Another year’s awards have successfully come to a heady conclusion and a huge thank you is due to a great many people and organisations for making the event an even bigger success than last year! For all those that were present on the Gala evening – who clearly seemed to be enjoying themselves, I might add! – the kind sponsors for the evening – AirAsia Cargo and Etihad Cargo – and of course all the great and deserving companies who entered the awards and who will hopefully return again next year.

Thanks must also go to our Guest of Honour, Yap Ong Heng from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore for gracing the occasion, as well as our award presenters from AirAsia, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Federation of Asia-Pacific Aircargo Associations (FAPAA). And one last, but not least, thank you to all those that took the time to vote and make this award truly something significant.

Next year we will return with a bang, putting together an informative and exciting conference programme as well as the Gala evening. We are heartened by the immense support from the industry and feel very honoured that we are able to give back something to this truly great industry, especially at a time like this when a little positive reaffirmation wouldn’t hurt!

We hope you enjoy this issue as it’s packed full of awards coverage, informative conference coverage looking at problems in the pharma supply chain, a profile on India’s Blue Dart Express, a look at Airbus’ first freighter-focused forecast and also coverage of the FIATA World Congress, not to mention all the usual quality information.

There is also a note of optimism contained within the pages, as the latest IATA figures have pointed to yet another month of marginal growth in global volumes – the bad news however, is that Asia is still languishing. This month’s cover story also provides an in-depth look into Air France-KLM Cargo Group’s decision to scale back their maindeck fleet as they increase their focus on passenger bellies. And speaking of bellies, fear not there is also that Belly Ache page! Do enjoy…