Dear Geoffrey,

   I appreciated the advance insight into the IATA WCS agenda in Shanghai this week.
   Once again I can’t help notice that there is little mention of the role that an airport can play in sustaining and growing a cargo operation.
   This is not to demean the relevance or importance of the Tracks, but the way the Conference is set up really begs the question as to whether the industry recognizes airports as potential partners.
   I understand that airports don’t carry the cargo, or for the most part handle it, but they can provide the facilities and operating environment that could enable a carrier, government agency, forwarder, customs broker, handling company or trucker to save money and/or reduce dwell time. Moreover, virtually every airport wants to improve its cargo position because of the revenue that cargo generates and perhaps more importantly the regional jobs that cargo can generate.
   I recently attended Air Cargo 2015 in New Orleans.
   Most industry people are familiar with it.
   It is jointly sponsored by The Air Forwarders Association, The Air and Expedited Motor Carriers Association, The Express Delivery and Logistics Association, and the Airports Council International.
   In theory, since a number of airlines attend, the conference brings together a lot of the pieces of the air logistics chain. The frustration is that even in this venue while it brings substantial value to the different associations, the sessions are not structured to have cross-over appeal. I understand that one of the big attractions of a conference is marketing and networking, so perhaps in a traditional conference environment the cross-over concept is problematic, and offers little opportunity to really address challenges or head off potential problems. It struck me that to get airports into the mix, what might be worth pursing is not another conference, but an invitation-driven working forum that will bring together a cross section of the industry to look at the entire air logistics chain including the facilities and services that an airport can and (in most cases) should provide.
   I’ve looked at cargo issues at more than 100 airports world-wide and the one thing that they all have in common is that facilities, infrastructure, and/or practices can be improved to the benefit of the entire industry. The forum would be a shirtsleeve environment that would last for no more than a day to identify realistic and fiscally prudent ways in which the airport segment of the chain can do its part to improve goods movement. The output would be a list of recommendations that would address landside, airside, building, and process issues for domestic and international shipping. It would certainly be a step up from the presumption that the only thing airports can do is “charge less”. If you think about it, one or two solid recommendations applied to airports across the board, could save the industry millions.

Daniel B. Muscatello
Associate Vice President, Cargo & Logistics
Landrum & Brown
d.muscatello@landrum-brown.com

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