AIR CARG O WEEK


MARKET FORECAST


SUPPLEMENT


“TRADE WILL CONTINUE, EVEN IF THE LANES CHANGE.”


WILSON KWONG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF HACTL UNTIL NEXT MONTH, LOOKS INTO THE FUTURE AT HACTL


ACW: Do you think 2026 will be better or worse than 2025 for your company? What reasons do you have? Wilson: I am optimistic for 2026 because while there are many unknown factors about world trade, there will still be world trade, it just might not be on the lanes you would expect today. E-commerce is an ever-growing part of daily life in every part of the world and that’s not going to change. Consumers are demanding and expect their goods to be delivered quickly, wherever they originate from, and therefore airfreight will continue to play a big role in that.


ACW: How do you see the next five years in your sector? Wilson: HACTL is a single operation and therefore we are seriously looking at overseas opportunities. But we also see our role potentially as working in partnership with other organisations around the world so that we can share our expertise and our achievements with other airports and other handlers and airlines where our legacy of achievement can bring something to the sector as a whole. For air cargo handling the next five years will be about more


automation and digitalisation and both of those will be ongoing. Sustained investment in bespoke hi-tech solutions underpins HACTL’s constant quest for smarter working, greater resilience and improved performance. So, others in the field will need to be making those same investments as we will not be standing still.


ACW: Which macroeconomic or geopolitical factors


(e.g., inflation, regional conflicts, trade policy shifts) are likely to impact air cargo volumes or rates from next month in your opinion? Wilson: Most, if not all, those areas you mention are outside our control. But I refer you to the answer in the next question and say the iHCC (Integrated Hactl Control Centre) is the important factor for us when considering macroeconomic or geopolitical factors and any operational challenges. The other important factor for us at HACTL is being a Hong Kong


company. We work at the world’s largest air cargo hub and we are immensely proud to be part of an airport where air cargo matters.


ACW: What operational challenges (e.g., congestion, labour


opportunities


shortages, (e.g.,


regulatory digitalisation, changes) and new routes,


sustainability initiatives) do you think air cargo operators should prepare for over the coming year? Wilson: The successful implementation of our Integrated HACTL Control Centre (iHCC) off the back of COVID has been one of the biggest decisions we have made in the last decade. In simple terms, it was a reinventing of our IT infrastructure to allow us to cater to any future eventuality – including home / remote working if there should be another pandemic. On top of that the iHCC delivers centralisation of all


management of our giant facility in one management suite with every conceivable modern technology available to us including a 3D Schematic Display System that shows the position of all cargo and equipment in the terminal’s cargo handling systems. We can see workflows, we can marshall our resources and


optimise their deployment, and we can also use AI to predict impending workflow peaks and prepare better for them.


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ACW: In your opinion, which major trade lanes (e.g., Asia–Europe, Trans-Pacific, Intra-Asia) are expected to experience the strongest and weakest growth in air cargo volumes? Wilson: That is of course a difficult question to answer with any level of accuracy and without a crystal ball. As with your second question, it is the number of factors that can potentially come into play which make projections hard to make. For us, with many international airline


customers it is about continual flexibility and reliability. So when traffic for one carrier is down as a result of global events or factors outside their control, another will have its fortunes changed and it will be carrying more cargo on a specific route. We must be geared up to handle those changes whenever they occur, and because of the sheer number of destinations served from Hong Kong, it is more likely to be shifting destinations rather than strongest or weakest.


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