Panalpina celebrates 80th anniversary in Italy

Panalpina celebrated 80 years of operations in Italy together with customers and partners in style. The international provider of supply chain solutions flew in its Boeing 747-8F for an exclusive event at Milan’s Malpensa Airport. Panalpina CEO Stefan Karlen talked about the importance of air freight for Italy and Panalpina, the need for speed for the Italian high fashion industry, Panalpina’s unique Charter Network and the coming air freight peak season.

Speaking at the event with more than 100 guests on Tuesday, Panalpina CEO Stefan Karlen said: “We’ve been in business for 80 years in Italy. This is an achievement and testament to the dedication and hard work of our Italian teams – 180 employees in seven offices and two warehouses.”

Karlen talked about Italy as an export nation and about the importance of air freight in particular for the economy and Panalpina. Italy is Europe’s fourth largest air freight market, and 52% of the country’s air freight exports and imports run through Malpensa Airport, making it Italy’s most important airport for cargo.

Panalpina Italy’s Air Freight volumes grew twice as much as the market so far this year, driven mainly by the fashion as well as consumer and retail sectors.

Karlen highlighted Panalpina’s solutions for high fashion customers as one of the areas where the company excels, saying that speed matters in the fast-paced age of ecommerce and social media.

“Increasingly, we are asked by Italian fashion companies to send their goods directly to the stores in the destination markets, bypassing local distribution centers. We pick up the products at the factory or distribution center here in Italy, organize last-mile delivery to the store in Hong Kong and even unpack and scan the products at the store and leave again with the empty boxes,” Karlen explained.

Panalpina’s CEO also elaborated on the company’s unique Charter Network and how it has prepared for this year’s air freight peak season which is expected to start in two weeks.

Especially for the event, Panalpina flew in its Boeing 747-8 Freighter, which is the backbone – but by far not the only element – of the Charter Network.

A full transcript of Karlen’s speech can be downloaded as a PDF (see below).