29.05.2008
200 air cargo industry executives discussed development and environmental impact in Copenhagen
“During the conference, air cargo industry executives had the opportunity to learn about Copenhagen Airport’s high standards of quality, its business potential and its preparedness to collaborate.” This comment was made by the Chairman of TIACA during the recent conference held in Copenhagen and hosted by Copenhagen Airports and SAS Cargo.
About 200 of the leading decision makers in the air cargo industry flew in from all parts of the world to attend The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) Executive Conference and Annual General Meeting, which was held on 12-14 May.
TIACA is a world-wide organisation which arranges for the leading decision makers in the industry to meet every year. This year, SAS Cargo and Copenhagen Airports had been chosen to host the conference, which is considered one of the most important events in the air cargo industry.
Challenges in the air cargo industry
The event started out on 12 May among the palms of the Winter Garden in the newly refurbished Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen with the Annual General Meeting of TIACA and a welcome reception. The official part of the programme began the following day when Brian Petersen, President and CEO of Copenhagen Airports, was the first speaker to address the conference at the Hilton Copenhagen Airport.
“According to the ACI, the international airport association, Copenhagen Airport is the 10th biggest cargo airport in Europe in terms of weight carried. This underlines how important air cargo is to Copenhagen Airport, and I am therefore pleased to welcome you to this TIACA conference,” said Brian Petersen in his opening speech.
Royal participation
The red carpet was out for the gala dinner, which was held at the historical Vilhelm Lauritzen Terminal, as His Royal Highness, Prince Joachim of Denmark, had accepted an invitation for the dinner. In his speech, Prince Joachim emphasised, among other things, that air cargo is an important mode of transport for most countries of the world and one of the most important means of ensuring immediate availability of products.
“For Denmark, air freight is a vital link to the rest of the world ensuring that our industries can remain competitive. Our pharmaceutical industry, our exporters of fresh products and our many high-tech industries use air freight for their daily exports and imports,” said His Royal Highness, Prince Joachim.
The Prince rounded off his speech by saying that an organisation such as The International Air Cargo Association has both the responsibility for and the opportunity to help nations and the aviation industry in general by finding solutions and providing a forum for holding talks and exchanging ideas and information on these subjects.
Participants pleased with the conference
According to Jack Boisen, Chairman of the TIACA, the participants were very pleased with the conference. They mentioned in particular the facilities at the airport and the extensive planning ahead of the conference. He is certain that the conference will have positive effects on air cargo at Copenhagen Airport in future.
“We enjoy great participation these years. One of the reasons is that the air cargo industry is affected by a number of factors such as the environment, stricter security rules and economic stagnation. Your role as hosts of the conference will no doubt be of major importance to Copenhagen as many of the decision makers had never before been at Copenhagen Airport or the city Copenhagen. They have now seen for them selves the high standards of quality of the airport, the business potential and the preparedness to collaborate. That will no doubt have a positive impact on Copenhagen Airport in future,” said Boisen.
Prince Joachim and CEO of Copenhagen Airports Brian Petersen