ZHENGZHOU, China: September 19, 2018. Speaking at the ICAO Air Cargo Development Forum earlier this month, the secretary general of the UN specialised agency Fang Liu said the 4.2 percent annual growth in air cargo to 2032 would only happen if current modernization continues to be “robustly and cooperatively pursued by governments and industry”.

“With current consumer expectations for same day or next day delivery driving a great deal of today’s growth in e-commerce and air freight, we cannot allow the speed and efficiency of commercial operations to be impeded due to network capacity shortfalls or other infrastructure-related risks,” Liu declared.

ICAO says it received funding and hosting support for the forum from Zhengzhou City and Henan Province governments as a reflection of the recent growth of air cargo and e-commerce activity in the region.

Another host was Silk Way West Airlines (SWW) that took the opportunity to announce an increase in service from its Baku hub to Zhengzhou from four to six flights a week: “With this we are entering into the new stage of our strategic cooperation with the government of Henan Province and Zhengzhou Airport. We are excited to further strengthen this cooperation by seeing further growth”, declared SWW president and CEO Wolfgang Meier.

“Within a short period of time we manage[d] to emerge as one of the leading cargo carriers in Zhengzhou and we are aiming to further increase tonnage and flights as [it] provides for us the perfect platform to grow in view of our core capabilities to serve the Silk Air Route in accordance to the One Belt – One Road strategy,” Meier added.