Challenges Faced by UK Air Cargo Industry

This article discusses the challenges faced by the air cargo industry in the UK, including competition, terrorism, environmental regulations, technological needs, and more. It explores the impact of these challenges on the industry and provides recommendations for addressing them.

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INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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Institution
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Introduction
The air cargo industry in UK is faced with a lot of challenges. Most of the challenges
faced by the UK air cargo industries are not unique to UK but are common to air cargo industries
in many countries. Some of the main challenges faced by the aviation industry in UK are;
competition, terrorism, environmental regulations, technological needs among others, as
extrapolated below.
Competition
Since the UK has high population density, it has road/rail infrastructures that are
underdeveloped in comparison with the European neighbors. There is an uptake of high-speed
rail transport in UK and that has played negatively on air transportation. Most of the customers
who would be using the air means of transportation opt for the use of high speed rail system. The
use of high-speed train offer more affordable costs of transportation and have little procedures to
follow in terms logistics like paying for trains as opposed to booking flights (Morrell 2016).
Tests of 500 km per hour have been possible and in as much as that has not been achieved in real
life, its full development could offer a stiff competition with the air cargo industry (Albers et al.
2017). There is a fierce competitive environments with various offers used to tempt a large
number of passengers. The lower fees of landing at ‘out-of-town’ airports leads to a reduction of
cost but possess negative effects on the perception of customers as a result of distance from
intended destinations. Unlike the years before, the current air industry has expanded
considerably. More and more countries have airlines, airports and air cargo industries (Oster and
Strong 2017). In that case, they become independent of the transport services of UK. Other
companies pose competition to the UK air cargo industry because of the increase in the quality of
services.

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Terrorism
Terrorism of threats has created great disruptions in the cargo industry. The disruptions
include increasing security at the airports, passenger disruptions and growing expenses. For
example, the impact of the 9/11 terrorism attack created a great impact on air transportation
(Vasigh 2017). In Brussels, the European Aviation Society noted the fact that between the dates
of September 11 and November 4th, the air cargo witnessed a drop in the traffic of North Atlantic
by 35% and 10% in the European traffic for the major airlines in Europe (Wensveen 2018). The
recent events in UK that were reported in the news media led to dramatic security practices
changes and freedom of passengers. Customers always have the fear that major security attacks
may happen again, at any time. Terrorism prevent the freedom of consumers to move both
physically and psychologically. The psychological negative effect of terrorism not only affects
the movement of people from place to place but also undermines the performance of businesses
in a great deal.
Runways
The recent ongoing runway investments in new airplanes of different types have also
created a disruption in the air cargo industry. Many manufacturers are developing large capacity
planes that can accommodate hundreds of passengers. Other manufacturers opt for the smaller
types of planes which a higher flexibility of use. The problem has occurred with the fact that the
latest Boeing jet presently has restrictions on the number of runways. The additional
constructions of runways take a lot of years to complete creating a high level of disruption. The
need for the construction of new runways to meet the standards of new planes takes a lot of
resources and time thus delaying the growth of the industry.
Traffic Density

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There are normally considerations for safety that are relative to landing numbers and
take-off that are permitted at any flight corridor or airport. The problems with capacity will limit
the ability of handling additional numbers of passengers in airports that are crowded and may
also stagnate the growth in major prime destinations.
Environment
There is an increasing pressure from environmental lobbyist for air cargo companies to
implement measures for curbing emissions. The negative effects of lobbyist is that it forces
industries to develop improvements in lower emissions and fuel efficiency for compliance with
increasing toughness of legislations. The pressures of lobbyist groups are normally felt in the
investments in engine designs, use of aircrafts that are more modernized bearing more quietness
and efficiency in the consumption of fuel.
Comparison of the factors that have affected the growth of air cargo industry
E-commerce Glut
The volume of e-commerce packages creates new challenges for international and
domestic shipments. The main challenge is that everybody who is involved in the air logistics
chain from brokers to forwarders to air carriers to truckers ought to flawlessly execute to
increase the rate of movement of goods, provide new levels of visibility to customers and
customs’ quick clearance throughout the lifecycle of shipment. The UK air cargo industry just
like the US air cargo industry faces the same problem of e-commerce glut. There is a sudden
need to move bulky products bearing different compositions of size, type and materials to
consumers. That has led to logistical problems because the air industry will then be required to
make more alignments to their infrastructure to meet a sudden demand.
Security Filings

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From the perspective of security filings, more countries have the requirements of air
carriers to supply advanced information on incoming shipments, to border control and customs.
The US and UK already had this capability in place thus the need for getting the information
earlier and with an increased quality of data. Therefore, there have been initiatives like the Air
Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS). Along the same pattern, the exportation of the air forwarder
is also needed for the provision of information to customs in the importing country or the carrier
(Koch and Kraus 2017). The difference of the UK and other developing countries is that the
compliance to these provisions in other countries would be quite difficult but easier in UK.
However, the greatest challenge that relates to security filings is to know the kind of information
customs agencies that is internationally required every month.
e-AWB
Another source of challenge for both the UK and US air cargo transportation is the
introduction of e-AWB in the year 2010. As from January 1st, the system will take on the
position of becoming the default carriage contract for all the shipments of air cargo (Baxter and
Srisaeng 2018). The move is designed for embracement of digital processes throughout the
supply chain of air transportation. The technology helps industries to remove and eliminate
shipment delays, inefficiencies and the costly errors that result from analog practices of paper
work. However, it also introduces greater challenges that cannot be solved in a short span of
time.
Further challenges to the air transportation
Integration
Technologies that are advancing allow countries to be timelier and bear security filings.
The problem arises when transportation of goods is in routes that are from developed countries to

