The air freight business has just completed its best peak season in years, but the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has presented a sobering picture of an industry enjoying a cyclical upturn while struggling to overcome structural problems.
China’s e-commerce market continues to generate incredible year-over-year growth and huge amounts of hype, but AirBridgeCargo’s executive president Denis Ilin brought the discussion down to Earth at an Air Cargo Forum panel in Seoul this week.
The air cargo industry is in a battle for survival and needs to urgently address fast evolving shipper demands, said Glyn Hughes, global head of cargo for the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
There is no significant loss of air cargo to ocean freight, said Atlas Air president and CCO Michael Steen, arguing against a widely held industry belief that shippers were shifting modes to save on transport costs.
Smarter buying, modal shift and a less time-sensitive need from customers threatens to derail the recent recovery in air freight, leaving the industry with little time to sit back and enjoy its first peak season in years.
The air cargo market is giddily awaiting tomorrow’s unveiling of Apple’s new iPhone 6 that when launched will create a spike in export traffic from the production city of Zhengzhou and add further lift to solid air freight volumes out of China.
The pilots of the UPS cargo plane that crashed on Aug. 14, 2013, had complained about the company’s tiring work schedules at the start of the fatal flight before making landing errors...
The International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Air Cargo Association have signed a declaration of intent to strengthen their cooperation on technical matters.