Thinking
CNS PHX
Three Weeks Later
Did
you know?
Southwest of Tucson there is a deactivated
Minuteman silo, which is worth visiting—unless you have claustrophobia.
At certain times the lid has to be opened so that the Russians can verify
the U.S. is not cheating on the SALT treaty. There is also the Pinal
Air Park at Marana (3/4 of the way between Phoenix and Tucson), which
stores decommissioned jets; unfortunately, it is not open to the public.
It is rumored that it was used as a “secret” airbase.
CNS
2011 saw some 460 conference delegates at its 21st annual event in Chandler,
Arizona. Is there a single, effective way to come up with a scorecard?
CNS promoted it as a premiere networking event and as billed, it was
an unequivocal success.
What
were the planned topics of the program? E-freight, Cargo2000 and security;
the speakers, panels and moderators certainly addressed these in one
form or another. E-freight is lagging behind despite a collective push;
beyond acknowledging and bemoaning this sad state of affairs and flagging
it as a perennial project, there were no signs of progress.
Cargo2000
is starting to even sound a little outdated in 2011, and while it provides
an array of roadmaps, methodology, measurements and CDMP, it has not
generated a significant change in the industry much beyond the major
players.
Security
is probably the one area where everyone feels they have skin in the
game, but it’s mostly reactionary since developments are government-driven
for the most part. Change is the norm and global harmonization of national
security programs a hopeful but distant dream.
So
it’s business as usual to a large extent, watching carefully the
price of fuel and seeing that 2011 holds up not too far below 2010 business
levels. Do we need a conference for that?
There
was an exhibition and one of the stands worth mentioning in my view
was Franwell with an allegedly affordable RFID solution based on open
standards. Air Canada is a customer and last year it became the first
airline to track cargo and mail shipments associated to a ULD at piece
level, having tested shipments on the YUL-LHR route; pilot work continues.
One
of the tracks, New Technologies & Standards Impacting the Air Cargo
Industry, was well attended, focusing on messaging and RFID. The other,
Future Developments for Customs & Security, touched on all the high
points but seemed to ignore a roomful of people in attendance, with
the panelists endlessly chatting amongst themselves about the state
of affairs in the Washington bubble, but sounding pessimistic about
real progress in the short term.
While there is general agreement about security regimes, the extent
to which TSA, CBP, the State Department and other government branches
can be the sole global role model, and only acceptable model, is rife
with speculation. The lack of firm timelines and detailed procedures
is just another indicator of the state of flux when it comes to air
cargo inbound to the U.S.
What seems clear is that the express carriers have cut their own deal
and to judge by the volumes and last year’s Yemen incident, that
matters; the airline/forwarder combination, not so much.
In our coverage during CNS we addressed the “disappearance”
of CNS in IATA. Des Vertannes was present and Aleks Popovich was also
there showing the flag but playing no official roles. The conference
topics are indistinguishable from standard IATA fare and the management
of the event is outsourced to WorldTek, as are all IATA events worldwide.
What can IATA do better to really help air cargo? The informal consensus
from the secretariat seems to be to just wait for the new IATA DG to
be in office in June and then everything will be good.
That may be too much wishful thinking and a denial of the reality of
IATA as an organization and how it evolved over the last twenty years.
Airlines
and forwarders carry on because they have a business to run, day in
and day out. Industry framework aside, the degree to which it matters
to them barely registers. IATA top management makes an art out of keeping
its airline members in the dark to the extent possible. Airline top
management is complicit because they do not institute the needed checks
and balances to ensure their trade association focuses and works on
what is critical to their business, and not IATA’s own objectives.
That is unlikely to change and it is unlikely we will have the autonomy
and visibility cargo needs to thrive and grow.
It’s all in your hands; as always, we’d like to hear from
our readers and your views on this question.
Ted Braun/Flossie |
100%
Green
John
Cheetham, Regional Commercial Manager for Asia-Pacific at BA World Cargo,
(right) said increasing consumer demand in China would “ultimately
lead to carriers’ capacity decisions being influenced by the import
market as well as the export market.” 
Jan
Krems is Vice President the Americas, Air France/KLM/Martinair Cargo.
As
Transport Logistik wrapped recently in Munich, Roy Kinnear, Etihad
Crystal Cargo Senior Vice President in Abu Dhabi, noted that 2011
is looking good so far, with the rest of a very interesting year still
to come.
