The outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia fully reflects the importance of the aviation logistics industry, but also exposes some weaknesses in the current stage of China's aviation logistics, and makes me have a new thinking about the aviation logistics information industry that I have been engaged in.

1. Weaknesses in the development of aviation logistics industry

1. Weak transport infrastructure

First, because of the traditional idea of "heavy passenger and light cargo", most of our airports during the planning and construction period, lack of planning for the development of air cargo. The specialized cargo security ability is relatively weak, and the airport cargo appears the phenomenon of "being developed". At the same time, the lack of top-level planning for the construction of cargo facilities leads to the lack of cargo development space in the mature and rapid development period of the airport.

Second, the functions and processes of cargo facilities in most domestic airports are basically planned and designed in the form of general cargo, which is difficult to meet the actual needs of international mail, express and special cargo.

With the sudden outbreak of the epidemic and the rapid growth of cargo volume, the operators of air logistics cargo terminals feel unprecedented pressure. Cargo terminals in some domestic airports are out of stock and lack of support and response capacity, resulting in a large number of cargo overstocked in warehouses. At the same time, a large number of trucks were waiting in line during the period of entering and leaving the cargo terminal, so they could not load and unload cargo in time. Occasionally, planes could not load on time and left the port empty.

To sum up, it strongly reflects the inadequacy of airport infrastructure, the lack of flexible design in cargo terminal area, the urgent need to optimize the security process, and the insufficient degree of industry informatization, unable to cope with a large number of business pressures, lack of ability to coordinate and manage the cargo operation of all relevant parties.

(2) Backward informatization of aviation logistics industry

As early as in the 1980s, when "informatization" was a new term for many industries, the aviation industry began to informatization. The aviation industry uses the host system, the dedicated communication network, the establishment of airlines in the global passenger and cargo sales network, as well as the cargo terminal information security management system; In the 90's, our country has introduced the host based cargo information system (FAST4) from abroad, and started the road of Chinese air logistics information; By 1998, China Southern Airlines launched cargo "online booking", connecting the Internet and air logistics industry for the first time, and in 2001 launched the world's first open platform and Internet based large airline cargo system.

It can be said that the informationization of our aviation logistics industry started early. However, today, the whole aviation logistics industry, whether in China or overseas, is far behind the express industry, as well as the personal information we are now changing with each passing day.

Twenty years ago, there was a famous "Internet survival" experiment in Beijing, where a man was locked in a room and given a computer to see how long he could live. Now, the reverse is true. How many days can a person live without the Internet? However, in the past 20 years, the progress of aviation logistics informatization is far behind that of individuals or the whole society.

So what are the reasons for the backward informatization of our industry?

First, the completion of air logistics service chain depends on airports, airlines, cargo agents, customs and other participants, spanning multiple provinces and even countries. All participants have their own information systems, which are relatively independent and lack of data communication. Second, because the aviation industry has high safety requirements, it has a certain degree of negative impact on the business process and information innovation. Given the need for safety concessions, it is not surprising that the business innovation and informationization of air cargo lag behind expectations.

Fortunately, after the impact of the epidemic, the competent authorities of the industry and government have fully understood our current problems. The team of BART has been particularly busy in recent years. Not only at the enterprise level, but also at the government level, we can see that CAAC has launched several large-scale informatization projects in the past year.

In 2021, the construction of SF Transshipment Center project at Ezhou Airport, the No.1 air logistics hub in Asia, was started. Sf chose Metrojet as the supplier of Cargo Operation Management System for its international cargo terminal. In SF Express Ezhou Project, COMS system is responsible for the inbound and outbound cargo station, ground truck transfer and flight transfer processing processes. COMS introduces automatic cargo positioning service to realize real-time monitoring of cargo location and trajectory. COMS also provides operational processes and terminal resource monitoring for terminal management, and provides data interface services for systems or departments such as Customs Single window, terminal security, airport AOC, SF Express and SF Airlines -- SF Express and Metrojet will work together to make this project a global benchmark for air logistics.

At the government level, the China Aviation Association Neutral Electronic Order Platform (DAP) project is a large-scale industrial project approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and built by BART. The core objectives of the project are: first, to solve the informatization of aviation logistics sales level, and second, to solve the problem of information interconnection between different partners of aviation logistics at the operational level.

On June 23, 2022, the DAP project of China Aviation Association successfully passed the final inspection!

Over the past decade, BART has done a lot of innovative research and development with the aviation industry. In 2013, the cooperation between MetroExpress and SF Express was to provide a capacity management model for its air freight business, and optimize the matching of cargo and different flight capacity through algorithms, so as to improve the transportation timeliness of air freight and reduce the procurement cost of capacity. In 2017, in cooperation with China Post Aviation, the company implemented the apron command and dispatch system, realized the standardization of flight support process, the automation of staff assignment, and the digitalization of the whole apron operation, and successfully reduced the ground support time of each flight by 20-30 minutes.

