Pushing for bigger opportunity

The Transport Logistics, of which Air Cargo Europe was a part, was even bigger this year with more visitors, exhibitors and more international representation. All pushing for bigger opportunities.

Transport Logistic, the 15th International trade fair for logistics, mobility, IT and supply chain management held last month in Munich, Germany attracted more than 55,000 visitors from 124 countries. The event had 2,050 exhibitors from 62 countries showcasing the world of logistics on the Messe München exhibition site. The importance of the trade fair for the industry was emphasized by Federal Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt during the inaugural ceremony: “transport logistic is the world’s key trade fair for the entire logistics and supply chain sector.”
“The significant growth in visitor numbers, especially from abroad, underlines the importance of the leading international trade fair. It also demonstrates that the international transport and logistics industry won’t allow itself to be prevented from visiting us in Munich by a rail strike,” said Stefan Rummel, MD, Messe München.
Air Cargo Europe, the biggest airfreight industry event in the world, taking place as part of transport logistic, too attracted leading companies from around the world. David Kerr, VP, Etihad Cargo, said: “This trade fair has opened up new economic opportunities for our freight business and we appreciate the event for the results we have achieved.”

Accompanying the exhibition, on the second day, was the Air Cargo Europe Conference supported by the International Air Cargo Association (TIACA). Under the title of “Data and security. What´s next?” experts from the sector discussed how to process the data collected in the air cargo industry with a view to increasing air cargo security. In the second event, the subject was “E-commerce in airfreight”. The discussions brought in insights on how the air cargo sector can benefit from the e-commerce revolution. How can the air cargo sector leverage the potential of electronic commerce in order to optimize its own processes? How can companies become an attractive partner for e-commerce forwarders and what are the real benefits?

The air cargo industry must “move into the next century” and speed up the process of digitisation or risk losing marketshare to integrators and start-ups. Speaking during a debate on the use of digital technology at Air Cargo Europe, a panel of industry participants agreed that air cargo could do more to make use of e-commerce and digital processes.

“It is time for the industry to move on and move into the next century because if we don’t do it then others will do it for us,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, Lufthansa Cargo board member products & sales. “There are competitors around, such as integrators, that have much more highly digitised information chains and there are other internet firms that want to move into our industry. We as an industry are highly vulnerable to such digital attacks if we don’t digitise. Digitising improves transparency and it improves quality – a paper air waybill that requires copying is a source of errors. If you copy digitally, this does not happen,” he added.

The transport logistic supporting programme was also strongly supported with 5,000 participants in 45 events. An especially hot topic was digitization, which was a common theme across all forums.