WCS 2025: Safety, Sustainability and Flexibility of Supply Series
On Tuesday, the Global goods symposium (WCS) is looking to highlight the vital role that the Middle East plays in global air freight connection, innovation and flexibility.
Submit the opening address in 18Y A copy of the event in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Brendan Sullivan, the international head of goods at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) began with the transfer of the public to the Red Sea crisis in late 2023, where the attacks on commercial ships crushed the critical shipping waterfall.
“Among the affected shipping was a shipment of vital medical supplies heading to clinics in Sudan and Yemen, which was pressure from conflict and deficiency,” said Sullivan. When the marine roads stopped, the air air charge filled the gap. “When the global supply chain stumbled, air cargo proved light movement, response, and delivery.”
This fitness is not only for crises. On any specific day, 180,000 tons of goods move by air, ensuring continuity in global trade and contributing to economic growth. He added that “the air freight will be present in the increasing commercial tensions,” there will be air cargo to provide and want the goods that people need and want. “
The basis of air cargo
Sullivan, the axis to safety, emerges in East Asia where the acute eye avoids a disaster.
Airwaybill listed “mobile phone accessories” – nothing outside the ordinary on a shipment but one package caught the attention of the inspector. It contained uninhabited lithium batteries. The successful intervention of the inspector stopped a serious threat to safety, and that was just hours away from loading on a plane.
“With the increase in lithium battery charges, the number of accidents or potential accidents will increase unless we are more vigilant,” Sullivan warned. He called for action against Rogue trucks and the most prominent efforts of IATA through CEV Lithium Batteries and their efficiency -based evaluation (CBTA), which trained more than 85,000 professionals last year.
Cooperation is the key
On the occasion of a decade since the start of CEV Pharma, Sullivan celebrated how to transfer unified certificates of goods. He pointed out that “more than 250,000 commercial corridors operate using CEIV criteria”, adding that 99 percent of the credit companies reported a culture of continuous improvement.
“This is the future of air cargo standards – manufacturing, transparent, and progressing constantly. We thank the industry for their confidence, as we continue to build a culture of modern safety.
Advanced threat
Amid intense geopolitical tensions and increasingly advanced threats, air freight security was not more important.
“Just as it requires vigilance, security is so,” as Sullivan announced. “Civil aviation should not be used as a genius in geopolitical conflicts. Acts such as forcing aircraft or hiding incendiary devices in goods – in a way -free in an exception.”
His comments come amid a series of disturbing accidents where the incendiary devices were hidden in shipping charges – some of them were ignited. These events prompted a wave of security responses imposed by the state. However, Sullivan criticized the lack of a unified approach, noting that “without coordination, the responses were inconsistent. Some were inaccurate. Others were reversed at a later time. He was far from the approach based on the risks based on the required global standards.”
To alleviate these risks and enhance consistency, IATA has advanced forward with a set of guidelines that depend on the industry specifically designed to help airlines and supply chain partners to manage threats related to incendiary devices. It was created with an insightful look from all over the global aviation community and already helps fill the gaps left by unintensive government measures.
The speed of change
And clarifying the digital transformation through a pharmaceutical shipment of time that was disrupted due to the closure of the airport in Europe, Sullivan admitted the “force of digitization”.
“Thanks to the advanced digital systems, the shipment has been directed immediately.” More importantly – the patient received his treatment on time. “
“But digitization is not only quickly. It also relates to helping to move in an increasingly increasingly organizational environment,” Sullivan explained, by shifting to the next implementation goal of one record by January 2026.
“One of the records will become the preferred method of data exchange,” continued Sullivan, “and we are on the road. Airlines that represent 72 % of the global aerial size on the right track to implement it. More than 100 IT service providers and 10,000 shipping shipments already already.”
It is committed to urgency
In conclusion, Sullivan spoke to the aspirations of sustainability in the industry, through the Hokkaido journey that was shipped to Dubai. “More than that, it represents the global supply chain linking producers … with international customers,” he said. This shipment was transferred using SAF (sustainable aviation fuel), met with fresh CEV standards, and low -emission ground equipment was used.
Despite progress, Sullivan expressed his frustration with the slow SAF adoption. “We do not have enough SAF. The cost of what is available should go down.”
He criticized governments for their failure to support SAF production and accused fuel producers “slow-walking-or margin-planners-investments.
“Airlines are committed and designed. But this is not our offer alone. We need more procedures behind the words of organizers, fuel suppliers and manufacturers.”
We look forward
Sullivan, which concluded the opening session, concluded the importance of the air cargo industry, especially in an unpredictable world. “From a defective lithium battery that has been intercepted, to the cancer that has been re -directed, to the carefully handed over -handing – these are not only stories. It is evidence that we make our aspirations even whether we are in the spotlight or not.”
“Let’s continue to tell these stories. Let’s continue to write this next chapter – to some extent,” Sullivan concluded.