Ten years ago, the Centralized Weight and Balance System was creatively developed and implemented by MetroJet and China Post Aviation, the world's first "Centralized Weight and Balance System", centralized the airline's W&B operations to the Cloud, breaking the constraints of geography and personnel. In 2017, Air China Cargo implemented computer Auto Load, which uses computer algorithms to complete an hour of manual operation in seconds and automatically optimizes the aircraft's center of gravity (CG).

Reviewing the history of Chinese aviation logistics industry information work and reviewing our current situation, it can be concluded that most of our information work is still in the process of converting offline operation to online, which is the first stage of information. A large number of our informatization projects aim to turn "paper documents" into "electronic data", and a large number of operational transactions rely on manual drive or dominance. In ordinary work scenarios, manual driving can work normally. However, in the case of sudden business surge, such as last year's epidemic, a large amount of business data must be collected and timely responses made. Our current approach of relying on manual decision-making and judgment immediately presents problems. For example, during the epidemic, a large number of goods could not be loaded or unloaded in time, a large number of trucks queued for a long time, and even planes could not be loaded back after landing.

Aviation logistics is a highly dependent on information industry, information technology can help the industry to solve a lot of problems, so how to carry out the information work of aviation logistics industry?

Second, the future development focus of aviation logistics informatization

Before elaborating my views on the development of aviation logistics informatization, we need to first understand the nature of aviation logistics services. Aviation logistics service chain is long, participating partners. From the consignor to the consignee, a cargo must go through the cooperation of agents, security checks, cargo terminal, apron operation, airlines, truck and flight operators, customs and other parties. The business links include: booking, documentation, collection and transportation, board assembly, stowing, message processing, installation, unloading, cargo tally, extraction and settlement, payment, verification and so on.

Although the business content is complex, in essence, air logistics service content can be divided into two categories: sales management based on waybill and operation management based on aircraft/cargo. As shown below:

In the following, I will focus on the carrier-based cargo sales, and the ground operating agent (GHA) based cargo operations, to talk about my future development focus on aviation logistics informatization.

(1) Information technology of carriers

For carriers, the most core task is to maximize the value of aircraft cabin sales, as well as the efficient use and safety management of aircraft.

The informationization of cargo space sales involves three key links: booking sales, freight settlement and customer service; The key links involved in the informationization of aircraft operation management related to logistics include: aircraft load balancing, board and container management, terminal management, etc. It can be said that "booking + settlement", "stowage +ULD" together constitute the core basis of carrier logistics business informatization.

After ten years of efforts, we large and medium freight carriers have set up a booking system, settlement system, and realized the information operation of sales business. Its cargo booking and settlement system customers include: Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, YTO Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Long Haul Airlines, China Post Aviation, Jingdong Logistics, Hongyuan Group, etc.

In terms of the "Stow +ULD" system, almost all the airlines operating freighters in China have put into operation the stow balancing system of MetroJet, including Air China Cargo, China Post Airlines, SF Airlines, Sichuan Airlines Logistics, Longhao Airlines and so on.

So, what is the focus of the next stage of carrier logistics business informatization?

I think, first of all, direct freight is the next stage of the airline information hot spot. Airlines have a strong desire to promote the direct sales model, or try to extend the sales system to C-end customers of small and medium-sized logistics enterprises. In 2020, Metrojet and Xiamen Airlines jointly launched a direct freight platform for airlines, which integrates the airport-to-airport air services of airlines with the ground services of "door-to-door pickup + pick-up and delivery", helping airlines achieve direct sales and services to C-terminal customers and small and medium-sized logistics enterprises, and expanding the service radius of airlines. The scope of airline customers will be expanded from a limited number of "freight forwarders" to tens of thousands of small and medium-sized logistics companies and even individuals.

In addition, direct freight will promote dynamic pricing of freight. At present, the price of class space is mostly agreed by the freight rate agreement signed by the airline company and the agent in advance, and some of the freight rate is negotiated by the airline company and the agent in "Adhoc" when booking the space. Direct sales model and platform sales will continue to expand the share of airlines in the future, and airlines will gradually realize the "yield management" of freight rates.

Secondly, computer algorithm will play an increasingly important role in carrier logistics informatization. In the field of operation, in cooperation with China Cargo Air, automatic loading algorithm has been introduced into Cargo Air China's load balancing system. Test data of Cargo Air China show that computer loading algorithm can significantly optimize the center of gravity index and save fuel consumption for airlines. For example, every flight can save 1% or 2% of fuel, for the airlines, first is to save fuel cost, but also for the realization of carbon neutralization, carbon peak play a positive role.

