Air cargo supply chains can be made more secure without a major impact on costs while increasing throughputs and reducing processing times at major air cargo terminals and airports, a Eurosky initiative has found.

The European Commission funded initiative intends to provide air cargo security solutions while improving operational efficiency to reduce costs and lead times, and it has been working with Athens International Airport to act as a demonstrator to implement solutions.

The endeavour at Athens was to provide a solution to form a systematic solution for the local cargo cluster; improve operational efficiency through increased and instant information flow among participants, consolidation of transport and cargo handling events, and production of statistics; and ensure higher level of security down the air cargo supply chain through the application of information services from the seaport to the airport.

The demonstrator event proved that applying Eurosky’s dashboard solution in Athens could result in benefits including enhanced process flows from the seaport aided by incorporated notifications and early reaction by all stakeholders through real time information sharing and automated or corrective actions; consolidated information from different sources through a web based dashboard, enabling facilitated inspection and clearance procedures and the monitoring of intermodal fast-lanes; and a predefined sequence of events through automated monitoring of the appropriate sequence and compliance between the airport and cargo handlers for handling sea-air cargo.

The benefits are cornerstones of Athens’ SEAnAIRgy concept to provide synergies amongst all parties involved in combining sea and air traffic, and would further increase efficiency of required interfaces and practically automate the procedural flow.

Eurosky says the benefits could also bring tangible benefits including reducing man effort by the cargo handler, freight forwarder and airport customs.