When sitting down with TIACA’s secretary general it quickly becomes apparent some of the key issues that are on the global air cargo association’s busy agenda. “We want to see Cargo 2000 succeed and standards coming to the industry. We are working closely with IATA and making sure that awareness about Cargo 2000 is followed,” said Daniel Fernandez, secretary general, The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA).

He went on to stress that the air cargo industry needs to be modernised, especially in the e-freight realm. “We feel that TIACA can be the vehicle to make e-freight a reality. There are lots of issues still pending with e-freight and we think that through our membership we can help solve the issues and help tomake e-freight the standard.”

An exploratory trip
Fernandez was not in India to find out about the Indian air cargo sector’s views on Cargo 2000, or e-freight, however. Instead, his visit was to gauge the sector’s views about TIACA. On what he referred to as “an exploratory trip”, the secretary general wanted to gain an insider’s view of the Indian air cargo industry. “It is a listening trip and an exploratory one,” he said adding, “we have had preliminary discussions and there are many things that we could bring to the table.”

“We want to talk to players and find out what the issues here (in India) are,” he said. Some of the issues “are common to those in other parts of the world.”

TIACA wants to see how it can use its resources for the benefit of its members and in so doing, not only will the industry gain, but stakeholders too would be able to acquire knowledge. “It is important to us to bring our work to this part of the world.” TIACA is keen to get more members from India — the country has only 13-odd members, of which two are TIACA trustees — and the process started with Fernandez’s visit but he was quick to add that the Indian air cargo sector needs to invite the association to hold its “annual general meeting in Delhi or probably in Mumbai” to reallyget things moving.

India is where the action will be, if forecasts are to be believed. At least two dedicated home-grown cargo carriers are waiting in the wings — Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics Ltd. — of which both hold operator permits and a third, Aryan Cargo Express, is ready to start operations by April this year.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has forecast that international cargo is expected to grow by seven per cent and domestic cargo by two per cent during 2009-10. The composite cargo growth rate in India is expected to be around five per cent in 2009-10.

An sector-wide voice
In such circumstances, the country’s air cargo industry is all set to witness rapid change and it will have to contend with more than just domestic issues, like the complexities of cross-border trade and other regional and global issues. Said Madhav Kulshreshtha, a leading light in the air freight fraternity in Delhi and one of TIACA’s Indian trustees: “It has become imperative for us in the (air freight) industry to clearly distinguish between regional and global issues.” There is a whole range of issues – from security to the environment – that need to be tackled from a common platform, according to a number of top air freight stakeholders.

“There is urgent need that our voices are heard in the corridors of power,” said Kulshreshtha, “and India has lacked such an influential body until now”.

Daniel Fernandez emphasised: “I think that regional and global issues connected to the air freight sector in India is what TIACA can bring to the table. Our membership is so varied that it makes us unique,” he said, “TIACA forms a perfect platform to bring different parts of the industry together to discuss different issues.”

Spreading the word
Acknowledging that “India is a big market for the industry and we are just scratching the surface,” Fernandez maintained that though TIACA was in the region, “we are not very well known in this part of the world.” The association would like to enhance its presence in many of the markets of Asia and “India is one of them”. The visit, which included several meetings with leaders from the air cargo community, was to test the waters and see “what impact we can make in this region”.

One of the major issues that Fernandez broached with the Indian air cargo industry is to deal with security and environment. “We want to include those (the Indian air cargo sector’s views) in the views that we want to put forward in Washington. With our inputs from different parts of the world, it will enable government regulators to have a more balanced view of the security situation, the environment, etc.,” said Fernandez.

TIACA’s mission is to ease the manner in which cargo moves around the world. The soft spoken secretary general explained that, “if there is a problem in one section of the supply chain, then the whole supply chain is disrupted”. He felt that the views expressed by TIACA’s members did not merely constitute those put forward only by airlines or freight forwarders. In fact, they were the views of the industry. Simply put, TIACA’s membership comprised a varied group of stakeholders whose views on any issue – once put together – are strong enough to be put forward to regulators in Washington and Brussels. “They know that that is the industry speaking in onevoice,” said Fernandez.