CargoForwarder Global’s ‘Spotlight On…’ brings a different aspect of the air cargo industry to the fore each week, as seen through the eyes of the people working there. Air cargo travelling across the world, has to be processed on the ground before it can take off and after it lands. This is carried out by ground handlers or, as is the case at one of the world’s largest cargo airports: a dedicated air cargo terminal operator. PACTL is one such example. Its primary role as an operator of five different terminals at Shanghai-Pudong and Hongqiao Airports, is to provide comprehensive cargo handling services for all kinds of inbound and outbound shipments. International Business Development Executive at PACTL, Alex Aristov, explains his job and shares advice and views on the air cargo industry.
CFG: What is your current function and company? And what are your responsibilities?
AA: I work in PACTL as an International Business Development Executive. My work includes three streams: working with international customer airlines, driving e-commerce projects in collaboration with leading Chinese and international e-commerce platforms, and the last stream is the international expansion of our cargo terminal.
CFG: What does a normal day look like for you?
AA: I would say I have two types of days: office days and travel days.
During office days, I usually have some calls and meetings, prepare reports. Occasionally I meet customers at our facilities and give them a tour of our facilities. We’re always very proud to show our new facilities, such as our e-commerce terminal in PACTL West, which never fails to leave an impression on our visitors.
I am also a big fun of “Gemba” practice: I will often go to the landside/airside operation floor to see some of the processes with my own eyes, especially the ones pertaining to our e-commerce business. This always helps to get the insights that you’d never get sitting in your office and looking at the reports. For instance, going to the airside to see the build-up process for one of our e-commerce shippers enabled me to later provide valuable feedback to that shipper on the buildup instructions that they could later pass on to their forwarding agent to optimize the buildup.
And then there are travel days, during which I have the most fun. Get up early, take the maglev to PVG, fly off to wherever duty calls. Have a few packed days of meeting new people, pitching ideas, encountering new business cultures. In China, we would say “你还要啥自行车？” (a Chinese internet slang in a humorous and down-to-earth way of saying ‘What more could you possibly ask for?’ or ’This is already pretty great.’). Meeting people in person is crucial in our industry, because that is how you get a real feeling of what is happening in the industry beyond the reports and charts.
Whether during office hours or business trips, I’m constantly reminded how much our future depends on staying connected, not only digitally, but also globally. That’s why we’re expanding our international collaborations and accelerating digitalization to shape the next chapter of PACTL.
CFG: How long have you been in the air cargo industry, and what brought you to it?
AA: Currently it’s my 5th year in the air cargo industry. Even though I had non-related stints here and there, I eventually ended up in this particular part of the aviation business – air cargo. From early in my career, I’ve been quite interested in the aviation business. In my undergraduate studies, I participated in multiple business case competitions, and one of them was assessing the viability of starting a new airline under Air France-KLM together with McKinsey & Co. After that, I went for an internship to a startup that was helping passengers to get compensation for delayed flights in EU. Eventually, I found myself in Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba, arranging air freight solutions for the Eastern European market. That’s where I got my most intense experience in this industry: the year was 2022, and it was, to put it mildly, a challenging time to manage air freight in Eastern Europe. I worked in different companies in the Alibaba Group before eventually joining PACTL.
CFG: What do you enjoy most about your job?
AA: It’s the people!
As one of my mentors used to say, “Every business is people business”. After joining the industry, I would add to that: “And our business is very people”.
You know, after I properly joined the industry with PACTL, I was taken aback by how everyone is welcoming and nice to me as a newcomer. Every time we meet new people in the industry, it always turns out to be a nice and memorable (in a good sense) encounter. What is great about working at PACTL, is that the spirit of working with rigor, care, and the willingness to help each other is quite alive here. Whether it’s a frontline worker sharing a tip from years of experience, or a cross-team brainstorming for our ramp services, you feel that dedication and collaborative mindset everywhere.
Another thing that I like about our industry is that it is, I would say, quite artisanal. In the sense that the specific knowledge is not that accessible, you could even say it is passed down from one master to another. In this industry you sometimes can’t even get reliable answers from ChatGPT. I remember back in the e-commerce days, we needed to calculate how many boxes we can fit on a pallet on a certain position on a quite rare AC type, and there is only like one website left on the Internet where we could actually find this information.
CFG: What do you see as the greatest challenges in our industry?
AA: I won’t be original here; the greatest one is, of course, uncertainty. From shifting global trade patterns to changing regulations and customer expectations, we’re navigating a marketplace that’s constantly evolving.
At PACTL, we stay ready for change. We’re continuing the upgrade of our PACTL WEST facilities, bringing in more automation and digital tools to optimize our operational capabilities. We’ve built a state-of-the-art Cool Center, certified with CEIV Pharma to meet the highest cold chain standards. Our cross-border e-commerce cargo handling center is designed to meet the growing demand in this sector, and we’ve also upgraded our Pet Lounge to provide care and customized services for our furry passengers.
In such a dynamic landscape, readiness is everything, and PACTL is always ready.
CFG: What advice would you give to people looking to enter into the air cargo industry? Any particular training they should aim for?
AA: Can’t give much advice here – just be curious, I guess? Before I went into the industry, I thought logistics was something extremely complex, so I always wondered how people even get anything delivered, let alone delivered in time on short notice. And it’s in part because of this curiosity about how this complex logistics machine works, that I am now in this industry.
CFG: If the air cargo industry were a film/book, what would its title be?
AA: I mean, you need to first imagine what the movie will be about, probably even finish writing it, and then sort of distill it in one word or phrase.
So, what’s so catchy about our industry? High stakes? Sure. High uncertainty? Hell, yeah. High resilience? You bet.
If I wrote a comedy, I’d call it “Pivot Weight”.
Thank you very much, Alex!
If you would like to share your personal air cargo story with our CargoForwarder Global readers, feel free to send your answers to the above questions to cargoforwarderglobal@kopfpilot.at We look forward to shining a spotlight on your job area, views, and experiences.
