Reports that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) capacity could be reduced at major US gateway airports are the latest reminder that air cargo depends on something policymakers too often take for granted: stability.
For freight forwarders, stability is not an abstract policy preference. It is the difference between a shipment clearing on time and a consignment sitting at an airport when a hospital, manufacturer, or customer is waiting for it.
After more than 20 years with the Airforwarders Association, I have seen this industry adapt to security threats, financial crises, a pandemic, tariff uncertainty, capacity shocks, and government shutdowns.
Each disruption has been different, but the lesson has been the same: freight forwarders keep trade moving when systems come under pressure.
During Covid-19, passenger belly capacity collapsed almost overnight, and forwarders helped rebuild how air cargo moved. Charter networks scaled, freighters were used harder, passenger aircraft moved cargo, and medical supply chains kept going when failure was not an option.
That moment showed the practical value of an industry that is often invisible until something goes wrong. But it also showed why air cargo needs a collective voice when decisions are made by governments, regulators, and enforcement agencies.
No single company can solve congestion, regulatory uncertainty, tariff volatility, or disruption alone.
When rules are written without operational insight, they may appear sound on paper but fail in practice. When cargo is left out of infrastructure planning, the consequences are felt in truck queues, missed cutoffs, and higher costs.
When trade policy shifts abruptly, forwarders are left to manage uncertainty they did not create for customers who rely on predictability.
The industry’s responsibility is not to resist change, but to bring evidence and practical experience to the table before policy and operations drift apart.
Security tells the same story. After September 11, freight forwarders could have been treated only as a risk.
Sustained engagement important
Instead, through sustained engagement, they became part of the solution through programs including the Certified Cargo Screening Program and Air Cargo Advance Screening.
Those programs work because industry helped shape rules that are secure, practical, and grounded in how cargo actually moves.
As I prepare to step down, I am proud of what the Association has helped build, but I am not walking away from the issues that have defined this work.
My own days may become quieter, but the need for stable policy, modern infrastructure, practical regulation, and free trade will not disappear.
The next 20 years will bring more digitalisation, higher security expectations, sharper sustainability demands, new risks, and continued geopolitical pressure on supply chains.
The answer is not retreat, fragmentation, or protectionism. The answer is engagement, evidence, and a clear understanding that air cargo is too important to ignore.
Freight forwarders do not ask for special treatment. They ask for a system that recognises the essential role they play in keeping commerce, communities, and critical goods moving.
You know the freight doesn’t move itself, so our industry cannot afford to be an afterthought.