Coalition supports e-commerce in Helsinki

Recently, Finland’s main aviation hub, Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport (HEL), has become a mecca for e-commerce shipments arriving on cargo flights from the Far East.

There are several reasons for this growth: demand issues combined with operational and organizational aspects. Above all, however, the cooperation of dedicated service providers and the new technological tools introduced by them accelerate customs clearance, goods handling and import flow.

Nordic Parcel Express
The main partner and driving force of the coalition is Nordic Parcel Express, a one-stop parcel provider founded in AUG23 operating at Helsinki Vantaa International Airport, specializing in customs clearance and all related formalities. Close cooperation with last-mile road freight companies is part of its service portfolio.

Airport
A major player in this coalition is Feeport OÜ, a new player based in Tallinn, Estonia. The company was founded in 2021 in response to the new EU VAT rules for e-commerce. Feeport also owns x7trade, a neutral software as a service (SaaS) that automates the bulk submission of e-commerce declarations of low-value goods imported into the EU from third countries and ensures compliance with the EU’s Import Control System 2 (ICS2), with full updates on customs status and shipments throughout the supply chain. x7trade is used daily in 10 EU Member States by a variety of customers, including integrators, e-commerce new logistics operators and customs brokers.

“Our ambitious goal is to enable customers (current and potential) to operate throughout the European Economic Area (EEA) by the end of 2025. As we have seen, there is a clear trend now where cross-border e-commerce is being directly introduced by air to every EU Member State to reduce delivery times and improve customer experiences. To benefit from this trend, supply chain members need a neutral solution such as x7trade that enables them to operate seamlessly in European markets. By neutral, we mean that we only provide the technology and do not compete with local supply chains and their services, whether it is last mile delivery, handling, processing, e-commerce customs brokerage, etc.” explains Luis Pimentel, CEO of Feeport OÜ.

Step Q
Another partner in the coalition is Q-step logiciel OÜ (Qstep) based in Tallinn, Estonia. Founded a decade ago, the company specializes in developing software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms for air cargo, mail, and e-commerce. Qstep’s platform is used by various ground handling agents (GHAs) in Stockholm, Helsinki, and the Baltic airports of Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius. For example, its air cargo platform is capable of processing e-commerce shipments at both parcel and cargo level, which is a particularly important factor when presenting goods for customs clearance, as well as for customs reporting purposes.

Finnish Customs Service
However, despite all the efforts of the aforementioned entities, the growth of e-commerce throughput in Helsinki would have been much slower if Finnish customs had not cooperated from day one, as Samuli Naskali from the ASR Cargo Centre in Helsinki notes: “Finnish customs played a big role, which allowed for very fast brokerage, which resulted in extremely fast shipment flows at Helsinki Airport. At the end of 2023, we had problems with a customs system failure due to the high number of clearances, but customs reacted quickly and improved the systems to be able to handle the large volumes. In the meantime, customs agents are able to clear more than 200,000 e-commerce shipments per day if needed.” manager applauds.

E-commerce turnover in Helsinki is also being boosted by the fact that traditional European hubs are reaching their limits. They are often congested, and especially during peak hours, delays in ground handling are the rule, says ASR Manager Samuli Naskali, who is also co-founder of Nordic Parcel Express. This has had a negative impact on transit times, to the detriment of customers who expect their shopping orders to be delivered on time.

New trade routes
Meanwhile, flexible Chinese e-commerce stores have responded. They have set up new supply chains, from receiving goods at their production facilities to handing them over to agencies at the destination airport. By channeling e-commerce shipments in this way, parcels bypass the congested major European hubs. Vantaa Airport in particular is benefiting from this latest trend.

There are also geographical advantages that benefit HEL. Since Beijing has not joined Western sanctions against Putin’s regime, the Chinese airline, unlike its European or Japanese competitors, can use Russian airspace to quickly travel from East to West. Compared to Lufthansa Cargo, IAG Cargo or AFKLMPM Cargo, this gives them a time advantage of about 2 hours per flight and correspondingly less fuel. This regulatory issue also explains why Helsinki’s e-commerce numbers have skyrocketed.

“In December last year, we exceeded the number of one million parcels cleared by customs” Parcel Express reports on its website. On DECEMBER 24, they expect this number to be exceeded in Helsinki Vantaa.