Every year and even every month brings new developments that drive the digital transformation of the logistics industry. Having initially accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on transparency and visibility, today, most players have reached a point where the digitalisation of basic transactions — such as capacity distribution, e-bookings, and rate visibility — have been widely implemented.

Beyond these foundational processes, many airlines have also digitalised additional operations, such as track-and-trace systems, with these advancements addressing efficiency and transactional automation, replacing manual workflows and optimising processes.

“The differentiation now lies in leveraging digital tools for commercial decision-making and optimisation. Not all airlines are equipped for this next step due to various challenges, such as a lack of advanced digital solutions, insufficient organisational maturity, or limited access to necessary data. Some companies also face financial constraints that prevent them from investing in these systems,” Cedric Millet, President of CargoTech, explained. “Advanced digital tools can enable better decisions in areas like capacity forecasting, overbooking recommendations, pricing strategies, and fleet and network planning.

“These systems, however, require significant investment and expertise to implement and manage. The cost-benefit equation becomes more complex because the benefits—like revenue optimisation—are less tangible than direct cost savings from efficiency improvements.”

Promoting tools that enhance operational efficiency is relatively straightforward; these systems often reduce staffing needs or drastically shorten transaction times, making the return on investment easier to quantify. Pushing tools for revenue optimisation, however, is more challenging.

These tools require internal expertise, organisational buy-in, and an understanding of their long-term value. While they can significantly boost revenues, the initial investment and ongoing operational needs can be a barrier, particularly for smaller or less mature airlines.

Tools for the job

For operational efficiency, Cargo AI offers e-distribution, rate visibility, e-bookings, and track-and-trace capabilities, digitalising manual processes for greater speed and accuracy.

“Over the years, CargoAi has introduced several technologies and solutions to significantly improve the efficiency and visibility of the airfreight process,” CargoAi founder Matt Petot highlighted. “These technologies form an interconnected ecosystem that drives efficiency, transparency, and sustainability across the entire supply chain. “By addressing critical pain points and introducing automation and data-driven decision-making, CargoAi is actively reshaping the airfreight landscape to meet the demands of modern global trade.”

For more mature airlines seeking revenue optimisation, Wiremind Cargo provides solutions like capacity forecasting, overbooking recommendations, and pricing tools through its three main tools: CargoStack Optimiser, CargoStack CMS and SkyPallet. “CargoStack Optimiser is a comprehensive Revenue Management solution for airlines. It allows airlines of any size to optimise the revenue and profit margin that their capacity can generate across their network, by leveraging AI models that provide recommendations,” Wiremind Cargo CEO Nathanael de Tarade, laid out.

“CargoStack CMS is a comprehensive cargo management system that covers the essential functions for an airline to operate its cargo business: managing their schedule, flights, bookings, allocation, customers, rates, etc. It is an API native platform which is unique in the market, and provides much greater flexibility for integrations to airlines that adopt it. “SkyPallet is a unique solution that digitalises an entire aircraft cargo hold in 3D, and has the ability to calculate the optimised space utilisation of a given set of shipments.

There are multiple use cases that add great value for airlines and forwarders alike” Meanwhile, Rotate focuses on fleet and network planning, helping airlines decide how many aircraft to acquire and where to deploy them for maximum profitability. “Rotate was founded with the mission to help the industry make better commercial decisions. We built our roadmap together with our airline partners, and are now excited to soon launch our fleet and network planning software, together with our mid-term OD mix and allocation optimisation.

The latter perfectly complements our Sales Cockpit – a software that auto-generates sales opportunities. This product suite helps airlines from long- to mid-term planning through to execution,” Ryan Keyrouse, co-founder of Rotate, highlighted.

“Market data is at the foundation of commercial decision-making and all of Rotate’s software products. This is why Rotate has invested heavily in developing data for both supply and demand to complement our partners’ internal and market data. Industry players are evolving their business models, and amazing rise of e-commerce volumes has impacted traditional data sets – so it’s more important than ever to pull multiple data sources together and triangulate insights.”

Digital potential

Smaller airlines often rely on General Sales and Service Agents for total cargo management, including digital solutions. Mid-sized airlines may have sales and operations teams but often lack optimisationfocused capabilities, making it harder to adopt revenue-enhancing solutions The largest airlines, especially those operating freighters, have the most to gain from advanced tools. Freighters are expensive assets, and maximising their revenue potential requires robust digital tools for better decision-making on deployment and optimisation.

“For carriers, the Carrier App uses a combination of their historical internal data and aggregated market data to help provide both short and long term insights. For day-to-day operations the Carrier App can help inform pricing decisions by displaying historical data such as pricing offered historically on requested routing, outcome, similar routings offered and an insight into currently served similar scheduled routings and the current market USD/kg rate,” Simon Watson, Founder at Aerios, stated.

“To assist with prioritisation of requests and client insight the Carrier App can display relevant client commercial and statistical data including request and conversion rates, revenue generated and missed opportunity value. At a more strategic level the data held cases for new opportunities or to help support business development for existing clients.”

Standardised solution

As the industry grows in size and embraces digital transformation, globalisation underscores the need for standardised and harmonised solutions. “We’ve observed that across the board, companies are prioritising efficiency, cost reduction, and productivity. Standardisation is a key element in achieving these goals,” Millet explained.

“Through the solutions we offer as CargoTech, or those provided by our competitors, everyone is aligning with this trend. While we believe our products are the most advanced, the broader focus is on operational efficiency. Airlines, for example, are increasingly adopting e-booking platforms like CargoAI and others to enhance productivity.

“Without broader adoption, we risk creating a fragmented landscape where only a portion of the industry thrives. As a holistic digital provider, we see it as our responsibility to encourage the entire industry—not just the largest airlines but also smaller players—to adopt tools that enable better commercial decisions and revenue optimisation.

“We’re not suggesting that every company needs the most sophisticated systems with dynamic pricing or advanced forecasting. However, there must be a baseline of revenue optimisation tools in place for the industry to move forward collectively, achieve profitability, and cover operating costs.”