cargo strategy. The canvas showed several strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in its current cargo strategy. The completed canvas will let Brussels Airport's executives explore and analyze the strategy of their main competitors and peers' strategy and help them identify potential gaps in their strategies.

Citation

Van Asch, T., Dewulf, W. and Van de Voorde, E. (2022), "The Airport Cargo Strategy Canvas: An Application to Brussels Airport (BRU)", Nolan, J. and Peoples, J. (Ed.) The International Air Cargo Industry (Advances in Airline Economics, Vol. 9), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 155-182. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2212-160920220000009007