which didn't really believe in it... and we ended up with 20% of worldwide BSP participation! That was huge! And then there was electronic tic- keting: the technology was going to change, so we anticipated. When formats were introduced to facilitate direct distribution, we joined the platform, and APG was one of the first to run a pilot with IATA. Finally, our move into cargo was quite natural, because we know how to talk to airlines. We needed time, to have the right contacts in the APG network, at the right time, in short to have a mature
Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: Technology is omnipresent these days, but human relations remain fundamental at APG.
Sandrine de Saint Sauveur: The problem with technology is : can I have absolute confidence? I need to know who and what I can trust.
Human can be replaced to count, long ago. The fact that maths is still taught at school is total heresy, as far as I'm concerned. It's another heresy that we don't devote more time to studying his- tory, geography, philosophy, cultures and human relations. We no longer explain to young people how fundamental this is. In fact, everything is constantly changing, except the basics. And what makes us human? Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: These are complicated times, geopolitically speaking. How does a multinational like APG manage its business, which is linked to the sensitive and essen- tial air transport sector, in an unstable world? I think you need IT, you need to keep a close eye on what’s going on in technology, and you need to keep people, who are irreplaceable, at the heart of the network.
network, strong enough, to integrate this business. In cargo, for example, we deal with airlines such as United Airlines in Jordan, Nigeria and Ghana. This is APG's strength: providing access to markets that are sometimes very difficult to reach, even for large airlines. They find it hard to get in, and we are there.
Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: How did you deal with the pan- demic?
Sandrine de Saint Sauveur: The real unknown is geopolitics. It makes us juggle, depending on what's going on in the world.
Sandrine de Saint Sauveur: When Covid came along, my only real fear was that we could lose our representative offices. It had taken us over 25 years to build up this network. Everyone was losing money, but that wasn't the issue. I had already overcome a major crisis. But losing the network would have been... There's nothing more difficult than having a good network. And beyond the network, we had to strengthen it after the pandemic, rejuve- nate it and find successors. You only have to look at the difficulty that airlines have in making their alliances work, as they come and go, to understand.
When Iran opens up and its airlines arrive in France, we take on this huge market, then overnight everything closes down, we are forced to give up, to close our office in Iran: we have no choice. When there's a problem in Argentina, because of devaluation, and we have millions of dollars tied up, we wonder how to get the money out of the country. It's a very complex and recurring issue . Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: You've given me the opportu- nity to talk about the theme of this year's World Connect by APG: is air transport diven by politics or economis ?
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