Cargo Pulse

A friend of mine likes to say that the world’s biggest challenges are also an entrepreneur’s greatest opportunities – and our industry is certainly in challenging times.

Entrepreneurship and innovation go hand in hand. It is hard to create something no one else has done before and do this against the traditions of an established industry. It takes fresh new thinking, and use of new technologies to create your prototypes, modeling and testing as well as new partnerships in engineering, design, and finance.

Over this year, CargoAi has continued to remain true to our mission to bring the best available technologies to airfreight; while leveraging our unique position between demand and supply in air freight procurement, to continue to drive the enablement of an efficient and connected airfreight ecosystem.

As warnings of a global recession spread, we need to continue to focus on market trends.
Global air cargo volume – known as an early indicator for consumer products demand – has slumped since early 2022, showing a 5% decline Year To Date after an initial strong recovery in 2020 and 2021.

The air cargo industry is always subject to a multitude of influences and the current downturn in demand is a logical consequence of what is impacting global consumers. High inflation, high interest rates, high energy costs and concern over job security have compounded to create an air of defensive consumer spending, in which case discretionary spending is pulled back.

Astral Aviation has been in operation for the past 22 years, based out of its Nairobi Hub, they have been serving the African Continent through efficient and innovative air logistics solutions.
As part of the TIACA membership Astral aviation has benefited through world class innovative solutions through benchmarking with the best in class cargo logistic peers and it is in this prism that Astral Aviation is proud to be part of the initial cohort of the launch members of the Blue Sky sustainability initiative.

Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) – the largest independent handler at the world’s top air cargo hub – has felt a strong duty for many years to operate in a sustainable manner. Our Green Terminal initiative, launched in 2018, formalised our existing policies and actions, and assisted in the creation of the sustainability agenda which is now a fundamental principle of our business.

Global passenger traffic will double in the next 15-20 years – and cargo is not far behind. Amidst this growth, the aviation sector needs to urgently accelerate its green transition to limit sky-rocketing emissions.

When it comes to climate impacts, aviation is under the microscope more than other industries – and with good reason. While the contribution of air transportation to the global carbon footprint is at 2% this could grow to 20% by 2050. The visibility of the industry, and its pivotal role in globalisation creates a societal responsibility that needs to be taken seriously.

The 2022 TIACA Sustainability Insight report indicated that 73% of responders have a sustainability strategy in place which reflects the growing importance of the topic. With growing interest from customers, employees, lending institutions, regulators and partners as to an organizations sustainability credentials it can indeed be considered as a license to operate and indeed a license to grow.