IATA 2018 World Cargo Symposium - Dallas, Texas

This year’s event was held against the backdrop of a generally optimistic outlook for the air cargo industry. On the one hand, it is very encouraging to talk about the exciting growth prospects for air cargo driven by improving global economies and the exceptional growth of e-commerce. On the other hand, the usual issues of airport congestion, labour shortages and labour turnover, conflicting demands for investment funds, etc., are still present. If the growth of the air cargo industry is to become a reality, a great deal of effort will need to go into dealing with these issues, and related ULD issues. As always, there were talks and presentations on a wide range of interesting subjects, but as the conference has a “track” configuration, it is impossible to attend everything.

As in previous years, ULD had its own half-day track, which covered both safety and fire risk. Three experts from the FAA Cargo Focus Team shared lots of new material with us about the workings of their Flight Standards Information Management System (FSIMS). As part of the operations “track”, Joseph Jensen of Delta also shared some of their vision for utilising new technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy ULD tagging and Blockchain! All very interesting and valuable information.

Audun Rør, Hector Plaza, Roger Gilbert and Bob Rogers represented Nordisk at the event.