The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced the finalists of the 2019 IATA Air Cargo Innovation Awards and ULD solutions is the hot topic among this year’s finalists.
The finalists were selected from 56-entries covering a wide-range of areas including ULDs, digital solutions and track and trace that used cutting edge and emerging technologies such as block chain and big data to develop innovative solutions to benefit the industry.
An independent jury shortlisted three finalists:
- Air New Zealand Cargo & Cargo Composites – Keep it cool with aeroTHERM ULD
- SITA, Safran & CHAMP – Smart ULD
- Unilode Aviation Solutions – Digital Transformation
Air New Zealand Cargo & Cargo Composites recently tested and launched new thermally-insulated aeroTHERM ULDs aimed at better protecting temperature-sensitive shipments and reducing cost. aeroTHERM, designed by Cargo Composites, is an industry first container fabric door that insulates 25 times better than regular ULDs and curtains, allowing shipments to stay within desired temperature ranges for longer, reducing the use of thermal covers, wraps and heavier temperature controlled ULDs.
Smart ULD is an innovative solution combining the latest mobile, IoT and blockchain technologies to solve major pain-points on ULD management. Smart ULD digitally tracks and monitors ULDs during their transport, providing geolocation, temperature/shock/vibration/pressure alerts, digital damage reports. It aims at reducing the disrupting impact the loss or misplacement of ULDs, as well as moving ULD handling from paper to digital formats.
Smart ULD leverages a specific event-driven blockchain, to organize the full supply chain. It brings more visibility and event transparency to all stakeholders in need to exchange data. Smart ULD contributes to enhance the efficiency of supply chain processes.
Unilode’s concept will allow for the fast and easy introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) to the world of ULD management and to the air cargo supply chain. Unilode has developed together with its partners a Bluetooth based tracking solution for load devices potentially creating transparency across the whole supply chain.
An independent jury, comprising of industry experts, academics and executives of leading logistics companies selected the finalists based upon their assessment of the ideas’ potential to become the basis of a viable new venture, its potential for value creation, and the likelihood of achieving success based upon the team’s plan and experience.
IATA has invited these three finalists to present their idea at the 13th IATA World Cargo Symposium in Singapore next month. Delegates will then vote for their preferred idea and the winner will be announced during the Closing Plenary of the event on the 14 March 2019.
