Welcome to our March edition of inSight

Welcome to our March edition of inSight.

The Covid-19 crisis has proven one thing: the world as a whole, and the airline industry in particular, needs air cargo. For airlines, air cargo has proven one of the few revenue sources that has kept going, often even with improved financial results. For the world it has – again – proven that many serious logistical problems cannot be solved without it.

We may be tempted to think that air cargo now has a secure position in the air transport industry, but let’s not be complacent. The health of our air cargo industry is still primarily a reflection of the balance between capacity and demand where this crisis had a huge effect on capacity, with increased rates as a result. True, for those with capacity, business has become a lot more profitable, but it must also lead to some changes.

Dedicated cargo operators such as integrators had a far stronger position. Consequently, their relative share of the air cargo market will have gone up as well. In 2021 the air cargo industry will have to create a sustainable profitability in that changed landscape. More so, since passenger capacity will come back, the ability for the air cargo industry to offer integrated services with shipment planning and control across multiple companies will be more important than ever.

Our air cargo industry will have to show it is willing to collaborate in implementing standards and systems for reliable service delivery and to be willing to develop a variety of products that meet our customers’ varying demands. Our industry works with a single infrastructure of flights to satisfy a plethora of different shipment needs. Some shipments are urgent, some need care, some need low costs, but all of them are driven by one overarching need: they all look for the most economic logistical solution.

To deliver the best solution to its customers, the air cargo industry has to work together: forwarders, truckers, carriers, ground handlers. Essential to that cooperation is reliability in delivery to each other and sharing information; thorough planning, control, and evaluation of all the various partners that make up the air cargo logistics chain.

I believe that the industry should now pick up and use the momentum that Covid-19 has given us through recognition and make some serious steps forward in line with Cargo iQ’s mission: Plan • Deliver • Learn | Together.

In this inSight we will feature how we work on fulfilling our mission. We have a view from the board by Markus Muecke who highlights our need to work together to reap the benefits of technology and we highlight our SME project that shows how we aim to grow our relevance inside the whole industry. We also discuss another theme of our strategy: growing the membership.

Story edited by meantime.global