FT032922

Manuel Galindo, Amar More and Geert Aerts

     On the scene and to the point at The International Air Cargo Association TIACA Executive Summit Meetings in San Francisco, Community Systems Get The Once Over @ SFO via a panel Tuesday March 22.
     On the panel pictured left to right are Manuel Galindo, CEO WebCargo by Freightos; Amar More, CEO Kale Logistics Solutions and Geert Aerts Director Cargo and Logistics, Brussels Airport Company.
     Community systems are growing and many feel it is important to best use assets and improve efficiency. Are airports in the world equal in their needs? Some airports take charge and bring the community systems onboard for the good of the airport community while others are merely land lessors and really don’t show much interest.

In the exploratory universe at The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) Executive Summit going on last week in San Francisco, a panel arrived Tuesday March 22 titled “Next Generation Leadership” and some examples of what some stakeholders are about in a self-propelled effort to land the right people to guarantee their futures.
In the picture (l) Panel Moderator Steve Townes, President & CEO, ACL Airshop noted, ACL is funding for promoting and providing educational outreach to secure future ACL leaders. Next to Steve, Sanjeev Gadhia, CEO Astral Aviation Ltd. had folks at TIACA sitting up at attention as the executive declared an unexpected benefit of COVID has been scores of laid off pilots from other carriers who have come home to fly for Astral and then have decided to stay on and build not only their careers, but by that process accelerate growth of the core pilot group at the airline and in their home countries.

     Gala Luncheon Post COVID Style . . . Boxed Lunch, March 22 at The International Air Cargo Association TIACA San Francisco Executive Summit is the new reality in air cargo industry trade shows. Sink your teeth into Turkey, Salad and Lemon Bar . . . Delicioso!
     Seriously, Nice going Glyn H., TIACA Director General.
     The optics from here are just fine as heart and soul air cargo gets back to business.
     Few to no masks, while an Iranian Uber driver not wearing a mask and telling all within earshot how people can turn him in to Uber, “but I don’t care.”
     Trading day for night, whilst welcoming back jet-lag, the Europeans were all talking how weird it is to travel again.

Dr. Joachim Eichhorn, Thomas Romig, Mike White, Carlos Grau Tanner, and Cortney Robinson.

     You have to hope all these delegates didn’t try and speak at once and thankfully they didn’t.
     The Open Skies Border Management track March 23 at The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) Executive Summit in San Francisco was a spirited high point, reportedly enjoyed by all.
     From left to right, panelists: Dr. Joachim Eichhorn, Head of the Transportation and Digital Infrastructure Section, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; Thomas Romig, VP Safety Security and Operations ACI; Mike White, CEO Trade Network Consultants; Carlos Grau Tanner, Director General, Global Express Association (moderator), and Cortney Robinson, Air Transport Officer-Air Cargo, ICAO.
     “Open Skies Border Management was a good spirited session,” Mike White reports.
     “The pandemic created an improved insight by regulators on the importance of air cargo.
     “Regulatory change by organizations like ICAO need to be more dynamic and meet the pace of the industry.
     “Involvement and change by an association takes all members proactive to get things done.”

steven Polmas, Matt Petot, Zeke Zilliak and Lesley Cripps

Digitalization Nation Wednesday March 23 at The International Air Cargo Association TIACA Executive Summit going on this week in San Francisco brought together (from left) Steven Polmans, Chairman TIACA; Matt Petot, CEO CargoAi; Zeke Ziliak, Global VP Transportation & Logistics Industries PROS and Lesley Cripps, Sales Director, Cargo Flash InfoTech.
The session lasted for about 45 minutes and digital was the key word driving much discussion of how digital growth has accelerated in the last two years, eclipsing previous activity over the past two decades. The winning trifecta of air cargo digitalization delivers improved performance, bottom line and efficiencies . . .

