Digital dialogue: Tech talk from WCS

Of all the benefits digitalization brings to the airfreight industry — optimized processes in booking capacity, greater efficiency in ground handling and increased data visibility — perhaps the most important is an improved customer experience. However, despite the acceleration brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has been slow to adopt digital processes, stakeholders said at the recent International Air Transport Association (IATA) World Cargo Symposium (WCS) 2022 in London. While digitalization often comes with misconceptions about which processes it can streamline, the goal is not to replace people, but rather to enhance interpersonal relationships by automating simpler tasks that do not involve person-to-person communication, Tristan Koch, chief commercial officer at Awery Aviation Software, said during a WCS panel discussion on digitalization. Booking capacity for freight forwarders and filling out traditional air waybills, are just a couple of the traditionally manual processes being replaced by automated e-booking platforms and e-air waybills , thereby optimizing ground handling and trucking operations. However, the industry has far to go before end-to-end digitalization becomes standard, Koch said. “I think where there’s a big leap still to be made is in terms of … pushing that through all of the parts of the supply chain, and then more importantly, empowering people or explaining to people from a change management perspective why it's important to share that information for the benefit of everybody,” he said. Digitalization front and center Much of the world's airfreight capacity is not yet sold online, although it is currently available online, e-booking platform provider cargo.one co-chief executive Moritz Claussen told Air Cargo World . In fact, 40% of global airfreight capacity is currently available online, according to an April report by Freightos. In addition to providing that capability, cargo.one sees itself as an educator for the industry on the benefits of going digital. Cargo.one, which counts Lufthansa Cargo and JAL Cargo as current partners, recently announced that Air France KLM Martinair Cargo and Qatar Airways are its most recent partners to add capacity to its platform. The logistics behind larger, more complex shipments require person-to-person collaboration. Digitalization now enables carriers to do “actual work with customers, not typing in air waybill data-like dimensions to get to a booking, but actually having conversations with customers about the bigger topics,” Claussen said. Awery’s latest digitalization move is a partnership with software developer DGOffice for digital dangerous goods (DG) documentation compliance ; it will digitize paper-based information to prepare shipments in accordance with DG guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and IATA. In the case of DG, digitalization can improve safety by ensuring data is correctly transferred from ground handler to freight forwarder without multiple copies of paperwork, saving time in the process. Otherwise, high-demand DG like lithium batteries are more likely to be mishandled , which can lead to high-temperature battery fires. The benefits of digitalization come in three forms: improving efficiency, having better control of processes and most importantly, having a better customer experience, Awery Chief Executive Vitaly Smilianets told Air Cargo World . A vicious cycle While most stakeholders at WCS discussed the benefits of digitalization, others offered more critical opinions about its present state, insisting the pace of digital adoption is not fast enough. “So far, I’ve spent 25-plus years in this industry, and we’re still dealing with some things that we talked about 25 years ago,” Michael Steen, Atlas Air’s chief commercial officer, said during the WCS closing remarks. “That is not a good testament to the pace of change in our industry.” It is critical for stakeholders to drive change and breaking the “cycle” of inaction, Steen added. One obstacle to digital adoption comes from carriers prioritizing investments for passenger travel before considering cargo operations, Lothar Moehle, executive director at Cargo iQ, told Air Cargo World . The standstill of passenger travel during the COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to carriers’ digitalization investments in cargo as the global need for e-commerce shipments and vital medical and PPE supplies surged. Suddenly, the world realized the importance of the supply chain, Moehle noted. “I hope that realization prevents for the future that cargo is not constantly being treated as an unloved child in the airline,” he said. Some legacy airlines have yet to truly digitalize their processes aside from superficial updates, Awery’s Koch told Air Cargo World . Airlines have a “nice veneer of digitalization,” he said, but they are backed by legacy systems. “Now, you drill down two levels, there's still green screen activity taking place in there. … How do you replace 14 years of systems?” The digital tipping point Despite the pandemic-related digital acceleration, stakeholders still don’t see a tipping point of widespread digital adoption. While replacing manual processes is critical, it’s only the first step toward digitalizing more complex processes, Koch said during the WCS panel discussion on digitalization. “I think the industry needs to take a different approach,” he said. “When we reach that tipping point is where we see true efficiencies delivered by the new technologies that we have, rather than simply replacing manual processes that we're pushing through today.” Although stakeholders may be hesitant to invest in digital processes, the industry is nonetheless marching toward what IATA Global Head of Cargo Brendan Sullivan called an “inevitable path towards a much more digital future” during his closing remarks at WCS . Now is the time for investment, Koch said, especially as the pandemic has brought both unprecedented profits and digital adoption to the industry. “It's a once-in-a-generation shift, right?” he said “Then the ROI is uncertain, because you don't know what tomorrow will bring. … What's your budget for next year when things might not be so good? Can you afford to not have made that change?”

Digital dialogue: Tech talk from WCS

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