Air Cargo Europe - Business as Usual?

“Logistics makes it happen” - this was the central theme at this year’s bi-annual Transport Logistic exhibition from 4 - 7 June which is traditionally held at the Munich Trade Fair grounds.
Ten of the twelve vast exhibition halls were dedicated to the logistics branch, one more than two years ago, and the 2.379 exhibitors from all over the world again proved how important logistics are in our everyday lives. This year’s event attracted ten percent more exhibitors than 2017, 56% of which were international. A total of 64,000 visitors from 125 countries were recorded, 5% more than at the 2017 show.

Air cargo continues its leading role
The air cargo industry, where the traditional Air Cargo Europe (ACE) event takes place, had their usual location in Hall B1, and due to demand for booth space there was an overflow of some into the adjacent Hall B2. We counted a total of around 130 air cargo related exhibitors, many who are always present, but also quite a few new faces. There were numerous discussions and deals made between exhibitors and the many trade related visitors who attended the four-day event.
Of course, such events are important for so called ‘networking’ purposes among the various companies, but more importantly the air cargo scene’s emphasis was on subjects such as e-commerce, digitalisation within the industry, safety standards, supply chain optimization and other important aspects.
When looking back on those four days, one can safely say that the air cargo community presented themselves in a professional manner, came up with new ideas on how to improve service aspects and again proved that despite differences, they are still a tight-knit community.

Minister pleads for innovation
The keynote speaker at the Transport Logistic fair this year was Germany’s rather new Minister of Transport, Andreas Scheuer. Germany is going through a phase of unrest with regards to their own transport system, which despite past words of wisdom from Scheuer’s predecessors, who also came from his own Bavarian CSU party, have failed to take the lead in bringing the country’s rail, road and air system into what it should be. On the contrary, Germany’s motorways are in many places in bad shape, the rail passenger system is under fire for being too unreliable and despite the necessity, placing domestic cargo movements away from the jammed roads onto goods trains, has and never will happen - many say.
Therefore, ears were wide open as to what Andreas Scheuer’s message to the logistic community would be.
His opening remark was that “nothing can move in this country without logistics.” 
The German logistics branch he said, should be leaders in “designing their own future and not be led by others.” Was he then also inadvertently referring to politicians past and present incompetence in such matters?
Germany, he quite rightly stated, is an innovation mover as far as ‘Made in Germany’ is concerned, but must also realise that other countries are fast catching up in this area.
There is a ’plan’ on the table named Logistik 2030 which is aimed at investing a total of 17 billion euros into taking cargo traffic off the roads and onto rail wagons. How Scheuer and his team plan to do this during the next ten years is anybody’s guess, considering that past governments and transport ministers have been singing the same tune.
This is not the only long pending issue in the transport sector in Germany. Airports are fighting without any hope for getting night bans relaxed somewhat, with the result that air cargo is moving more-and-more to outside secondary airports in Europe.
Much to do Mr Scheuer - let’s see whether you will be able to give a better message at the 2021 Transport Logistic get together.

John Mc Donagh