Rapid Growth in E-Commerce at Helsinki Airport with Nordic Parcel Express

The volume of e-commerce passing through Helsinki Airport has seen a significant surge over the past year, largely driven by the operations of Nordic Parcel Express, a company that has quickly established itself as a key player in the region's e-commerce logistics sector.

Nordic Parcel Express began its operations in August 2023, importing and exporting e-commerce volumes that would traditionally have been routed through major European hubs such as Amsterdam, Paris, and Liege. Since its launch, the company has achieved impressive growth, with e-commerce volumes at Helsinki Airport rising from around 50 tons per month last year to an impressive 650 tons in July. The company aims to reach 1,000 tons per month by the end of this year.

Initially, Nordic Parcel Express operated out of the air cargo handling terminal of ASR Cargo Center, one of the three ground handling agents (GHAs) at Helsinki Airport. However, it was later decided that the company would operate as a separate entity, focusing specifically on customs clearance, handling low-value e-commerce goods, and coordinating with other supply chain partners.

Starting with just one employee, Nordic Parcel Express has rapidly expanded and now boasts a team of eight dedicated staff members.

Samuli Naskali, Chief Executive of ASR Cargo Center and a board member of Nordic Parcel Express, highlighted the crucial role of technology in the company’s success. "In our board meeting in 2023, we decided to focus on the e-commerce side of the cargo business," said Naskali. "Close cooperation with airlines, cargo handlers, and neutral technology providers such as Feeport and Qstep provided us with the tools to pursue this endeavor. After a lot of hard work, I'm pleased to say we've achieved our goal—bringing more volume to Finland by making Helsinki more attractive for e-commerce than ever before and expanding our expertise to include e-commerce."

Nordic Parcel Express has utilized Feeport’s x7trade service for customs clearance and Qstep for handling e-commerce shipments at the item level, which has been instrumental in its operations.

Luis Pimentel, Chief Executive of Feeport, expressed his satisfaction with the collaboration: "With x7trade, we aim to provide our business clients with a comprehensive e-commerce compliance package, from Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) submission and customs clearance of low-value e-commerce goods to shipment status updates within the cargo terminal. Finland has been a success story for us, and we’re eager to build on this success across all EU markets."

Pimentel also noted that Finland's approach to customs regulations has presented both challenges and opportunities. "To our knowledge, Finnish Customs has been one of the first in the EU to require that ENS for e-commerce shipments be submitted at the parcel level. This ICS2 requirement has placed considerable pressure on all involved—technology providers like us, local customs, and even Brussels—but we’re starting to see progress. The submission of ENS to the EU Common Repository is stabilizing, and the alignment of technical flight data and shipment records is becoming more consistent."

This article was originally published by Air Cargo News on August 12, 2024. Original source. Image source: Markus Mainka/shutterstock