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The airfreight industry, in the words of several players, was “shocked” by “implosions” at US carriers yesterday, when industry veterans Tony Charaf of Delta and Robbie Anderson of United Cargo left their posts.

While observers suggested the loss of Mr Anderson was “ridiculous” and down to the mess the airline was already in, compounded by the challenges caused by an IT system change, the Delta story has triggered even greater comment.

This follows a decision by the carrier that, with the departure ...

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  • P Balasubramanian

    June 12, 2014 at 6:19 pm

    At a time when air cargo needs more decisive action to simplify, improve and bring in more confidence to users, such moves are no good advertisement at all. In fact, sadly this is a retrograde step. Air carriers’ loss is integrators’ gain!

  • Ed Kerwin

    June 14, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    This was a fundamental debate for the air carriers more than 30 years ago. The air cargo business is fundamentally different from the passenger business staring with the fact that passengers fly round trip and cargo is one way. The evolution of air cargo and it’s revenue growth ultimately led to most carriers establishing a cargo division that was separate and somewhat autonomous. Air transport is unique in that cargo and passenger business is heavily commingled. You don’t see that in truck, ocean or rail modes. The integrators are often held up as the leaders. Maybe it is because they also only focus on freight, but they do not rely only on air carriage, they also use trucks significantly and even use ocean through their forwarding divisions. This could be the beginning of the demotion of cargo to the status of a byproduct in the same class as baggage, exploited only for its potential incremental revenue.