Right time – different place
In conversation with Atilla Lise, Head of Cargo and Innovative Solutions at Hitit
In March 2020 the Iata World Cargo Symposium was postponed at short notice. This October it is now being held – but not in Istanbul; in Dublin. Naturally, this isn’t a development that the Turkish aviation IT provider Hitit was particularly happy with. The coronavirus crisis, on the other hand, has shown how important its digital services are now and in future. ITJ editor Andreas Haug heard more.
Just before the Iata World Cargo Symposium planned for Istanbul in March 2020, we already presented Hitit to our readers – didn’t we, Mr Lise? (See page 22 of ITJ 11-12/2020.) How have things gone for your company in the meantime?
Despite the outbreak of Covid-19 dominating the situation in 2020, we made significant breakthroughs, signing agreements with 13 airlines and completing the implementation processes in quick time by working remotely. The reality of remote working has entered our world, and we’ve been able to adapt to this new situation very successfully.
As a result of these efforts, Hitit has now reached the top three in the world amongst passenger service systems (PSS). We achieved this success by creating an environment whose pillars include rapid implementation, distribution freedom, cost-efficient features, and unlimited support for our partners.
What are the basic overall perspectives for Hitit’s business?
We’ve continued to expand our customer portfolio in 2021; currently our community comes to 45 clients. I can safely say that, outside of Australia and New Zealand, there’s no region that we don’t cover. Now our primary goal is to consolidate Hitit’s success by acquiring new customers – especially in those regions that we only entered recently.
How has the industry in general changed since March last year?
We were sad not to be able to welcome the most important air cargo industry stakeholders to Istanbul. The aviation industry as a whole, however, has been facing one of the most disruptive crises.
“Digital transformation is needed to keep the industry in good health.”
We know that it’ll take quite some time for the industry to return to its pre-2019 levels. However, we can sense a spirit of solidarity that will bring great dynamism to aviation. We believe that the future looks bright – with an increase in people vaccinated against Covid-19, the pandemic will ease and disappear from our lives.
How do you see the future of airfreight?
Air cargo has already gained substantial momentum again, but there’s one crucial requirement to keep the aviation industry in general and the air cargo segment in particular in good health in the forthcoming period – digital transformation. Companies that integrate it into their business processes the fastest will benefit the most. Digitalisation is a key enabler of the development of innovative services and solutions. The industry needs rapid digitalisation, but how?
I see two ways to integrate digitalisation. The first one operates in a customer-centric way and sees air cargo evolving to adapt and improve its value propositions.
The second one will see all supply chain stakeholders meet on common ground. Unfortunately the industry still relies mainly on paper to transmit information. The air cargo industry has to overcome many limitations, including poor data quality, incomplete coverage, use of legacy technology and standards, a lack of common data standards and collaboration with government authorities.
Hitit introduced new freight solutions to the market before the pandemic, didn’t it?
The success of Hitit’s cargo solutions during the pandemic didn’t surprise us; the need for speed elevated airfreight to its superstar status. Our crane cargo solutions, namely ‘Crane Dom’ (domestic cargo services) and ‘Crane CGO’ (reservation and cargo services), are interoperable, secure, scalable and user-friendly.
These solutions allow airlines, cargo-handling companies and general cargo sales agents to cover all aspects of their commercial and operational cargo functionalities with new-generation technology. These features distinguish Hitit’s cargo solutions from those of its competitors.
Hitit also takes an active role on Iata’s strategic cargo partnership board, which enables us to offer the transport and logistics industry air cargo solutions that comply with these Iata standards.