Although air cargo volumes are expected to rise by 3% each year, the role of intermediaries – such as airfreight forwarders – will shrink as the airfreight industry increasingly moves towards digitisation, according to analysis by McKinsey & Company.
Ludwig Hausmann, partner in the Munich, Germany office of McKinsey, said in a recent blog post that cargo airlines “are exploiting digitisation to move closer to shippers and avoid using forwarders as intermediaries for parts of the business”.
He added that traditional air freight forwarders must digitise to compete with digital freight forwarders and carriers, improving their own digital channels.
“To compete, airfreight forwarders should emphasise offerings based on people, relationships and expertise, all of which are difficult to digitise and turn into commodities,” he said. Hausman pointed out that more comprehensive digital forwarders would act as catalysts for the new technologies, but, increasingly, successful companies would be specialists, offering advanced data-based solutions.
“All surviving forwarders will be more digitised by 2025 than they are today, and by 2030 they will be very digitised indeed."