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the countries that are not up-to-date with the technological requirements. The UK and other
progressive countries have already complied with the integration of the Pre-Loading Advance
Commercial Information (PLACI) systems. That has made it easier for direct access of customs
to the importing communication before the goods are loaded. Since UK does not work in
isolation, her compliance with the technological requirements would not be worthwhile if the
countries that it does business with fail to be on the same level playing ground (Budd and Ison
2016). The use of technology is of great importance but only when all the parties are on the same
page or level playing ground. Getting the smaller countries that UK does business with, to fully
comply will be a task that is not even feasible in the near future. The US and UK have
incorporated different types of this system, leading to more difficulties in the process of
integration.
Compliance
The future of air cargo industry in the UK and beyond will require that postal
organizations follow more rigorous rules for the sustenance of international delivery. The
incoming mails will need to pass through or reported to customs agents in the future, as carriers
will require reporting as well (Baxter and Srisaeng 2018). For purpose of meeting the efficiency
of these new requirements, there will be a need for the consolidation of data between goods and
mail transportation. In that case, it will need the harvesting of the need of collaboration of the
departments of safety and security and air freight.
E-commerce
The inception of the e-commerce technology caught the air cargo industry by surprise.
That is because, the nature of goods and the ordering process offers great complexities for air
freight companies. For example, the air transportation now have to meet the demand of goods

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that need transportation in irregular times. Since consumers all over the world are hooked to the
central system, individual consumers make orders in their own convenient times. There is no law
that will need consumers to make orders only at specific times. Instead, consumers will make
orders at their own time and need the goods at their preferred times (Allen et al., 2017). Through
that phenomenon, the transportation systems will face a lot of inconvenience. Another problem
that arises with the boom of e-commerce is that the air freight companies will not have the
chance to specialize in certain composition and nature of goods for transportation (Boonekamp
and Burghouwt 2017). Consumers make orders for different types of goods at the same time. For
example, some will need the electronic while sole will need the textile goods. The transportation
system will then have to handle the difference in goods and ensure that individual customers get
the specific goods that they ordered for.
Recommendations
To curb competition, the UK should develop a stronger air cargo industry. Dealing with
competition is only possible with an increased quality. The improvement of quality will come
about through the leveraging of technology. For the UK to curb the stiff competitive market, it
will need to up its game to be the best. Working smart through the use of technology will make
companies globally to develop preference for the UK air cargo companies.
Terrorism
Terrorism in the major and minor airports in UK have been curbed to a considerable
measure of safety. The major problem that is remaining though, is the fact that the consumers are
insecure in their psychology on the security of air freight (Mayer 2016). Therefore, even if the
UK air cargo industry reduce insecurity to the lowest levels and consumers do not feel safe, it
would come to naught. In that case, measures should be put forward for training and sensitizing

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consumers of air transportation that the means of transportation is safe (Budd, Ison and Budd
2016). When the consumers have a settled mind that their security is covered, it will be easier for
them to travel. The aviation body in UK should create a program that sensitizes the public on the
steps that have been put forward by the aviation sector to boost safety and improve on security.
Uniformity in technology compliance
Since one of the main challenges of the aviation industry in UK is the fact that it lacks
uniformity in the implementation of technological advancement programs in the markets within
its scope, it should identify the most critical markets and help them comply (Taneja 2017). For
example, some countries that are developing and do not have up-to-date technologies and are
very significant in business should be helped to comply and be on the same level playing ground
with UK. It will be worthwhile for UK to sacrifice its resources to work with the countries to
boost their technological capacity (Luo et al 2016). It will be more beneficial for UK because it
could then expand its market of aviation to a wider scope. Owing to the fact that some countries
have the capacity and capability of complying with the international standards but are held back
by procrastination, UK should put pressure on the countries it does business with. UK should
pressurize the countries it does business with, to comply with the international standards through
various ways including taking advantage of the trade deals and businesses it does with those
countries.
Environment
The compliance of environmental rules and regulations should be met with a positive
attitude. Therefore, the UK air cargo industries should develop measures for the compliance of
the international environmental standards in a proactive manner. That is because, new rules will
always be developed because of the trend of environmental depletion rate of fuel and machine

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emissions to the environment (Talebian et al 2018). The Aviation industries in UK should
develop a standard that will ensure that the manufacture of aircraft not only comply with the
environmental standards but also stay ahead or be the leader of being environmentally friendly.
To achieve that, those industries should invest a lot in research to develop more green
technologies. Through that, the industry will not be caught by surprise by the environmental
regulations and rules but will instead act as a benchmark.
To handle the huge demands created by the e-commerce glut, the aviation industry in UK
should work closely with the e-commerce companies. That way, it will be able to closely
understand the needs of e-commerce consumers and companies. Operations for meeting the
needs of e-commerce industries will then not come as a surprise for the aviation industry and
most activities will be planned earlier.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the problems and challenges faced by the aviation industry in UK and
other countries are mostly similar. The challenges brought about by technology is global and
affects all the aviation industries. Competition is also fierce in all countries and aviation industry
environments. The UK has a great prospect and potential of being the leader in aviation
worldwide if it properly mitigate the risks and challenges affecting aviation.

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