News / 'Greener' flying moves up the agenda of forwarders sourcing air cargo services

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Large forwarders choosing where to award their airfreight contracts will not consider “dirty” airlines, as sustainability deadlines loom, head of airfreight for DSV Stefan Krikken told delegates at TIACA’s Air Cargo Forum in Miami this week.  

“We have targets that are science-based that we want to meet. We want to be CO2-neutral by 2050 – which we will be, but you have to start now.

“If we wait too long, if we’re not going to make the investments, then we won’t reach that target,” added Mr Krikken. 

He said DSV was investing “a substantial amount of money” in EV trucking and solar panels, but added that action from its subcontractors was also a necessity when choosing where to source its airfreight capacity – which it does twice a year. 

“Buying EV trucks is one thing, but we’re also very heavily involved in motivating our providers to do the same,” he explained. 

“We’re working with our suppliers and subcontractors to adhere to the targets we have. When we procure business from our carrier partners, like Delta and Qatar, we actually evaluate how are those airlines doing sustainability-wise,” said Mr Krikken.  

“Of course, we look at pricing, that’s always important, but sustainability is becoming more and more relevant when it comes to awarding.”

Mr Krikken explained that these requirements from airlines included a ‘roadmap’ that matched DSV’s – whether it sells SAF, the age of its fleet and the sharing and transparency of its CO2 data.  

“If you really want to change sustainability, and drive that, you must invest and you also must motivate your providers to do the same,” he reiterated.  

“So, we will only award airlines that have a similar roadmap to us when it comes to sustainability, and steer away from the airlines that are dirty and not investing in sustainability,” he told delegates.  

However, Challenge Group chief commercial officer Or Zak told The Loadstar customers were currently not willing to pay a premium for sustainable aviation, adding that “the regulator” should be leading the funding for SAF. 

“The regulator is the one who’s putting the demand in place, and the need to achieve a certain level by 2050 in Europe, which looks nice on paper,” he said.

“It’s amazing that they’ve really started, but at the end of the day you look at the airfreight market, it would go south. It’s not that easy.” 

Gianluca Marcangelo, Challenge’s head of industry relations, added: “Baby steps, concrete objectives that then are delivered. This is the way I recommend.”

Meanwhile, executive director of the Air Forwarders’ Association Brandon Fried told The Loadstar a new Republican administration in the US could see such regulations softened.

“We can say a lot of the aviation-related policies are probably going to be relaxed. Maybe some of the sustainability and environmental policies that you’ve seen from Biden, as well,” he added.