Air Cargo Belgium celebrates anniversary and awards

“ACB’s kindergarten days are over, and we will have to bring it to the next level. My hopes are in consolidating the efforts made by all of you and continuing our digital journey,” Mr Bellon said.

06OCT22 also brought the launch of the Digital Green Lane Dashboard. “It allows companies to measure their own performance within the Digital Green Lane, and compare it to the average performance in the market, without getting an insight in the performance of their competitors,” explains Mr Bellon.

BruCure
ACB’s Project Coordinator, Elise Van Bastelaere, gave an overview of Brussels Airport’s BruCure task force, set up to streamline the Covid 19 vaccines logistics. Driven by 6 partners (Brussels Airport, ACB, the Province of Flemish Brabant, forwarders, handlers, and airlines), the task force brings together 42 members that flew 1.4 billion vaccines to 120 different countries.

So far, 18 participating companies were given the BruCure label, which will also be used for the logistics of other products. BruCure has led to an expansion of the airport’s dedicated pharma logistics warehousing capacity by 40% to 35,000 m².

The highlight of the evening was, of course, the ACB Award ceremony, the third of its kind. Despite the fact that the Brussels Airport Awards (DHL's double win at BRU) also honor the performance of the cargo operators, Air Cargo Belgium’s ceremony has an approach of its own, says the organization’s Director, Geert Keirens. “The ACB Awards do not depart from ‘the best so and so’. We mainly honor companies providing added value to the community, endorsing the story of the ACB community in the best way.”

The winners
Six awards were given to companies, another four to so-called ‘ambassadors’. Competing with Lufthansa Cargo and Swiss World Cargo, Qatar Air Cargo was selected for the ACB Airline of the Year Award. The choice was motivated by the airline’s contribution in the steering groups e-commerce and pharma, as well as its openness to innovation and its outstanding performance in the Digital Green Lane.

Ziegler won the ACB Freight Forwarder of the Year Award, beating IFA Skyfast and Kuehne+Nagel. The company invested a lot in HR Training and was the first user of the Acceptance & Delivery app. Aviapartner won in the Ground Handling category beating Swissport Cargo Services and dnata, for its commitment to e-commerce, customs, and live animals.