AI Could Reduce Air Cargo Collection Times by 8 Hours

CHI Cargo Group's CEO Kai Domscheit presented findings at Aviation Connect in Athens showing that artificial intelligence could reduce air cargo collection times by approximately eight hours per shipment. The opportunity stems from the industry's reliance on fragmented, unstructured data stored across emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, and scanned documents. By structuring this operational data and automating dispatch and collection planning before the traditional release-order trigger, cargo handlers can achieve significant time savings.

This development signals a broader shift in air cargo operations toward data-driven automation. The air cargo sector generates substantial volumes of operational information that remains trapped in legacy systems and manual workflows, limiting visibility and planning efficiency. AI solutions that can aggregate and process this data could enable handlers to begin logistics planning earlier in the shipment lifecycle, reducing idle time and accelerating overall throughput.

For supply chain professionals, this highlights the competitive advantage of digital transformation in freight handling. Organizations that invest in data infrastructure and AI-driven planning tools may gain meaningful efficiency gains, while those relying on manual, paper-based processes face growing operational disadvantages. The implication extends beyond individual handlers to affect shipper expectations around collection speed and predictability.