SPECIAL REPORT


Certainly by now with the rise of airlines like Prime Air of Amazon and more to come, the writing is on the wall that if we don’t do something radical then scheduled airlines, major airports and forwarders will be bypassed out of necessity as service demands of e-commerce clients cannot be met.


Course One will already have established the institutional half, the “What”. The technical half of the “How” will not pose too much of a problem if we tackle the issues here and now. In the digital world of today’s retail environment it is about the logic of “anything, anywhere in 3 days or less” not about who wields power in our out-dated world of air cargo.


An alternative course could be to break it up in a number of less huge chunks. Do as in Course One and as an example leave it to the airline alliances, holding the short end of the capacity-stick to invite a logical complement of local forwarders and others to join their alliances. Airlines are hard hit because of the lack of returns on their aircraft’s capital outlay and, if larger forwarders agree, the old game will be over in about 5 years, local parties will not even last that long.


Dashboards that allow every shipper or consignee to see the airlines’ product portfolio in a clear and transparent way, training of all staff in this new business model, cargo communities that address


the need for transparency, accuracy in trace and track, and the task of developing a “virtual integrator solution” will require engagement of all parties and advocacy by TIACA as the best platform across industry platforms through revised committees focussed on the world’s new reality of customer expectations.


Tools? Engage cargo community system providers, Airports through ACI (Airports Council International) but also directly


‘The battleground for scheduled airlines and all associated logistics service providers who depend on them is to step up and scrap the baggage of our history of confrontation between all parties. Every effort in the past has failed.’


to airline alliances and create express e-commerce corridors and centres of excellence for other verticals like Express, Pharma etc. Take a product portfolio approach, volume versus value, open to the public through “dashboards” via Apps or desktop user interfaces.


The battleground for scheduled airlines, and all associated logistics service providers who depend on them, is to step up and scrap the baggage of our history of confrontation between all parties. Every effort in the past has failed (who speaks of GACAG or the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group anymore?).


Airports, GHA’s, Airlines and most importantly Customs can and must work together if they want to be relevant in the fastest growing retail segments. Customers want this, research proves this, experience shows this, and those who ignore the writing on the wall will do so at their peril.


So, defensive as it may be, there is logic to expanding the airline alliance into a full service alliance, a mini version of the industry.


Whether it goes for a number of mini versions or chooses to stay together as a whole, the key to future survivability is to realise that all that now seems lost is still there, has always been there, has not lost any of its promise, but just needs to be handled in a more professional and responsible way.


This article was originally reported in Air Cargo World magazine and is republished with the kind permission of Stan Wraight


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