History of Air Cargo
Air cargo is a transportation mode which is used to transfer cargo from one place to another by air. Aircraft carries the goods and transports it to the designated location. In the global economy, air cargo plays a very important role by shipping important products and supplies in no time. Air transportation service is found to be the most valuable service when moving different expensive items by the same route as the passenger and commercial airlines (Morrell and Klein 2018). Air cargo service can be of two types which includes general cargo; shipping highly valuable cargo such as jewelry electronics as well as other fragile items and special cargo which is used during special conditions such as air conditions, temperature control as well as management and transportation of the hazardous products and livestock. The process of cargo handling is one of the segments of the supply chain which processes the cargo within the facility. Before loading the cargo, there are various processes including in the overall system to ensure all shipments are delivered safely and with proper care (Brandt and Nickel 2019). The following section of the report aims to the analyze the air freight sector, its key development areas over the period of past 10 years. Further, the report will also evaluate the operational procedures included within the system as well as will analyze the sustainability associated with the air cargo process. The security regulations as well as specialized cargo handling process will be also evaluated afterwards.
The first every cargo flight was made during the year 1910 in USA which carried shipments of 200 pounds of silk over the route of 65 miles. However, the official air cargo service was made in the year 1911 and afterwards, there has been a revolution of the global air cargo system. The first air cargo flight flown for 57 minutes at a record speed of that time. During the earlier years of aviation, the air cargo service was not very powerful to carry much cargo through air and air mail was the primary cargo that was carried in the initial years of aviation service (Bombelli, Santos and Tavasszy 2020). During the world war I, airplanes was used as a new machine. In the year 1940, United Airlines started its operations and utilized Douglas DC-4 aircraft to delivery mails through air in New York- Chicago route. In the initial years of operation, air cargo was only a minor part of the operations however post the development phase, Air Cargo was a great matter of attention. After the World War II, the aviation industry along with the air cargo operation has seen significant development of the operations (Malighetti etal 2019). However, it is essential to denote that it was very difficult for the airline carriers to start aircraft operations in the earlier years of operation due to the difficulty of oppositions of the passenger flights.
From the establishment till today, there has been various developments which affected the phase of transformation. the air cargo service has been significantly improved over the years which has enhanced the air cargo industry (Lange 2019). From the year 2011 till 2013, the global air cargo service has been found to get stagnated and the period has saw decline due to the enormous impact of the global economic shock caused in 2008 and 2009. However, post 2009, the service was slowly improving and has started to expand at 0.9% in the year 2012. Continued growth has been perceived during the year 2014 (Feng, Li and Shen 2015).
Types of Cargo Service
Figure 1: Air Cargo Traffic
Source: (Feng, Li and Shen 2015)
The above figure shows that the world air cargo traffic growth has slowed significantly over the years and during the past decade the service were significantly affected. The market share of Asia and Middle East sector has been found to grow significantly over the period of past years. Further, it has been found that in the past 10 years, the regional market share of air cargo sector has been changed and revolutionized massively (Merkert and Alexander 2018). Further, it has been also found that the global air cargo service includes three service sectors; charter freight, mail and scheduled freight service within which the scheduled freight service has been accounted to be the most effective proponent which accounted for the 88% of the air cargo traffic.
Figure 2: Fright service traffic
Source: (statista.com 2022)
Due to the development of technological service and transportation, there has been significant improvement of the air cargo service which has been found to improve cost control as well as improvement in fare rates. However, as the above figure suggests, the global air freight traffic was affected during the covid 19 (Nhamo etal 2020). There has been significant improvement in the avionics as well as telecommunication service which has been improve the engineering and environment of the air cargo service significantly. further, the improved safety features with the help of safety standards and proper air routing system have allowed the cargo service to development shipments safely and securely.
