News / Airports must take the lead for cargo community systems to work

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Airports need to “bite the bullet” and take the lead in standardising cargo community systems to keep up with a fast-evolving market, according to senior VP & global head of cargo community & enterprise systems at Kale Logistics, Suneet Gupta.

On the sidelines of Aviation Connect in Istanbul last week, Mr Gupta told The Loadstar ground handling operations “still have lots of room for improvement” and: “There are challenges. One of the challenges is ecommerce.” 

He explained: “Ecommerce shipments pose a unique challenge to ground handlers because, unlike normal air cargo shipments, ecommerce shipments are quite different. They are smaller in size and there are more packages. The value of the shipment is less per package, and there’s a customer requirement which needs to be satisfied.” 

However, as “B2C shipments need a different kind of process, skill set, competency and system”, Mr Gupta noted that the ground handling industry was undergoing major improvements in efficiency, including the adoption of ‘cargo community systems’ (CCSs), to facilitate communication across all parties involved in cargo handling at an airport. 

“They remove all kinds of processes and bottlenecks,” said Mr Gupta. 

He explained: “A CCS eliminates paper, it reduces congestion on the land side, which reduces fossil fuel-burning. It improves efficiency for the value chain, because when the freight forwarder books the cargo and it’s on the platform, the entire value chain knows what kind of cargo is coming in.  

“They get advance information of the cargo, and can be prepared with the right equipment and right personnel to handle it.” 

However, the “tough part” about community systems is that they are sold to a “community” – forwarder, shipper, airline, airport, ground handler and so on, and need to be used by all parties to be efficient and effective.  

And while they must be used by all parties, CCSs generally need to be championed by one stakeholder, which can leave room for ambiguity and inaction, he warned.  

“Generally, there is one person within the community who becomes a champion. We think that, from experience, ideally the airport should be the one leading it,” said Mr Gupta. 

But he added that “it’s not the case everywhere”, and it “depends on how the environment is set up”. 

He explained: “For example, in Dubai, we’re doing it with Dnata, which happens to be a ground handler, so maybe there’s a ground handler which is dominant in the airport, and they could be the champion. There could be an association that’s dominant; for example, in Thailand, we’re doing it with the Thai Freight Forwarders Association. 

“It could be anyone, that’s where the complexity comes in. But everybody else counts. These are all interest groups. You cannot have allow one interest group to become alienated. You need to make sure everybody’s involved, because there are benefits for everyone.” 

But the air cargo industry is notoriously stubborn, set in its ways and hard to standardise – despite how fast paced the market around it is moving, he said.  

“That’s the challenge, and that’s the reason why airport cargo community systems are, as they say, a journey. You cannot implement this in one shot. It’s tough. Unless the airport takes the lead.” 

Mr Gupta noted Bangalore Airport, in Karnataka, India, was an example of an airport doing this effectively.  

“Bangalore realised that, while it needed to be a custodian of the physical infrastructure, it should also have control of the digital infrastructure. So, they mandated the ground handling system. And that’s one of the few airports where all the ground handlers are working on one system,” he added. 

“Unlike other airports where every ground handler comes with their own system. That becomes a challenge, and nobody wants to bite the bullet unless the airport takes the first shot at this.  

“If they do it, it should be great for the industry,” Mr Gupta concluded.