Last year was a good one for the global air cargo industry but security and training remain priorities, says Michael Steen, chairman of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA).
What are your main priorities for TIACA for the year?
I want to tap into the expertise of our board and members and continue to grow our membership globally. We want to continue to reinforce TIACA’s role as representing the entire air cargo chain to regulators and, as part of this, continue to develop our role in the new Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG) with our partners FIATA, IATA and the Global Shippers’ Forum.
How was 2010 for the air cargo industry? It was a year of recovery after 18 months of the most difficult economic conditions most of us can ever recall. For an industry that sits at the heart of world trade, the impact of recession hits air cargo very early in the cycle. Nonetheless, our members made prudent business decisions to get through the challenging late 2008/2009 period and the upturn in freight volumes from late 2009 and throughout 2010 brought much-needed stability and the chance to start to recover the losses of the previous period. We hope this can be sustained during 2011 and beyond. The global
market is still fragile and difficult to predict but I believe we can be cautiously optimistic.
What was the highlight and lowlight of 2010? 2010 was a good year for TIACA. As well as being one of the founders of GACAG and being chosen to facilitate the group, TIACA signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the World Customs Organization (WCO) that will see us working closer together, and we continued to build a good working relationship with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the US. In November, the association also brought over 3,300 industry leaders together at its biennial Air Cargo Forum & Exposition in Amsterdam, once again providing unique networking and business development opportunities. The lowlight was the attempted terrorist attacks using cargo shipments.
What impact did the foiled printer cartridge attack have on the air cargo industry? It was a stark reminder of the challenges the aviation industry and regulatory
authorities face today. Security underpins
everything our members do in the air cargo supply chain and our industry’s track record demonstrates the effectiveness of this commitment. I would say two of the outcomes were positive in that it reinforced the need for the regulatory authorities to work with the industry to ensure all security is both effective and viable and, after some months of preparatory discussions, it brought forward the activities of the newly-formed GACAG to ensure the industry has the strongest possible representative voice when dealing with industry affairs issues.
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Factfile
ORGANISATION: The International Air Cargo Association
Headquarters: Miami, USA Website:
www.tiaca.org
year founded: Its roots go back to 1960, officially registered as TIACA in 1994.
Members: Over 400 companies
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