Who says the air cargo industry is resistant to change? In this year’s Air Cargo Excellence (ACE) Awards, various trends, such as the rise in e-commerce and the increased demand for perishables, have led to new infrastructure investments and innovative programs to focus on certain niches of higher-yield airfreight.
These changes have had a dramatic effect on the highly-anticipated results of the ACE Awards, which have been streamlined and recategorized based on carrier and airport size, rather than geography. While many of the names in these charts are familiar, long-time winners, there are a number of newcomers that are proving that the industry is hardly static. Created in 2005, the Air Cargo Excellence Awards are based on the results of the exclusive, anonymous Air Cargo Excellence survey that is carried out and published annually by Air Cargo World.
The survey evaluates cargo carriers and airports and ranks each one with indexed numerical scores, based on several performance factors. With an index score of 100 being the baseline, the airports and carriers are rated based on how far above or below that baseline their overall scores ended up.
The airports and carriers are ranked using different criteria. Carriers were evaluated by freight forwarders, who were asked to give a numerical rating for customer service, performance and value over the previous 12 months. Airports, however, were judged by forwarders, cargo agents and third-party logistics providers on each airport’s performance, value and facilities for the same time period. (To see more on the methodology, please visit aceawards.aircargoworld.com.)
The top three performers in each category were awarded Diamond, Platinum and Gold status. Congratulations were also given to all carriers and airport that received an above-average ACE index score. Those that scored above the 100-point baseline, but less than the Diamond, Platinum and Gold levels, were given an ACE Certificate of Excellence.
For 2017, the process has been standardized a bit more, and we increased the minimum threshold for the number of responses needed to be counted in the survey, so the data is more statistically valid than ever before. All told, there are 15 awards and 20 certificates being bestowed this year to some of the brightest lights in the business. Here are the results:
ACE Award Results: