A breakdown of this year’s IATA World Cargo Symposium

by Payload Asia

Last year’s symposium was held in Istanbul (Photo credit: IATA)

This year, IATA’s World Cargo Symposium will be held at the Asia World Expo in Hong Kong on 12 to 14 March 2024, hosted by Cathay Cargo and Hong Kong International Airport, with the overall theme Driving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth. 

Supporting this theme, IATA will feature three specialised tracks focusing on digitalisation, sustainability as well as safety and security. 

Brendan Sullivan, IATA’s Global Head of Cargo, said ensuring the future reliability and growth of the air cargo sector will be top of mind for this year’s event, citing opportunities amidst supply chain disruptions seen in the maritime sector. 

“Air cargo is an unsung hero of the global economy. Today it is providing a vital transport alternative for some products as Red Sea shipping lanes face geopolitical uncertainty. Air cargo’s success matters,” noted Sullivan. 

Speakers 

Joining Sullivan for the keynote address are Ronald Lam, Cathay Group Chief Executive Officer, Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General, and Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s SVP Sustainability and Chief Economist. 

They will be followed by key air cargo experts, including: 

  • Tom Owen, Director of Cargo, Cathay Pacific 
  • Michael Steen, Chief Executive Officer, Atlas Air 
  • Vivien Lau, Chief Executive, Jardine Aviation Services Group 
  • Kirsten de Bruijn, Executive Vice President Cargo, WestJet 
  • Marco Bloeman, Managing Director, Accenture and Head of Accenture Cargo 
All eyes on air cargo at this year’s IATA World Cargo Symposium in Hong Kong (Photo credit: IATA)

Sessions 

The Sustainability track will include sessions on tracking progress towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050, ESG reporting, optimizing operations for environmental performance, reducing single use plastics, and circular strategies for Unit Load Device (ULD) components.  

Digitalization will include sessions on data driven strategies to improve performance and reduce costs, achieving the efficiencies of OneRecord, and the potential for generative AI in air cargo.  

Safety & Security will include sessions on Annex 18 Regulatory oversight of freight forwarders/handling agents for dangerous goods shipments, fire containment strategies for lithium battery shipments, ULD airworthiness, latest developments for the safety of live animal shipments, implications of an integrated risk management framework. 

Workshops 

Inclusive strategies for managing the people needed to lead and drive the future of air cargo will be the focus of two key WCS workshops: 

  • Building the next generation of talent at the Future Air Cargo Executives Summit (FACES) 
  • The benefits of IATA’s Competency-Based Training and Assessment Center (CBTA Center) and how it helps to improve workplace safety and performance. 

Other workshops 

  • Improving performance on key market segments using the IATA Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) programs  
  • How IATA’s cargo solutions are assisting the industry in decision making and cargo compliance, towards improving safety and efficiency.  
  • How air cargo billing and settlement can be enhanced using the new CASSLink 
  • An e-commerce forum to identify how more visibility between e-tailers and cargo operators would improve efficiency. 

FACE-UP! Air Cargo Awards 2024 

To wrap up the event, IATA will also announce the winner of the 3rd edition of the FACE UP! Award at WCS. This competition is for recent university graduates whose thesis is on innovation and transformation in air transport logistics. 

Three finalists will be invited to present their projects during the conference. Delegates will then vote for their preferred innovation and the winners will be announced at the closing plenary of WCS.