How does selling cargo IT for the big incumbents differ from working with a team like Awery, for instance? It’s a question that deserves a deep dive, and one that CargoForwarder Global’s publisher, Heiner Siegmund, asked me recently at the Fruit Logistica event. This question gets straight to the heart of the tech divide. After over a decade of working in the sector, Chris Gessner joined Awery and found a platform that covers everything mid-size airlines and GSSAs need, but with a modern, cloud-native architecture that isn’t held back by decades of old code. Here is what the air cargo and IT expert has to say:
For more than the last decade, I have been selling cargo management systems for the big names that dominate this industry. I know the pitch decks and the standard RFPs by heart. I also know something that rarely made it into those conversations: most airlines buy these platforms and pay for capabilities they will never use. Tier-one carriers with complex global networks need what large IT providers offer. But tier-two and tier-three carriers routinely buy the same product, and I mean the same architecture, same cost structure and the same 12-month implementation – not because it fits, but because there was no credible alternative. Today, there is.
Overserved and underserved at the same time
The paradox of mid-size carriers working with big CMS providers is that they get more platform than they need and less attention than they deserve. They absorb the cost of complexity built for the world’slargest airlines while their own change requests sit in a backlog behind higher-priority accounts.
Consider a carrier running belly cargo across forty destinations supported by two or three freighters. Its requirements are real: booking, rating, warehouse, ULD control, revenue accounting, e-AWB and now ONE Record. But those do not demand the overhead of a system built for a carrier processing two million tons across six continents. Getting support means jumping through hoops with different managers. Plus, the real decision-makers are buried under too many layers of management. For a mid-size carrier trying to grow, this becomes a strategic disadvantage.
What the right fit looks like
First, interoperability. Awery is compatible with all major cargo management systems. It does not demand that you rip and replace your ecosystem. For carriers with ground-handler integrations or passenger-side systems like Amadeus Altéa, that compatibility is often why the conversation starts. Awery doesn’t try to own all the data. Instead, it plugs you straight into the best sources for schedules and market info. This way, you aren’t stuck using just one provider.
Second, scope. Awery is not merely a CMS. It is a full airline ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] with crew management and flight operations integrated directly alongside cargo, commercial, finance, and maintenance. And yes, all on one single platform. For a mid-size carrier operating two or three freighters alongside belly cargo, this changes everything. Instead of juggling half a dozen different systems for cargo, crew, and finance, you get everything in one place. Your flight plans and revenue data finally talk to each other in real-time, a setup that used to cost the biggest airlines millions of dollars and years of custom work. Awery delivers it out of the box.
The AI advantage of being agile
Legacy platforms carry decades of technical debt that makes integrating AI slow and expensive. Retrofitting machine learning onto a system designed a decade ago is fundamentally different from building it in from the ground up.
At Awery, AI capabilities are native. eMagic uses AI and OCR [Optical Character Recognition] to convert unstructured email booking enquiries into standardized cargo data in seconds. vMagic handles voice-based enquiries across multiple languages, turning verbal requests into structured, actionable data. These are production tools, not roadmap items. The intelligent automation once reserved for carriers with dedicated data-science teams now deploys in weeks, not years.
Earning trust without the legacy brand
Cargo is mission critical. Airlines need a provider that treats cybersecurity seriously, aligns with IATA standards, and will still be there when ONE Record becomes the norm. But familiar names are not immune to disruption. The shift is already happening. Major tier-one carriers are leaving the ‘big name’ legacy providers they’ve used for decades. Despite years of expensive custom builds and added modules, these traditional systems are failing to solve core issues like capacity management. Legacy is no longer a safety net; it’s a bottleneck.
The new standard of trust
Awery, as an active IATA partner and the developer of PHP:ONE, the open-source ONE Record server that has won four consecutive IATA hackathons, is proving that technical leadership isn’t reserved for the old guard. Even industry leaders like Etihad Cargo have integrated Awery’s charter module into their ERP operations. When you are a challenger, trust isn’t inherited, it’s earned with every successful go-live, every uptime report, and every support call answered by someone with the power to help.
The inflection point
Major shifts in air cargo IT, like cloud migration, digital AWB mandates, ONE Record, and AI, favor agility over incumbency. For tier-two and tier-three carriers, the fundamental question has changed. It is no longer: “Can a challenger handle my operations?” It is: “Is staying on an oversized, under-responsive platform costing me more than the comfort of familiarity is worth?” Smart money already knows the answer. This was, in a nutshell, my conclusion in the discussion with CargoForwarder Global at Berlin’s recent Fruit Logistica.
Author: Christian Gessner