Process of air cargo
The air cargo process includes different types of shipment of packages that is shipped and transported over a commercial and charter. Transportation with the help of air carriers is very efficient and effective however the process of air cargo includes different steps which are shown below:
The process of shipping cargo incudes the assembling of the shipment in which the goods are collected for the consignee and packaged. Further, the labels within the package are made and the forwarding agent prepares for security document (Ayasanond 2019). Afterwards, the administration checks are performed in which products and documents are sorted. Afterwards, the outgoing administration checks are performed to evaluate the Unit Load Devices. (Rahman etal 2018). The ramp transport is thereby prepared and after the final security check the cargo is loaded into the aircraft. After the cargo is received, the ULD (Unit Load Device) is broken down as per instructions and income shipments are checked against the documents. Further the warehouse storage is prepared and the cargo is loaded in the truck to dispatch it in the concerned locations.
In recent times, there are various concerns in relation to the environment and climate change. Since air cargo process has significant factors associated with it which causes global warming, CO2 emissions, maintaining sustainable practice is essential in order to negate the impact of the air cargo process (Drlja?a etal 2020). Factors such as noise, emission can have negative impact on the environment however some operative measures can reduce the negative affect of noise. The functionality as well as quality of the overall air cargo process can manifest the sustainability process and thereby endangering the whole process of sustainability (Bartle etal 2021). Changes in the environment can result in adverse or beneficial impact towards the industry. Adhering to the sustainable policies of the government is very crucial for a firm to maintain transparency and improve the existing procedure within the air cargo industry (Kenge-Mbale 2019). The air cargo industry is primarily responsible to reduce as well as minimize the negative consequences of the environmental footprints as well as waste reduction programs.
Operations of Air Cargo
Some key objectives that need to be addressed by the air cargo industry which are detailed below:
- Decarbonize
- Reduce waste within the cargo system
- Protect the biodiversity within the industry
- Provide support local communities as well as economies
- Improve the local well being as well as standard of living for communities
- Improve relations between key stakeholders and partners
Sustainable transformation requires efforts to collect collective actions from different industries across individuals and to improve commitments across stakeholders. To drive further actions and to improve long term commitments across the industry, it is very much essential to focus on the short-term process improvement which can drive further sustainable growth within the industry. The positive aspect in the sustainability is the effect of covid 19 for which the air cargo service has reduced operations across the globe which negate the environmental effects (Ordieres-Meré, Prieto Remon and Rubio 2020). Investments as well as long term strategy creation is a key to achieve sustainable strategies which will guarantee future of the air cargo system. It is to be ensured that IATA is working on different types of cargo initiates to tackle sustainable initiatives and thereby the positive effects will be maintained.
Within the air cargo supply chain, security seems to be one of the most essential elements and it has been perceived that the industry and regulators are working collaboratively to secure the supply chain. Insider threat is one of the key threats affecting the ability of the operations of the cargo service (Gumzej, Komkhao and Sodsee 2020). Insider within the air cargo system can leak the information’s within the cargo system which can massively affect the security and supply chain system significantly. It is a severe concern that the overseas terrorist network can infiltrate the airports and cargo operations which is further make the system vulnerable. TSA regulations issues in the year 2006 which has mandated the access to restrict cargo operations (Elias 2018). The regulations imposed has been found to detect individuals to introduce weapons and can allow the air cargo system improvement significantly.
Despite positive views related to the idea and significant industry engagement, delayed progress towards the aim of developing standard industry-wide rules for advanced cargo screening has generated issues about the adequacy of resources (Mayer etal 2022). The Aviation Security Advisory Committee voiced concern in 2016 that, despite the fact that the pilot programme had been running for five years, it had not been adequately tested and that TSA had not allocated sufficient people and resources to the initiative. Guidelines regulating risk-based screening as well as inspection of all high-risk cargo behind the ACAS programme would be required for the air cargo procedure (Zorro, Macário and Silva 2018). Despite the fact that it has the authority to force inbound air cargo shipments, including processes at ultimate point of departure airlines, to meet all legal criteria, the TSA lacks the capacity to oversee and audit foreign airports and an off-air cargo activity. One technique for dealing with security issues in such domains is to adopt and enforce international standards requiring adherence to best practices. The National Cargo Security Program of the Transportation Security Administration evaluates whether a country’s aviation cargo security measures fulfil TSA regulatory requirements and standards. International measures to increase air cargo security have focused on supplying more robust and fast information on shipments to enable security services to evaluate the risk (Lee etal 2018). The introduction and standardization of highly secure standards may increase the value of programmes like the ACAS initiative.
