No air cargo conference goes by without a focus on e-commerce. As was also the case at the recent World Cargo Summit 2025 held in Ostend, Belgium. Its dominant role in air freight was illustrated during a panel attended by high-level experts.
Steven Verhasselt, Founder and Lead Consultant Cargo Strat Belgium & FB Cargo Strategy HK, led the debate. The panel participants were Craig Strickland, CSO BoxC (an international e-commerce management platform), Nikolai Schaffner, VP E-Commerce Swissport International, and Kendy Choi, Director, Commercial & Regional Partnership Regional Hub Services Cainiao Group.
The sky is the limit
Mr. Verhasselt reminded the debaters that e-commerce has grown to a margin of 20% of all global air freight, accounting for 1.5 million tons daily, to which Ms. Choi replied that Cainiao’s expectations are in line with these figures and that demand keeps growing constantly.
Addressing the panelists, Steven Verhasselt therefore asked how they thought the ratio between e-commerce and all other air freight products would develop.
Displacement of other commodities
Swissport International’s Nicolai Schaffner delivered these figures: “We handle 5 million tons of goods in 120 warehouses across the globe. Some 80% of the growing volume over the last 5 years is steered by e-commerce. It contributed a lot to the growth of Liège Airport [LGG], which has become Europe’s leading e-commerce hub. LGG’s ascent is a great achievement.”
“LGG offers its customers very friendly e-commerce operation,” applauded Craig Strickland. “From the package perspective, on the Europe to Africa route, volumes are constantly growing and other regions outside China start shipping as well,” the executive reasoned.
Bottlenecks
Next, Steven Verhasselt tabled the bottleneck situation caused by the daily tsunami of packages flooding the European but also U.S. market, and how to overcome it. This is aggravated by insufficient aircraft capacity and the alarming shortage of drivers and trucks at European e-commerce hubs, jeopardizing the successive growth of the e-commerce business and the timely delivery of consignments.
Swissport’s Schaffner illustrated this by pointing out that some carriers have partially withdrawn their freighters from routes to Latin America and now deploy them between China, the Middle East and Europe. This reduced and keeps reducing the availability of widebodies in some markets and results in e-commerce increasingly displacing general cargo.
Another obstacle is presented by authorities that, in some cases, create bottlenecks. “In certain circumstances, the throughput of shipments is very slow which adds to the costs and causes delays,” said Kendy Choi of the Cainiao Group.
“Regular checks by officials, handling transparency and a well-functioning digital ecosystem involving all stakeholders, including customs could prevent hiccups,” she recommended.
As far as e-commerce in the U.S. is concerned, the biggest bottleneck is caused by customs authorities, said Craig Strickland. “The USCBP performance is dramatic,” he criticized.
Cutting down running times to 3.5 days
As for the new import taxes on Chinese goods announced by the Trump administration, Swissport’s Schaffner remained relaxed “The average value of an e-commerce shipment is between 15 and 18 USD. Even with an extra tax of 20%, this will not alter consumer behavior. But there is no political rationale behind this,” the executive added.
Regarding distribution times, Ms. Choi said that Cainiao aims for 72 hours from order to delivery. “Currently, we are even thinking of shortening e-commerce transports to 3.5 days.” This is challenging, but feasible, because “we have a new facility in Hong Kong allowing us to track shipments all the way from A to Z.”
Over at Swissport, the ground handler has promoted e-commerce to one of its strategically most important pillars, Nikolai Schaffner. “It is supported by tailor-made logistics solutions, so we can contribute to meeting Cainiao’s 72-hour ambition. Aircraft will not fly faster; but data integration will further accelerate the process and spur the flow of goods.”
