AirCnC - The Platform to connect crisis demand for cargo with available aviation capacity

During the Covid-19 pandemic, cargo and freight flights are amongst the few areas operating and generating revenue for the aviation sector. Cargo and freight have historically had less investment than passenger air travel but are now the focus of efforts to shore up commercial positions of multiple industry operators. Supply chains have been disrupted in many industries and new logistics requirements have emerged, notably including movements of critical supplies of medical equipment and personal protection equipment.

There is currently no efficient way for airlines to connect available capacity with organisations urgently needing to transport goods. Arrangements are being made unilaterally between airlines and individual organisations – an approach which is inefficient and scales poorly.

By working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority and a broad range of stakeholders across the end to end Air Cargo supply chain we will focus on learning how the industry was impacted by Covid-19, understand the root causes and develop a set of recommendations for systemic change to provide a more effective robust to future spikes or similar crisis situations and the working with the industry to start the implementation. Countries will recover at different rates and passenger numbers may be down for some time, but demand for supplies, including samples and time-critical equipment, will remain high for months and future spike will likely result in repeats of previous situations

We are aware of the impact aviation has on the environment and this project is focused on efficiency: better utilising spare capacity on existing flights rather than simply stimulating additional aircraft movements. Our recommendations will also provide a long term de-carbonisation and noise pollution benefit as the focus of the project is on increasing the efficiency of flights currently operating by utilising ‘wasted space’. High utilisation aircraft traffic may also lead to a reduction in road cargo with consequent pollution and congestion benefits.