In addition, information technology will help airlines effectively improve customer service. Airlines pay great attention to customer service. How to ensure the smooth arrival of air cargo from the originating station to the destination station according to the booking plan? How to better connect all links within such a long service chain is a scenario that the information system can solve and play an important role in. According to the service standards set by airlines, the information system can supervise the work efficiency of each link and different service providers, proactively detect anomalies and remind relevant service providers and carriers to solve problems before they occur. Our industry can also use such technology to improve the efficiency of our cargo operation, the safety of our cargo, and ultimately to improve our level of service to shippers or forwarders.

(2) Information about the operation of the agent

The core resource of cargo depot lies in the warehouse and ground operation capability. How to improve the efficiency of warehouse process and ground operation? Compared with the manual command operation mechanism, digital operation, computer algorithm and artificial intelligence application, the overall operation efficiency of ground support can be greatly improved.

In 2017, the apron command and dispatch system cooperated with China Post Aviation. The first phase of the project simply built various guarantee process standards into the system, and then realized the command and dispatch work of personnel online. An evaluation data actually used by China Post Aviation is that the flight ground support time can be compressed in about 20 minutes. As you know, for a 737/757 narrow-body aircraft operated by Post Air, the ground support time reduction of 20 minutes is quite significant.

In the next stage, we will give it intelligent algorithms to load scheduling and dispatch workers in command and dispatch. I expect there will be a greater improvement in the efficiency of ground operations.

Another development direction of air logistics ground operation agent information is unmanned and automated. The current manpower cost of our ground operations service providers is a significant burden. Therefore, the use of this kind of logistics automation equipment, such as AGV, the application of this new equipment in air cargo terminal, I think is an inevitable choice for our industry. The application of AGV in the cargo station is inseparable from the control of the AGV system by software. The software can effectively integrate and connect the AGV with the business flow of our cargo station, and then use the business data to drive the automatic equipment of AGV through software. I think this must be an information development focus of our ground operation service providers in the future.

Three, about the story of Metrojie Xun

The company was founded 10 years ago with a team of just three people. I worked for China Southern Airlines for 6 years before founding Metrojet. In 1998, in China Southern Airlines, I led the research, development and implementation of the "Global Freight Tracking System" and "Online Booking system" of China Southern Airlines. I came into contact with the aviation logistics business for the first time and found that this field had great potential. At the end of 1999, I successfully convinced the senior management of China Southern Airlines that China Southern Airlines should develop its own airline freight system. To replace the FAST4 mainframe system of the Information Center of CAAC (the predecessor of AVIC) at that time. As the project leader, he led the team of China Southern Airlines to successfully complete the research and development of the world's first open platform cargo system for large airlines (" Tang Wing "). After leaving China Southern Airlines for a long time, the industry gave me the label of "Tang Wing" founder.

Our first business came from the cooperation with IBM to jointly undertake the Nanjing Lukou Airport Logistics Center system project. After more than ten years of development, we always adhere to the original intention of providing information services for the aviation logistics industry. At present, our customers cover the carrier, ground operation agent, logistics express industry.

In the field of carrier, 7 out of the top 8 freighter carriers in China are customers of Metrojet, including Air China Cargo, China Southern Airlines, China Post Airlines, Hainan Airlines, SF Airlines, YTO Airlines, Sichuan Airlines Logistics, etc. In the field of ground operation, the No.1 Ezhou SF International Cargo Terminal in Asia announced last month that it has chosen MetroExpress as its cargo terminal system supplier. Sf Express will work with MetroExpress to build a benchmark project for the future. Our clients in the field of ground operations also include Shanghai Airport Group, Baoan Airport, Tianjin Huayu, Haikou Meilan Airport, Sanya Phoenix Airport, Nanchang Changbei Airport, Zhuhai Airport and so on.

(Ten years of dedicated research and development, thick accumulation)

Looking back, there are two important reasons for our achievements. One is that we were founded in the right country. China is a great country with a huge market demand. Secondly, we are developing in a "right" period. In the past 10 years, China's aviation industry has also witnessed rapid development. From the initial period of our establishment, China only had about 30-40 cargo planes, but now there are nearly 200 cargo planes. At the same time, the demand for freight systems will become higher and more diverse. We seize this opportunity, continue to develop new products, continue to provide customers with more perfect, more systematic services, and our industry grow together, become what it is today.

Looking ahead, we will accelerate the introduction of intelligent algorithms, big data and other cutting-edge technologies into the aviation logistics industry; We will also accelerate the integration and application of AGV-like products into more operational scenarios of air logistics cargo terminals to further reduce cargo terminal manpower, reduce cargo terminal operating costs and improve work efficiency. In the application of AGV and automation products, other logistics industry has many successful cases, but to introduce the aviation scene, there is still a lot of research and development and testing work, and overcome a lot of technical difficulties, and bold breakthrough and innovation. However, these challenges are the responsibility and opportunity of our transportation and aviation logistics enterprises.

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