DAY 1
I flew out to Shanghai the day before the opening of the Air Cargo China show. I was met at the Pudong International Airport for an afternoon get-together with the Shanghai Airport Authority, accompanied by current Regional Head of Cargo Jenny He, our incoming Head of Cargo Customer Experience and Service Development Stellar Wang and Cargo Services Manager Ricky Jiang.
We had a good, productive meeting. There’s positive support for the rebuilding of our flights, and the Authority wants to work with us to develop IATA ONE Record technologies and processes. There’s also potential for more partnership on e-commerce shipments, with particular reference to the forthcoming peak season. While some of the traditional manufacturing markets for air cargo in the Chinese Mainland are a bit softer, e-commerce demand remains very strong, so we discussed ways of maximising our capacity to carry more e-commerce from Shanghai via Hong Kong. This was to become something of a theme at the show the next day, and that reflects current market conditions.