The Federation of Asia Pacific Air Cargo Associations (FAPAA) held its Executive and Annual General meetings in Perth, Western Australia, on the 13-15th June.

The Association consists of 18 countries from around the Asia Pacific region and meets annually to discuss all matters relating to airfreight.

The meeting started with an announcement that the association had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA). 

Glyn Hughes, the Director General of TIACA, spoke of “his longstanding relationship with FAPAA and its members and looked forward to increasing the relationship between the two organisations”. 

The MOU is a major step forward for FAPAA and we welcome a closer working relationship between the two organisations in a number of matters, such as sustainability and digitisation.

The meeting was also addressed by Dr Stephane Graber, the Director General of International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA), who updated members on the progress toward a global air programme. 

This matter is high on the list of issues for FAPAA, who feel the Asia Pacific region has fallen far behind its counterparts in Europe, Canada and Latin America, who all operate under single programmes.

Dr Graber was confident work will start on further discussions of with IATA and the airlines by August this year once a new chair has been elected to the IATA-FIATA Consultative Council (IFCC) and terms of reference can be agreed on. 

Graber is hopeful that by 2026, an agreement could be reached on the new global framework.

The meeting was also privileged to hear from Richard White, the CEO and Owner of Wisetech Global, who spoke on the need to digitalise all paper in the supply chain.

In addition, Brian Lovell of Wisetech Academy gave a presentation on cybersecurity and the ramifications for every member in the region. Malware and hacking are becoming more prevalent these days and all members were asked to inform their members in turn of the dangers of not keeping security up to date.

Finally, David Wee of IATA Singapore gave a presentation on ICS-2 pre-reporting requirements for the EU as well as another programme around the world that are coming into force during the rest of this year. He also highlighted the One Record system, which is IATA’s platform to digitalise the paper trail.

We look forward to next year’s meeting in Katmandu Nepal.