It seems like a good time to dust off our story decrying the overabundance of awards in the air cargo business at nearly every turn.
     Now in Spring 2019, like a rite of event passage in air cargo, as the awards go from selective to an outright bonanza, what is the net positive effect of awards upon the industry?
     Creating a blizzard of awards for airlines, forwarders, airports, and people as baseline activity at almost every organized event in air cargo, big and small, we think, has an overall net effect of diminishing the meaning and importance of the honors.
     Awards have become such a ubiquitous feature of closing banquets that we are now seeing candidate advertisements that not only campaign at getting, but also trumpet sponsoring of award categories.
     What happens to these awards after they are given out?
     Many of these trade show and publication awards are piled into a corner, line office walls, or are stacked into display cases like rush hour commuters in the New York City subway.

WHAT MAKES A WINNER

     Air Cargo awards feature scores of “winners,” but the drivers that bring these honors are less clear.
     What makes a winner?
     Is it attendance, advertising, stacking votes, sheer luck, or (god forbid) pure talent that merit all the huzzah attention?
     No doubt, recognition of a company has a rallying affect amongst team members and employees that is rather wonderful, albeit fleeting.
     None of this is to say, that air cargo industry people are not hard working and deserving of recognition for excellence in a career, ideas and jobs well done, and other measureable achievements.

SPREAD THE WEALTH

     But how many trophies can be handed out until the cup runneth over?
     In 2019, some big corporations, not necessarily in the cargo business, are waving huge cash money around, and handing out what amounts to a fortune, to one innovative person or company seems all the more incredible.
     If the idea is to award and attract more new thinking and people into air cargo, why not forgo the game show, free for all “strike it rich” format? Why not get deep dish into new thinking by awarding recognition across a wider spectrum to several innovators and smart thinkers?
     The idea, we think, is to up the quality and advocacy for legitimate, nonpartisan recognition that extends the awards, as not only a viable enterprise, but also an educational benefit for everybody in transportation.
     FIATA, for example, features a program called Young International Freight Forwarders Award (YIFFA) that yearly recognizes several winners chosen from papers submitted on various aspects of the freight forwarding business.
     The YIFFA award, in addition to recognizing an individual and region, rewards everybody by publishing the study the winner submitted, for all to read.
     Additionally, the YIFFA Award includes advanced training in the transportation arts that can also include on the job experience in an actual live company situation.

AWARD VALUE

     In 2018 when we asked some people who attended Air Cargo Europe in 2017 at Munich, “Who won airline of that year?” all we received were blank looks.
     The same non-responses held when we queried folks about what were the names of the usual suspects that won in the various categories?

THE BOW TIE PARTY IS BACK

     In 2018, industry attention to award events appeared to slide just a little bit?
     An organization that had held grand bow tie party soirees forever, actually dropped the format altogether for a year, then for 2019 apparently reworked the format and in the search for more money, was back.

EVERYBODY IS A WINNER

     One enterprising publisher that hands out awards all over the place has come up with wording that looks and sounds like everybody is a winner.
     The winner is of course the winner, but the second-place finisher that used be the loser is now “highly acclaimed”, suggesting in a positive sense the gap between winners and losers has narrowed, if not the spend to reach those heights.

THE LAST WORD

     François Ozon, one of France’s most prolific director/screenwriters, has noted, “awards are like hemorrhoids, sooner or later every asshole gets one.”
     Billy Wilder, the great director of “Some Like It Hot” oft repeated that quote adding:
          “An audience is never wrong.
          “An individual member of it may be an imbecile, but a thousand imbeciles together in the dark - that is critical genius.”
Geoffrey

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"A blockchain is a distributed ledger database that maintains a continuously-growing list of transactions in the form of ordered records called blocks." -Wikipedia "If you can't explain it to a 10 year old, you don't know it yourself" – Albert Einstein (attributed, but disputed)

Get ready for this. It's spring 2019 and in some quarters the season augurs the air cargo industry awards time of year. There are awards for everything, from Company of the Year to Person of the Year, from Most Influential to Lifetime Service. The awards will be handed out left and right by trade shows, industry organizations, and publications alike.

“A great opportunity for FIATA Association Members and Individual Members to exchange information and deliberate on important policy issues of our industry," FIATA President Babar Badat told Flying Talkers.

Claiming “to advance JFK International Airport’s place as an international cargo handler,” a “place” that the airport once upon a time dominated from its opening in 1948 until the early 1990s when more than half of all airborne cargo in USA transited the facility, airport operator The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey signed a deal to allow JFK Air Cargo LLC to lease a new 250,000 sq. ft. cargo transfer facility to be built with $70 million in private funds at the airport.
     The Port Authority said it is putting up $13 million toward site preparation work and needed roadway improvements. Located on 16.2 acres of property in the North Cargo Area, the JFK Air Cargo LLC facility is projected to be completed anytime between 24 months and two years.
     The JFK Air Cargo LLC news is heralded by the airport operator as part of a grand plan for the airport that calls for a $13 billion redevelopment, with most of that money to be raised via private funds, earmarked for passenger facilities.
     In 2017, Aeroterm JFK II LLC signed a long-term lease for a 346,000-square-foot cargo handling facility, yet to be built at JFK.

Blast from the past . . . Some of our favorite people from back in the day that are still in our hearts and minds, true air cargo pioneers at JFK International Airport.      You might notice two pictures of Ed Chism.      First he was the go-to-guy at Pan Am Clipper Cargo.      Later he was the man, who built the team that put Emirates SkyCargo on the map in the USA.      Ed is still at it somewhere, with an adult beverage close by, we hope. The lady in the middle, Dolores Hofman, today is Program Manager, Queens New York Airport Development Council, but above all a dear heart, and a great air cargo pioneer.      Dolores would not take no for an answer when she began her airport cargo career as a forklift truck cargo driver inside Pan Am’s cavernous Building 67 at JFK International.      Next to Dolores, is somebody you would like to have behind you anytime.      Jim Larsen, first at Seaboard World Airways, and later as Port Authority Cargo boss helped build and grow New York air cargo and the JFK Air Cargo Association.      He was also in the World Trade Center September 11, 2001 and actually walked down 65 floors from his cargo office in Tower One, whilst saving lives by helping others.      Today happily retired, Jim lives with his wife Annette in nearby Lakehurst, New Jersey.      Isaac Nijankin, who was “Mr. Air Cargo” at Varig Brazilian Airlines Cargo and later Cargo Air Lines, during a distinguished thirty plus year air cargo career, pioneered and supported every effort to advance the industry. Isaac was very instrumental at the start up of TIACA, where he worked for, and supported that organization for many years.      Isaac and his wife Monique are retired, but still heard from occasionally from their home in Long Island, New York. Precious memories . . .

Vol. 18 No. 30
Air Cargo Is About People
Chuckles for April 24, 2019
Go Go Guillaume
Brandon Gets It
AFKLMP Change & Forwarders Cheer
A300F@25