Tariffs, trade wars and the volatility they bring to the air cargo industry dominated conversations and plenary sessions at this year’s CNS Partnership Conference in Miami. The event opened against the backdrop of ever-changing tariffs between the US, Chinese Mainland and beyond. As James Evans, General Manager Cargo Commercial, says: “When I landed in New York we were in a completely different world in terms of trade and tariffs.”

1) A quiet confidence, despite the uncertainties

Many of the speakers, including US Airforwarders Association (AfA) Executive Director Brandon Fried, said uncertainty around tariffs and trade volatility had caused instability. “The expertise of our forwarders is being put to the test, as we are having to find solutions that can be obsolete in a matter of days or weeks,” he said. 

IATA Director of Sustainability and Economics Andrew Matters said that the association’s forecast for yields and volumes were going to be revised down for 2025, but added that positive fundamentals of air cargo were still in place. “We started this year in good shape with a positive outlook, and a lot of those factors remain,” he said. 

Cathay Cargo’s Evans said this reflected the mood at the event, with delegates noting that the industry had previously pulled through worse scenarios. “A lot of conversations included opportunities for business, and the general mood was one of quiet confidence,” he says. “Obviously, the current uncertainties are serious and unsettling but there was a resolve and pragmatism as to how the industry is adapting.”

2) CNS is great speed-dating for the air cargo industry

The purpose of CNS is to get stakeholders from across the industry together, and Miami is also a gateway to Latin and South America, which is predicted to be a growth area for air cargo. For the Cathay Cargo team from Hong Kong, that provided the opportunity to meet with forwarders from offline ports and the interline airline partners that serve them. 

Evans says that outside of the plenary sessions, CNS is effectively a two-day speed-dating event. “We had a series of back-to-back meetings with customers, partners and GSAs,” he says. “These were good opportunities to recognise our customers for their support, discuss current topical issues, understand developments with their business and see what opportunities there may be to grow our partnerships.”

3) It was the perfect chance to catch up with our partners in the Americas

With Cathay Cargo’s significant footprint across the Americas, CNS also provided the Cargo Service Delivery (CSD) team the opportunity to check in with the ground handling agents that represent the brand there. “We met seven GHA partners that service our operations in the US, Canada and Mexico,” says Paul Chung, Cargo Service Level, Value and Contract Manager. These included Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) with whom Cathay Cargo recently signed a new long-term handling contract.

Other meetings included interline partner LATAM Cargo, which also operates the cargo terminal Cathay Cargo uses at Miami, and Northlink Aviation, which is building a new warehouse and exclusive-use aircraft stands at Anchorage to service Cathay Cargo’s transpacific freighters. 

Topics under discussion with partners include digitalisation initiatives, operational efficiency, safety promotion and enhancement, business update, and deeper partnership opportunities. “There were fruitful, insightful and constructive dialogues throughout the meetings,” says Chung. “Cathay Cargo will continuously collaborate and steer our GHA partners towards operational excellence through greater system and safety standards.” 

4) Women in cargo are set to thrive – and the future is positive and inclusive

For the second year in succession, Cathay Cargo hosted a Women in Air Cargo panel session at CNS, moderated this year by Andress Lam, Head of Cargo Digital. The panel featured from the Cathay side Cargo Global Partnerships Manager Janice Kwan, Cargo Global Partnerships Manager Americas Jessie Orme and Camilo Gallo, Area Cargo Manager – Miami, Latin America, Mexico, along with special guest Samira Benomar, Procurement Manager Americas at Kintetsu World Express.

The session generated an honest discussion on stage and with the audience, around attracting a new and more diverse younger generation to the industry. While some of the talk was around myths about women in the industry and perceived barriers to career advancement, there were also solutions: with Benomar stating that simple things like ensuring executive development programmes were offered equally to men and women would help. There was also an agreement that while air cargo remained male-dominated, the increasing use of data and digitalisation rendered any rationale for gender barriers obsolete. 

Kwan added that instead of focusing on equality, it was more important for employers to think about equity: offering resources that are tailored to individual needs to meet shared outcomes, and “providing the right tools to meet people where they are.” 

For the industry to succeed, and to attract the right people for its future, Lam concluded that air cargo needed to “embrace a mindset and culture of diversity and inclusion, and provide the psychological safety so people feel empowered to thrive.”