As another year slips away and a brand new year full of promise, mystery and likely a fair bit of trepidation for the air cargo sector, is before us.

A quick look in the rear view mirror reveals a year lacking in anything particularly remarkable. An relatively ‘skyrocketing’ market early in the year held out the promise that 2015 would be maybe not a great year, but certainly a ‘better’ year. But unfortunately the rocket’s red glow waned faster than a crescent moon.

And for the rest of the year stagnation was the word thanks to a grab bag of factors including lethargic economies around the world – especially the Chinese economy that now has such a direct impact on the global economy – political turmoil, refugee crises, terrorism and of course that seemingly unending fl ow of wide-body aircraft – which while very roomy and comfortable for passengers, also ended up being very roomy and comfortable for cargo unfortunately.

As we look back at 2015 for some semblance of a clue that might guide our expectations for this coming new year there is precious little to guide us, other than the fact ceaselessly growing belly capacity will continue to be a bugbear for the industry. Perhaps the only other hint of what the future holds is really not a new concept – change.

Except there is something that can be gleaned from change in this moment in time and space – it’s intensity, reach and velocity is far greater than ever before in history. And this new face of change has been overwhelmingly sculpted by one thing – technology. While the pace of this change has been substantive for probably something like two decades it is really only in the last fi ve years or so that its impact has been so far reaching.

Th is is due to the ‘personalisation’ of the power of technology – giving all of us unbounding, active access to information in a myriad of forms from just our handheld device. Th at of course was only half the equation, the other half were the innovative people and companies that saw the opportunities inherent in the transformative power of all of this – the Ubers, Alibabas, Airbnbs, Amazons, etc., of the world.

It’s no secret the air cargo supply chain bears a great shame for being slow to not just grab hold of this new era, but struggles even to shed paper and go ‘E’ at the most primary of levels.

Th e good news is, everybody now ‘gets it’. And the better news is, the industry in a swath of ways, is fi nally moving its lethargic backside.

In October’s Payload Asia Conference (of which coverage continues in this issue), some very clear themes emerged: Collaboration, partnership and a move away from a vertically structured procurement type relationship are key to taking this industry to the level it should be at. Th e road is still long and bumpy, but at least the recognition and action are palpable.

Many conversations have been had around the issue of e-commerce and exactly what it means for the air cargo supply chain. My personal take on it, is that there is some potential for carriers – either in working with trucking companies and/or freight forwarders for the first and final mile portion to off er a complete package, or simply as a capacity provider as part of a greater service providing a less expensive alternative to the integrators.

I truly believe the biggest potential is in the freight forwarding realm where its seems to me the traditional business model is undeniably facing a potential twilight. Th e question was asked at one of the conference sessions as to what impact forwarders anticipate from shippers having more access to more shared information from other parts of the air cargo supply chain, as is surely going to happen.

It was a clever question that dove straight to heart of the forwarding business. Disappointingly, no direct answer was in the offing by any of the forwarders present. Perhaps it cut too close to the bone? Not to sound hackneyed, but in the darkest hour also lies the greatest potential. That hour hasn’t come yet, but the upside potential has already shown itself – not just for the forwarding sector, but each and every link in the supply chain.

Here’s to 2016 and let’s hope – no, lets push hard – for collaboration, partnership and good old ‘thinking out of the box’, to drive the transformative innovation that this industry so critically needs.

From all of us here at Payload Asia we wish you a fulfilling, successful and prosperous 2016!