Page 43 - Demo

We just mentioned the airfreight business is facing a potential land shortage inside the airport. The situation outside the airport is also not a reason for optimism. To explain why, let’s first understand what parties are involved in airfreight consignment. The consignor, who is the owner or seller of the goods, will put them in the hands of a freight forwarder. The freight forwarder will arrange the flight and slots with carriers, which are the airlines providing cargo services. Once the flight is confirmed, the freight forwarder will pack the goods and transport them to cargo terminal operators, who are responsible for the last step in the process—loading the cargo onto the flight.To fulfil their mandates, freight forwarders need operating space for discharging, loading, warehousing, and packaging cargo. With the new policy direction on cargo security given by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), freight forwarders will need to find space to accommodate new x-ray scanners to fulfil 100% screening of air cargoes from unknown consignors, which increases freight forwarders’ operation costs.Can air cargo be screened at HKIA? Yes and no. The airport’s cargo terminals do have screening facilities, but for goods to be screened at the airport, they must be transported to the airport in loose form instead of in consolidated packs. This will increase the trucking traffic to the airport. However, the current road infrastructure and parking facilities are not able to accommodate such a traffic surge. Therefore, the Civil Aviation Department launched the Regulated Air Cargo Screening Facilities Scheme, an option for freight forwarders to screen the cargoes in a certified screening facility outside the airport.There is another way to reduce the burden of screening for freight forwarders. That is to validate the consignors as ‘known consignors’. According to ICAO policy, cargo from a ‘known consignor’ is deemed secure and not subject to 100% screening. Australia and Singapore have adopted this strategy to reduce the overall demand for screening, while allowing the minority of goods coming from unknown consignors to be screened at the airport (Figure 28).Hong Kong also launched the Known Consignor Validation Scheme recently. However, the scheme only targeted Hong Kong-based consignors, while most of the consignors using the Hong Kong air hub are based in mainland China.41