Changi Airport Group pursues deeper collaboration with air cargo community to co-create value

SINGAPORE, 8 November 2019 – Changi Airport Group (CAG), together with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Enterprise Singapore and Workforce Singapore, will be supporting the air cargo community – with dnata Singapore and Singapore Airlines as pioneer members – to pursue certification of International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators for Perishable Logistics (CEIV Fresh). The four parties will co-fund certification costs, with the aim to strengthen Changi’s capabilities in the handling of perishable cargo. SAAA@Singapore [1] is the programme manager for the CEIV Fresh certification process.

The community is the first in Southeast Asia to undergo the CEIV Fresh certification. SATS will also pursue the CEIV Fresh certification for their network, to complete by April 2020. The enhancement of the community’s perishables handling capabilities will instill greater confidence in shippers to use Changi Airport as a preferred hub for their time and temperature-sensitive shipments.

Perishable cargo represents about 13% (by volume)[2] of Changi’s total air exports and imports, and is one of the key drivers of Changi’s cargo throughout with resilient growth for the last few years. The top cargo markets for perishables to and from Changi are Australia, Norway and India.

At the same time, the nine pioneer IATA CEIV Pharma certified members[3] of the Pharma@Changi initiative, launched in October 2017, have also renewed their commitment for the next two years to jointly pursue the best standards in pharmaceutical handling, as well as to promote Changi Airport as a trusted and reliable pharmaceutical air cargo hub in the region. The community recently welcomed Kuehne + Nagel Singapore as the newest member of Pharma@Changi.

The pursuit of CEIV Fresh certification, coupled with the renewed commitment towards the Pharma@Changi initiative, is a strong testament of the Singapore air cargo community’s commitment to be the preferred cold chain hub in the region, through the continuous improvement of cargo handling capabilities.

Inaugural Changi Cargo Digital Workshop

In line with these collaborative efforts, CAG had also organised an inaugural digital air cargo design sprint workshop last month involving over 30 companies such as airlines, freight forwarders, trade associations, cargo handlers and government agencies. The Changi Cargo DiGi-CO (themed Connect, Community, Collaborate, Co-create) Workshop enabled key stakeholders from the local air cargo community to come together to jointly discuss issues that the air cargo community is facing and to ideate use cases which could alleviate some of the current challenges and capture new opportunities. The goal is to facilitate digital collaboration to improve operational efficiency and productivity, and to enhance supply chain visibility for Changi Airport. Community-selected use cases will undergo rapid prototyping and field testing with the industry partners.

Mr Lim Ching Kiat, CAG’s Managing Director of Air Hub Development said, “Although the air cargo industry has slowed down globally, it is now even more important for the Changi air cargo community to be connected and build a stronger partnership through collaboration. As a community, we can leverage on synergies and co-create new solutions. This will enable the Singapore air cargo hub to strengthen our competitive edge and better serve our customers globally.”

For the first nine months of 2019, Changi Airport handled 1.49 million tonnes of airfreight throughput.

[1] Formerly known as Singapore Aircargo Agents Association. SAAA@Singapore will be administering the certification process.

[2] Source: Seabury, for the period from Jan to Aug 2019.

[3] Bollore Logistics, CEVA logistics Singapore, DHL Global Forwarding, dnata Singapore, Expeditors Singapore, Global Airfreight International, SATS, Schenker Singapore and Singapore Airlines Cargo.