Air Cargo Leaders Reassess a Decade of Change at TIACA Forum

Leaders from four cargo organizations compared expectations with the changes they have seen across air freight over the past decade during a panel at the TIACA Air Cargo Forum. Their discussion covered aircraft-parts production, Greater Bay Area cargo flows, intermodal networks and digitalisation.

Key details

• Etihad Cargo chief cargo officer Stanislas Brun said aircraft-parts manufacturing capacity had not kept pace with demand for widebody freighters. He estimated delivery constraints could persist for 15 years.
• Cathay cargo director Dominic Perret said the Greater Bay Area serves as both a manufacturing and export base and a growing import market. He described Cathay’s use of air services and multimodal transport to connect Hong Kong cargo with the wider region.
• Air Canada Cargo managing director for cargo operations and transformation Janet Wallace said the carrier combines freighter capacity, passenger-aircraft networks and trucking in its intermodal approach.
• Wallace also said industry digitalisation requires cooperation among stakeholders, pointing to continued paper use and a gap between digitalisation and applying artificial intelligence.
• AGI Group chief executive Jared Azcuy said the company had embraced technology and grown, including in Chicago, where he said it had at one point been slow to secure additional space as its customers expanded.

Etihad Cargo chief cargo officer Stanislas Brun estimated aircraft-delivery constraints could persist for 15 years.

Why it matters

The panel highlighted how cargo networks depend on more than freighter capacity. Airlines and logistics providers also connect air services with trucking and regional transport, while industry-wide digitalisation requires coordination among multiple stakeholders.

What happens next

Cargo operators will continue adapting aircraft capacity, regional connections and technology as the market develops. Which of these changes will shape air cargo most over the next decade?