17:08 – Close of play
The conference has closed for today. Now time for networking drinks!
16:54 – The winners!
Personality of the Year – Trond-Jarle Lund, Aviator
GSE Provider of the Year – Vestergaard Company
Special Award for Enhanced GSE – Qatar Aviation Services (QAS)
Cargo Handler(s) of the Year – Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) and dnata
Ground Handler of the Year – Talma
16:49 – ASA Awards
The panel has now come to a close. Time now for the ASA awards!
Atilla Korkmazoglu, president of ground handling and cargo for the EMEA region at Celebi, has received a warm welcome from ASA after stepping down as association chairman in July earlier this year.
“Thank you very much,” he tells delegates as he leaves the stage.
The ASA Excellence Awards Ceremony 2024 is now fully underway.
15:47 – Panel
Patel has left the stage and the event’s first panel discussion has got underway. Moderated by ACHL chair Henrik Ambak, Kester Meijer, of KLM, Kai Domschet, of Cargo Handling International, Serkan Eren, of MNG Airlines, Brendan Sullivan, of IATA, and Dawit Woubishet now occupy the stage.
Collaboration is the panel’s first topic… “Collaboration is about us – the senior leaders at this conference,” says Meijer.
“There are areas of our industry where collaboration is going really well… but there are some areas that we’re not so good at,” Sullivan tells delegates.
For air cargo, he says, end to end visibility is still poor – and regulations are also posing their own challenges for stakeholders, he adds.
Ambak asks: “Are we good enough at collaboration?”
15:40 – Looking ahead
Patel says OAG’s top five predictions for the industry in 2025 are prolonged recovery for the APAC region, travel demand waning globally, supply and skills shortage, ‘soft’ political environment and softened profitability.
15:25 – Did you know?
Did you know that, according to Patel, seven of the 10 busiest routes globally are in Southeast Asia, followed by two in the Middle East and the transatlantic route between the UK and US?
15:13 – ‘State of the industry’ address
Mayur Patel, regional director for the Asia-Pacific region at OAG, steps up to the stage to present the event’s ‘state of the industry’ address.
Airlines are reporting strong financials, despite global spare parts issues and delivery delays at Boeing and Airbus, he points out.
Nevertheless, air travel demand is “normalising”.
15:10 – Next-gen GSE
“People have said for the last few years there is a lack of innovation in GSE. Now, we have autonomy and sustainability,” Robert Powell, dnata’s vice president of technical services and chair of the GSE & Ramp-Ops conference, says.
“But we have more work to improve diversity in our industry.”
15:06
Stavros Evangelakakis, board member of the Cool Chain Association and chair of the Airfreight Pharma conference, takes his turn at the podium. He says: “Teams calls are very nice, but face-to-face is much better.” He tells the audience he is looking forward to the conference.
15:00
“While we’re talking about longevity, ULD Care is the longstanding trade association at Aviation Connect,” says Bob Rogers, vice president of ULD Care. “We go back to the 1970s.”
Stakeholders needs to “break down silos” for a better industry. But ULD Care will also focus on sustainability this week in Turkey, he states.
14:56
“It’s going to be about collaboration.” ACHL chair Henrik Ambak, addressing delegates, joins Gamba in calling for greater stakeholder collaboration.
14:53 – Standards
ASA director general Fabio Gamba reaffirms the association’s commitment to covering standards over the next three days in Istanbul. He says standardisation is vital for industry collaboration.
14:45
Fabio Gamba, of ASA, Henrik Ambak, of ACHL, Stavros Evangelakakis, of the CCA, Bob Rogers, of ULD Care, Robert Powell of dnata, and Stephan Pieters, of RFS, join the stage for their introductory speeches.
14:39 – Welcome!
Mark Pilling, master of ceremonies, opens the 2024 ASA Leadership Forum in Istanbul, Turkey.
“There’s over 750 delegates here, of which more than 200 are airlines and 60 are exhibitors,” he tells delegates.
Trivial knowledge: Mark is editor of Airline Routes & Ground Services!
