Like a breath of fresh air
A review of the 16th Air Cargo Americas trade fair.
From 8 – 10 March the Air Cargo Americas trade fair, originally scheduled for October last year, took place in Miami FL (USA). The industry was more than happy to see the return of a major airfreight event, as such meetings have been very thin on the ground since 2020. The ITJ took the opportunity to attend and came back with a wealth of news and insights. The industry’s alive!
It has to be said at the outset – Air Cargo Americas, marketed by its organisers, the World Trade Center Miami and Miami airport (MIA), as “the largest air cargo event in the western hemisphere”, also suffered from the pandemic.
Perhaps it has suffered a little less than other industry events. As it is usually scheduled for the months of October / November of every other year, it has been able to get by with an almost five-month postponement, whilst other events and meetings have been cancelled completely at least once.
The fact that Air Cargo Americas conflicted with the first Air Cargo Forum this year (postponed from November 2020) isn’t considered a problem. Tiaca plans to hold it every two years in neighbouring Miami Beach from now on. “We have our regular audience and are delighted with the large number of exhibitors and visitors we’ve now welcomed back again,” Chris Mangos told the ITJ on the closing day of the event.
It was nevertheless a special event for the director of MIA’s marketing department, as he’s retiring in 14 months after then more than 35 years of service at the US airport with the largest international cargo volume. His hub is the national leader when it comes to handling flowers (91% market share), fruit and vegetables (69%) and seafood (60%). It doesn’t really suffer from handling bottlenecks. Mangos has seen many things in his career, but the last two years have been unique, even for him. The outbreak of Covid-19, as Jonathan Mellink, of Seabury Cargo, pointed out in a panel discussion on trade trends in the Americas, has led to an entirely new perception of air cargo in the supply chain. The industry should seek to build on this now.
Some trends apparent
The background to how logistics has made it to the centre of general interest, thanks to its complex vaccine distribution efforts, was the subject of another panel discussion on the first morning of the conference. Representatives from airports, such as Nathan de Valck from Brussels airport, as well as from airlines, including Roger Samways from American Airlines Cargo, emphasised how important creativity and cooperation between the various links in the air cargo chain have become.
Eric J. Wilson, the chief commercial officer of Amerijet, pointed out that he has now reconsidered his personal opinion on part-time work. Nicolette Louissaint, of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, in turn – the only female speaker on International Women’s Day, by the way, and who attended through a video link – suggested that the global pandemic isn’t over yet.
The time between pandemics
She and the participants in the panel discussion on supply chain sustainability called for operators to learn the lessons of the past two years and to better prepare logistics operations for the unpredictable. After the last pandemic is before the next one, after all. It seemed all the more astonishing to this European visitor to the conference and trade fair how little mouth and nose protection masks were appreciated as a clothing accessory there.
As for hardware, Ed de Reyes of Sabrewing in California and Michael Zahra of Drone Delivery Canada presented their unmanned solutions for the aerial transportation of cargo.
Air cargo spends 85% of its time in the supply chain on the ground and is frequently held up by mountains of paper documents, so digital solutions are also needed. Amar More of Kale Logistics and Olivier Houri of Smartkargo presented their efficiency as trumps. Discussion moderator Emir Pineda, of Miami airport, faced by reluctance from many companies, called on the industry to embrace change.
Wandering through the exhibition halls we noticed the high number of exhibitors – the aisles, in contrast, were emptier than in previous editions of this event. Exchanges with expert discussion partners were possible and there’s hope for continued and intensified contacts in the short-term future – just like in the good old days!