WEEKLY NEWS Here we explore the nature


MADE FOR E-COMMERCE


BY Matthew WARE, CEO OF CFL


Global trade is growing and changing; e-commerce has transformed opportunities for small businesses,


the


lifeblood of all economies, and is driving developments in infrastructure, capacity, business models, and logistics. Within the global air cargo ecosystem, courier is


the most obvious candidate for meeting the demands e-commerce has generated;


it supports the efficient


and cost-effective transport of large numbers of small, individual packages. Whether by happy accident or clever forethought,


courier and e-commerce are a match made in heaven, or at least in the skies. There are of course alternative modes transport


of for e-commerce goods, but


structural and commercial issues make these less attractive. Given the volumes of shipments involved,


security is a key issue for couriers. A recently introduced system at Heathrow Airport, based on improved data sharing and cross-agency


cooperation, is


designed to better target Border Force inspections.


an unaccompanied


of courier services and how they have evolved to become ideally


suited to meet the


apparently insatiable demands of consumers and businesses across the globe.


What is courier? Courier


is, baggage in simple product. Historically,


terms, it


started with a courier purchasing a ticket and taking their packages as excess baggage, collecting them from baggage terminals at their destination airport. Airlines then put their own courier on the plane and


sold their baggage allowance. Shortly after, the airlines stopped putting a courier on the plane and just sold the unaccompanied baggage product – known today as courier. Like


passenger baggage there are significant


restrictions on what can travel as courier; no dangerous goods; no batteries of any kind, even simple alkaline batteries; no liquids; no knives, to name but an obvious few. Not all airlines offer a courier product and


those that do can offer it in different ways, with different service features. In this way it continues to be much closer to a passenger baggage experience than a cargo product. The courier experience – unaccompanied experience – enables


baggage that a small


community of generally express courier companies to offer services


can be


faster and more cost- effective than integrator


solutions. They can also be more quickly adapted to address


specific, local market dynamics – for example, supporting the Indian diaspora community in the UK with shipments from family back home.


A different world The global ecommerce market is simply vast; according to


an analysis by ECDB, global revenue in 2025 will hit US$5 trillion, 70 percent of which is accounted for by the US and China. The UK is the world’s third largest ecommerce market. Consumers can shop anytime, from anywhere, using


virtually any device, in the same way that businesses can order raw materials, components, and finished goods. This extraordinary expansion of access, convenience


and underlying infrastructure has created a near-insatiable demand, the impacts of which have been felt in every corner of the globe. Online platforms have proliferated, and the underpinning transportation and logistics networks, and supply chain infrastructure, have developed in step. And it’s a demand that’s still growing; cross-border e-commerce sales, according to Statista, will


reach


almost US$8 trillion by 2030, up from US$785 billion in 2021. Whilst consumers look for choice, value and quality,


manufacturers have become utterly dependent upon components and raw materials sourced from across the globe, often arriving ‘just-in-time’ to make their products; the global B2B ecommerce market was worth US$20.4 trillion in 2022, over 5 times that of the B2C market, again according to Statista. The airline industry is the backbone of the ecommerce


ecosystem – IATA says 80 percent of e-commerce goods by value travel by air.


AIR CARG O WEEK


An inspector calls Heathrow Airport processes almost three quarters of all


UK air cargo, with an annual value of well over £200 billion. Cargo in and out of Heathrow is more than the sum of all


other UK airports cargo shipments taken together. For incoming courier shipments at Heathrow, a new


system has recently been introduced that automates and simplifies manifest information sharing with Border Force and other parties, including HMRC, meaning less disruption and more targeted inspections. The new system helps stop suspect packages at the


border. It enhances data sharing with HMRC, in line with their long-term objectives, and works alongside existing systems and processes to create an even more safe and secure environment for courier product. It uses manifest information, provided by importers and


shared with Border Force, to compute a risk factor for all individual packages in incoming shipments, such that only those assessed as suspect need be investigated.


Conclusions Courier has flourished as a result of the boom in global


e-commerce; or, to put it another way, e-commerce has flourished as a result of the existence of courier. Either way, the courier ecosystem that underpins online


shopping and business operations is now so extensive and efficient that it is difficult to see how it could be replaced, indeed it is now so firmly embedded as the transport mode of choice for e-commerce that customers rarely look elsewhere. Two independently developed systems or processes can


end up being co-dependent, as has happened here, but the level of interdependency in this case is extremely high – and the result is that both now co-develop to mutually enhance the online trading experience. Long may that continue.


10


ACW 31 MARCH 2025


www.aircargoweek.com


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