Trends and Challenges in Air Cargo Industry
The term special cargo is attributed to the goods and products which are very vulnerable and thereby requires additional amount of supervision when required. This can be due to the value, rarity as well as attractiveness of the product (Melnyk and Malaksiano 2020). The specialized cargo is noted as the bullion and are transported with a specialized cargo storage cabinet. However, it is noteworthy to mention that the choice the product and transport depends on the urgency of the material. Different types of urgent materials such as radiopharmaceuticals as well as treatment of high value goods falls under this category (Rusinov, Gavrilova and Bersenev 2018). Labelling of the special cargo is also complex and requires significant amount of effort to transport therefore items such as dangerous products, perishable cargo, as well as time and temperature sensitive products are considered within the specialized cargo (Pérez, González and Trujillo 2020). IATA has mentioned different set of standards and guidelines to ensure that goods are transferred in a safe and sound way.
The specialized cargo handling process includes the shipment of dangerous goods. There has been a set of standards included in IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR). The regulation ensures that the shipment of dangerous goods is properly made and as per the guidelines of the government. Further, it should be also noted that while dangerous products are too much dangerous for transport process by air and the same are only transported using the cargo only aircraft (Hidalgo-Gallego etal 2020). Despite of the set of requirements and policies, it is also crucial to mention that the shipment of the dangerous goods should never be acceptable for shipments which might explode and or dangerously react during the shipment process. There is various material that can still be carried by the air cargo which is classified below
Class 1-Explosives
Class 2-Gasses
Class 3-Flammable Liquids
Class 4-Flammable Solids; Substance Liable to Spontaneous Combustion; Substances which, in Contact with Water, Emit Flammable Gases
Class 5-Oxidizing Substances and Organic Peroxides
Class 6-Toxic and Infectious Substances
Class 7-Radioactive Material
Class 8-Corrosives
Class 9-Miscellaneous Dangerous Substances and Articles, Including Environmentally Hazardous Substances
Dangerous goods always contain number and publications as well as are found to be assigned to the UN numbers. Without the identification, the special cargo cannot ship the danger goods (Rusinov, Besedina and Shcherbinin 2021). Some products need to be kept in certain temperature during the transportation process and these types of products are controlled as per the guidelines published by IATA Temperature Control Regulations Manual (TCR). It is crucial to mention that the documentation process is extremely crucial before the shipment is made to ensure that proper guidelines are followed and adhered to. Some shipment related to the temperature-controlled goods will require verification and without the documentation, the goods are never accepted for shipment. Special cargo service also includes the shipment of different live domestic animals, marine mammals, zoo animals as well as race horses. The safety and security of the cargo services are often very secure and are checked thoroughly before processing them into the aircraft.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be noted that there are various factors affecting the operations of the air cargo industry. Air freight service was not powerful enough to transport much goods through the air in the early years of aviation, therefore air mail was the major cargo carried. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, in the early years of operation, it was extremely difficult for airline carriers to begin aircraft operations owing to the difficulties of passenger flight resistance. There have been several developments since the company’s inception that have influenced the transition phase. Over the years, the air freight service has substantially improved, enhancing the air cargo business. The worldwide air cargo service was determined to be stagnant from 2011 to 2013, and the period experienced a reduction owing to the significant impact of the global economic shock that occurred in 2008 and 2009. The assembly of the shipment, in which the items are collected for the destination and packaged, is part of the cargo shipping process. Furthermore, the package labels are created, and the forwarding agent creates the security document. It is also evident that various environmental and climate change issues have surfaced in recent years. Because the air cargo process contains substantial variables that contribute to global warming and CO2 emissions, it is critical to maintain sustainable practices in order to mitigate the impact of the air freight process. Sustainable transformation necessitates initiatives to bring together collective activities from many industries and enhance commitments among stakeholders. Security appears to be one of the most important aspects of the air cargo supply chain, and it is believed that the industry and authorities are working together to safeguard the supply chain. It is critical to note that the documentation procedure is vitally important prior to the shipping in order to guarantee that correct criteria for the shipment of specialized cargo are followed and adhered.
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