Challenges Faced by UK Air Cargo Industry

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INTERNATIONAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
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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