Growing working relationships with other industry associations and regulatory bodies is to be one of the key objectives for The International Air Cargo Association's (TIACA) new chairman, Gary Bartek, during his two-year term of office.
"In recent years, TIACA has established itself as the expert voice of the air logistics industry with bodies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Customs Organization, World Trade Organization, the United Nations' Council on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank and the European Civil Aviation Council. We have also worked more closely with government departments such as the US Department of Transportation and the European Commission. We must continue to deepen these relationships, seeking more and better ways to cooperate and get closer to other industry associations and regulators," said Bartek, Marketing Manager Cargo Development for Kansas City International Airport.
He intends to achieve this goal by encouraging TIACA's influential membership to take a more active role in the Association's campaign to protect and promote the industry. TIACA members represent all participants in air logistics and produce combined annual revenues of more than $200 billion and Bartek said, "There is a vast amount of talent in our membership that we have yet to effectively tap into. We need to find ways to engage all of our members because the more they put into the Association, the more they will get out of it."
This will be supported by a drive to continue the expansion of TIACA's membership. In the past 12 months, the Association's membership achieved record growth with 72 new members. Bartek is keen to build on this momentum and has set a target of a 50% boost in membership over the next two years.
"I am setting an aggressive membership recruitment goal because I am confident it is achievable. Membership satisfaction has never been higher thanks to the additional benefits TIACA now provides, such as Weekly Regulatory Updates, Annual Air Cargo Forecasts, the publication of major research papers and educational scholarships. Our members now recognize that TIACA gives them many more benefits that they can accomplish individually."
Underpinning all of Bartek's objectives will be the further development of TIACA's biennial Air Cargo Forum & Exposition in 2006 in Calgary and in 2008 at a venue in Asia yet to be confirmed. Some 3,000 senior industry executives from more than 60 countries participated in the last event in Spain that also sold an all-time high of 400 occupied exhibition spaces.
"For more than 40 years, the TIACA forums have been the one event that has brought our industry together from all four corners of the world. We are learning all the time about how to improve the event and we expect to offer even more benefits to exhibitors and visitors in 2006. We intend to increase the scope of participation in the event and use it to help 'grow the economic pie' for everyone in the industry. The Association must promote the competitive advantages of airfreight over other modes of transport. Promoting the industry and its contribution to the economic prosperity of the world is at the very heart of everything we do."
Assisting Bartek will be Jack Boisen, Vice President Cargo for Houston-based Continental Airlines, who was elected Vice Chairman of TIACA at its AGM in Istanbul last month. Boisen is a Director of TIACA and Chairman of the Air Cargo Council of the Air Transport Association.
A newly-elected Board of Directors will support Bartek and Boisen for the 2005-2006 term, consisting of Dora Kay, Larry Coyne, Ricardo Gonzalez, Steve Prince, Kenneth "Joe" Fralick, Tony Bauckham, Ulrich Ogiermann, Edwin "Ned" Laird, Martin Fraissignes, Richard Norris, Ali Al Jallaf, James Edgar and Issa Baluch.
