The airfreight industry has talked about digital transformation, e-AWBs and automation for decades. At the Air Cargo Americas conference in Miami this year, the tone shifted: technology is no longer a distant promise. It is the current operating system of cargo.
Carriers, handlers and tech providers are now deploying smart ULDs, AI-enabled warehouses and machine-driven workflows. And the recent U.S. airport shutdown shows just how urgent the shift has become.
“We are at an AI inflection point … we are now writing code with artificial intelligence” – Kes Nielsen, Director of Business Development, Amazon Air
Smart ULDs: The first real “physical AI layer”
At a Jettainer press talk, CEO Dr Jan-Wilhelm Breithaupt introduced a new hybrid tracking stack built with Trackonomy. The system layers BLE for pinpoint accuracy, LoRa for wide-area coverage, and cellular-enabled tags that act as mobile readers, using meshing technology to capture signals from nearby tagged ULDs and eliminate blind spots.
“While BLE and LoRa have been the standard so far, integrating cellular connectivity and meshing technology marks a significant step forward,” Breithaupt said.
The cloud-based JettwareNG platform integrates via API and is being upgraded in line with IATA’s ONE Record standard. The goal is granular, real-time visibility, whether a ULD is inbound, in build-up, staged in the buffer zone, or already on a truck, particularly when assets are dispersed or rerouted during disruption.
Warehouse automation: real-world gains
Alliance Ground International (AGI) described more than 10 technology initiatives rolled out in the past two years to cut dwell times in airport warehouses.
“A warehouse is not a storage facility. It’s a throughput machine.” – Jared Azcuy, CEO-Alliance Ground International
Initiatives include driver-app check-in (skip the front counter), AI-camera networks monitoring behaviour and safety in real time, and dashboards tracking turnaround times. AGI’s target: 15-30 minute truck-in/truck-out cycles. This isn’t futuristic, it’s what they believe is achievable today.
e-commerce scale: Amazon’s blueprint
Amazon may not be a ‘traditional’ carrier, but their perspective matters. Amazon Air emphasised the importance of modular, loosely-coupled systems in a high-speed network.
Their aim: 98.9 percent on-time delivery, online booking portals, money-back guarantees, and systems to back it up. For airfreight, this means that real-time traceability, front-line empowerment and immediate intervention are no longer optional.
Predictive maintenance & the safety imperative
Airlines are also moving. Predictive-maintenance models, AI-driven behaviour-monitoring, and data-driven equipment utilisation are key focal points. Yet speakers stressed the industry’s tech-conservative culture and constraints:
– Safety regulators
– Paper-based processes
– Capital-intensive equipment
Diogo Elias, CEO of Avianca Cargo said “while tech leaps are underway, in many markets we still have to deal with paper for customs.”
Shutdown stress-test: why visibility is key
These technology investments have taken on new urgency now that real-world disruption has struck.
In November 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a 10% reduction in flight capacity at 40 major U.S. airports during a prolonged government shutdown. Although international cargo flights were initially exempt, the move exposed the vulnerability of global supply chains. The shutdown has left forwarders and airlines scrambling to re-position ULDs, rebalance fleets and reroute perishables.
The air cargo industry relies on synchronicity. The shutdown reinforced that visibility isn’t just efficiency, it is resilience. Smart ULDs, digital workflows and data transparency let operators respond in hours rather than weeks.
Closing the adoption gap
So why isn’t every carrier already digitised? The speakers described three core barriers:
- Conservative culture + safety/regulation
- Spatial dispersion of infrastructure (especially in emerging markets)
- Cost vs value tensions (putting tracking electronics on relatively low-value pallets)
As Jared Azcuy of AGI put it:
“We’ve been hearing about the e-AWB for the past 20 years and we still land a stack of paper every time a plane touches down.’*
The shift now is less about “if” but “how fast.” The investments are live. The geographies are ready. The disruption risks (like the airport shutdown) are clear.
The new operating system
Smart ULDs, warehouse automation, AI-driven maintenance and real-time traceability are no longer experimental, they will likely be the backbone of next year’s operations. The air-cargo business is rebuilding or rather “rebooting” its operating system. And in 2026, it appears the biggest winners will be those who don’t just talk about innovation, they execute it.
