Freight taking off in Madrid
Managers of eleven entities recently signed a ‘Manifesto to improve airfreight’s ability to compete in Spain’ in a ceremony attended by more than 100 logistics industry representatives. The aim is to counter inefficiency, which has been growing in recent years.
Spanish airfreight activities are growing and – at least at a superficial glance – look to be doing relatively well in a pan-European comparison. In 2015 the country’s airports handled more than 1 million t of cargo worth EUR 31.8 billion, representing 7.2% of the nation’s exports and 5% of its imports. Now the Forum MAD Cargo and the Air Cargo Club Barcelona – driven by a fear of future developments and the conviction that more can be attained – have teamed up with nine other stakeholders and pointed out process inefficiencies in air cargo gateways.
They have thus called on airport operator Aena to urgently take measures to further digitalise the air cargo supply chain, for example by creating a digital platform for the exchange of consignment data. At the same time the quality standards and checking processes for the logistics requirements of perishable and pharmaceutical products need to be improved. “If they aren’t, Madrid and Barcelona airports will fall far behind their European competitors in the short or medium term,” according to a warning expressed by Jesús Cuéllar, the current president of the Forum MAD Cargo.