Airport Community Systems: Design for Efficiency, Not Just Digitization

Airport community systems represent a significant opportunity for air cargo supply chain optimization, yet industry leaders caution that implementation approach is critical to success. Ground handling executives at TIACA's Executive Summit in Warsaw highlighted a fundamental risk: poorly designed systems risk automating existing inefficiencies rather than eliminating them entirely. The distinction between digitizing legacy processes and fundamentally reimagining them is central to whether these systems deliver genuine value.

The challenge reflects a broader industry fragmentation issue where stakeholders—from carriers to handlers to customs authorities—operate with fragmented workflows and data standards. Airport community systems aim to create unified digital environments, but only if they genuinely consolidate disparate processes rather than create additional layers of complexity. This tension underscores that technology adoption alone is insufficient; strategic process redesign must precede system implementation.

For supply chain professionals, this debate carries immediate operational implications. Organizations investing in airport community system adoption must audit existing workflows to identify genuine pain points before selecting or configuring solutions. Failure to do so risks capital expenditure on tools that perpetuate rather than solve underlying inefficiencies, ultimately delaying cargo processing and degrading service levels.