Eight years after its inception, Air Cargo Belgium (ACB) is scaling up. The organization is transforming itself into a forceful community that is to become a forerunner in innovation and digitalization and wants to establish a formidable presence on the international stage.

When ACB was launched in 2016, it was supported by Brussels Airport Company from the very start. The organization’s incumbent chairman is Geert Aerts, Chief Cargo & Real Estate Officer at Brussels Airport. “Over the past 8 years, ACB has grown into a very healthy company with over 162 members,” he said at the presentation of the strategy program last Thursday (24OCT24). “Now is the time to consider how to scale up this company.”
According to ACB Director, Freek De Witte, increased operational efficiency and digital services have been high on the ACB agenda. “We are the first community to start with Digital Green Lane (DGL), Perishable/Inspection Management Application (PMA/IMA), Pharma + DGL (Digital Green Lane) Dashboard and BlueSky (TIACA-driven sustainability program),” he said.
5 pillars
But now the time has come for a new strategy, the decision for which was initiated last April, supported by 25 interviews within the ACB community. “From these, we identified an overall request to show more ambition on all fronts,” Mr. De Witte continued. “The enablement of speed of delivery and full adoption of digitization, the involvement of the community in decision-making and to act as one, and the upgrading of capabilities and expertise to deliver upon strategic projects.”
The road to success is based on 5 pillars: creating a vibrant community, establishing the leading platform for seamless operations, building effective partnerships, drawing ‘better’ business to Brussels (such as Pharma, Perishables and the like), and last but not least, achieving international recognition as a community.
The road plan is to be spread over three ‘horizons’ up to 2029 and beyond, the first of which – by mid-2025 – is the strengthening of the foundation. Horizon 2 is to bring continuous improvement and sustained innovation, and Horizon 3 is for further innovating and taking the lead.
Bringing in experience and another way of money-making
These ambitions require some fundamental changes within the ACB organization, Mr. De Witte admitted. “So far, our hiring focus has been on youngsters. We are now aiming for a more hybrid hiring policy, to bring in more experience. Funding, which now relies on memberships and projects funding, will move towards funding based on services. When companies realize that our efforts bring gains to their business, I do not see that they would not be willing to pay for some services.”
Beyond the management level
The present reactive response transactions are to make way for proactive, customer-centered processes. ACB also has to be deepened by changing from a community of managers to a broad community of air cargo people which, Freek De Witte thinks “will contribute to a faster dissemination of proven innovations.”
Finally, project facilitation should evolve into project leadership. “The latter encompasses change management and project risk management, ensuring full adoption of digital tools and the continuity of operations.”
The presentation of the new strategy was followed by ACB’s Annual Awards ceremony.