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Pandemic forces air cargo group to postpone September conference

The International Air Cargo Association has postponed its annual conference until March. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

The robust recovery of U.S. domestic travel this summer increasingly looks like more of an outlier than a sign that airline bookings will continue unabated.

Global airlines — and by default the air cargo industry that piggybacks on passenger flights — could face a bumpier recovery from the COVID pandemic than originally thought. Following a robust summer season for domestic U.S. carriers, the delta variant is making people more reluctant to travel by air and could limit travel in the fall, especially among businesspeople.

On Monday, The International Air Cargo Association announced that it is postponing its Executive Summit scheduled for Sept. 21-24 in San Francisco. Event co-organizer Messe München also pulled the plug on the Transport Logistics Americas Forum.

The announcement follows last week’s news that the New York Auto Show scheduled for later this month was canceled. 


“The recent announcement by the U.S. administration that the existing travel ban on people arriving from the UK, EU, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, and other [countries] will not be lifted in the foreseeable future meant that it is impossible to welcome all delegates who have indicated their desire to attend. This is very disappointing news as recent indications were that the ban was anticipated to be lifted soon,” the organizers said.

The rise of the delta variant has also led more countries, especially in Asia, to tighten border controls. 

The mutant COVID strain required more on-site restrictions that would have limited the event’s value, TIACA and Messe München said. The conference would have been the first in two years after last year’s event was canceled because of COVID.

The co-located events have been rescheduled for March 22-25.


“We are confident that the revised dates will provide sufficient additional time for greater numbers of people to be vaccinated and address the current rise in infections,” the groups said.

Meanwhile, Cargo Networks Services, the U.S. division of the International Air Transport Association, is moving ahead with its Partnership Conference scheduled for Aug. 29-31 in Miami. The primary difference is that the vast majority of attendees are from the U.S., whereas TIACA attracts a much bigger international audience.

IATA’s World Cargo Symposium, scheduled for Oct. 12-14 in Istanbul, is still on track.

 Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won Environmental Journalist of the Year from the Seahorse Freight Association in 2014 and was the group's 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. In December 2022, he was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist by the Seahorse Freight Association. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. Eric is based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached for comments and tips at [email protected]