     What do you do if you have thought of everything and then all of a sudden, almost without warning the entire universe comes crashing down around you?
     If the choice is sink or swim and you are Ukrainian Vitaliy Smilianets, the CEO, founder and creator of Awery Aviation Software (2007), you put your head down, pivot and continue to move forward, but don’t quit.
     The unspeakable horror inflicted by Russia upon Vitaliy’s homeland of Ukraine has been met with courage and daring, admired all over the world.
     The suffering and sacrifice is overwhelming.
     But there sitting in a chair in front of a room full of suits Wednesday March 23 at 12:15 pm (PST) on a panel in a San Francisco Hotel at The International Air Cargo Association TIACA Executive Summit was Vitaliy.
     He looks a bit unassuming, as techies go, like the thousands who live in and around this part of the world known as action central for the global IT industry.
     When things were calm and predictable, Vitaliy founded his company Awery Aviation Software that he describes as "complete integrated web-based, extremely flexible and customizable platform that manages main aviation business processes & increasing productivity, reliability, and efficiency” for Cargo Airlines, GSSAs, Handling Agents and others.
     Now with all-hell breaking loose at home, Vitaliy chooses to press ahead, relocate and continue.
     Close your eyes and imagine as you arrive at the office, Starbucks in hand, the first thing you do today is evacuate most of your staff out of the danger zones and then put in a call looking to help Ukrainians by employing displaced IT workers at your branch offices across Europe.
     Who can do that?
     In a world that has shut down over and over during the past few years how does Vitaliy come up for air?
     What Makes Vitaliy Run? Why not ask him here?

Pictured at the Cheltenham Festival, the horse racing venue (where else?) Thursday March 17, 2022 on St Patrick's Day when most of Ireland descends “on my local town to enjoy a week of horse racing and the craic!” are Helen and Tristan Koch. Tristan is Chief Commercial Officer of Awery Aviation Software.
These days Tristan, who is fronting Awery based in Ukraine gets less and less time to exhale as you might imagine, but bear with us here because as the world has learned, Ukrainians are no pushovers and Tristan, who bumped into an airline career at American Airlines Cargo before making the switch is one cool customer.
     “I am working with an amazingly talented group of people at Awery who are mainly from the Ukraine and Kyiv.
     “We are developing leading edge IT solutions for the Air Cargo industry and trying to finally lead us through the digitalization transformation we have been struggling to achieve.
     “This is how Avery Software make a difference.
     “Awery takes a collaborative approach to our business and unusually are happy to share our data and IP to foster genuine industry benefits.
     “We also have some of the coolest AI (Artificial Intelligence) that takes away so much of that manual data entry that plagues us still.
     “Best word up in 2022 right here at home pivoting our business strategy to tackle the high hanging fruit that still challenges airlines, GSAs and forwarders in getting the slow adopters to embrace online transactions through our use of AI and child-friendly user experiences.
     “Also above baritone voices as the WAL (Women in Aviation and Logistics) program, of which I am a part, expands.
     “Awery was founded in the Ukraine in 2009 by our CEO Vitaliy Smilianets ??l under the incredible enthusiasm, liberation and optimism the country was feeling post independence.
     “I spent a lot of time last year in Kyiv which is a beautiful city of East meets West architecture and made many good friends amongst their people.
     “It will take years if not decades to restore physically and emotionally. "We moved most of our employees and their families to Bulgaria and Western Ukraine where they continue to stoically work undeterred.
     “COVID unfortunately is here to stay in some form or another. In 12 months (barring further mutations etc.) it will be just another virus we live with.
“What has changed is the realization that mankind in many ways is part of a small global community now bound by common problems.”

David Merrill, Elroy Air, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

     The International Air Cargo Association TIACA Executive Summit went back to the future with dreamers and doers from Silicon Valley, including LeadersInk MatchlabN founder Simone Lis (moderator); Myles Goeller, Chief Business Officer, Reliable Robotics Corporation; Eugenio Donati, AeroVect Co-Founder; Gather AI Co-Founder Sankalp Arora (joining remotely) and Elroy Air CEO David Merrill in a session that talked about the future.
     Merrill stands in front of a powerpoint with the Elroy Chaparral, a VTOL cargo lifter. Elroy Air says it holds commitments for more than 500 aircraft.
     The aircraft, Merrill said, will move up to 500 pounds of cargo 300 miles without airport infrastructure.
     On its earliest modern era ocean hopping aircraft, the elegant Lockheed Constellation, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines utilized a detachable pod for extra baggage and cargo for its long-distance flights.
     The snazziest cargo branding was dreamed up by Eastern Airlines marketing that called the pods “Speedpaks” as extra cargo lift was the order of the day, post-war into the early 1960s.
     But what’s old is often new again.
     TWA branded its product “SkyCargo” postwar, a branding that was later adopted by Emirates as Emirates SkyCargo, which is still in use today.

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Vol. 21 No. 14	Tuesday March 29, 2022