In celebration of this Lunar New Year, Changi Airport Group (CAG) Air Cargo Operations team delivered pizza meals to those who were working during the festive holiday at Changi Airfreight Centre (CAC). A total of 400 pizzas were delivered to front-line service and operations staff of freight forwarding companies, Certis Cisco, dnata Cargo, ICA and SATS Cargo, as they continued to facilitate air cargo flows for Singapore even during the holiday season.

CAG would like to take this opportunity to thank all service and operations staffs at CAC for their hard work and contribution over this period. Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous year ahead!

1. How has it been like since undertaking the role as CEO of SingPost International Business? What have been your key priorities?

Growing the international business for SingPost is our strategy to expand our capabilities, capture new business opportunities and collaborations.

I have been forging new strategies for SingPost’s international business and identifying boundaries with my team that we have yet explored. There are also many new opportunities that we can work on to grow the business internationally. My current task is to establish long and short-term business strategies for SingPost’s international business unit, strengthening its corporate and board governance focusing on transformational growth, operational excellence, sustainability, leading to growth not only in revenue, but also a responsible employer with emphasis in people development.

Ultimately, I am looking to expand the SingPost business across geographies, leveraging existing capabilities and unlocking business opportunities through collaborations. SingPost has a unique advantage in being able to leverage both an extensive postal network as well as wide commercial networks to have access to 220 markets across the globe. We definitely can help businesses go global, expand their footprint, and grow their business.

2. With the expected continued growth of eCommerce especially in Asia, how is SingPost planning to capture the growth?

SingPost believes that the long-term prospects for eCommerce remain positive with the change in consumer habits (i.e. buying online), and we continue to work towards increasing our market share in eCommerce logistics.

The eCommerce growth and markets beyond the shores of Singapore are very attractive to us in growing our end-to-end eCommerce logistics solutions offerings. However, with the recent developments around the world, costs of doing business across borders have skyrocketed as air cargo capacities were impaired. On the postal network front, terminal dues are eroding profits and inflating costs making the business environment very challenging. The situation is beginning to ease but it will take a while before things get better.

3. Sustainability has risen in importance in recent years and has become a key pillar in businesses. What are the opportunities and challenges that you expect to see in adopting sustainability in the air cargo industry?

Rising costs is one of the biggest challenges in the adoption of sustainable practices for the air cargo industry. Sustainable fuel options, carbon-efficient transportation, building a greener supply chains and even the adoption of technology in workflow processes will add on to operating costs that is already facing inflationary pressures.

One other struggle for the industry, is that in order to achieve greater ease and efficiencies in sustainable practices, it requires alignment from all players in the industry to make sustainability a collective effort.

With challenges comes opportunities, the common goal in achieving sustainability will give rise to more collaborations within the industry and drive innovation that fuels synergies to benefit more stakeholders.

Sustainability is here to stay, and also the way to remain in business for a long time as it reinforces resilience. SingPost is committed to our purpose of making every delivery count for people and planet, and we are making positive changes by focusing on environmental and social responsibility in our business operations.

We are exploring different decarbonisation pathways for different markets across operations globally. There is another target that we are committed to and that is to increase operational recycling rate to 30% by 2025.

Customers’ demands are for quick, fuss-free services and most importantly, trackability of their shipments. From our end, we want to ensure that the customer’s experience is great and satisfaction levels are met. This is imperative in building customer loyalty and advocacy. Technology will be one of the best tools in meeting these demands and creating a steady stream of return customers. Another way, we also need to leverage algorithms and data to develop strategies that can provide customers with more information that they would need – this can help in levelling up customer satisfaction and naturally enhance the customer’s overall experience.

In addition to the obvious benefits of operating in a more environmentally friendly way, for businesses, operating a sustainable supply chain is about more than just ‘going green’. It can be the difference between a business succeeding or failing.

If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that we need to be prepared for the unexpected, and that means always having a plan B; backup suppliers in case of disruption to your regular ones, backup transportation options in the event of, say, port or canal blockages, varied customer bases and, for offline businesses, a business plan that includes a solid eCommerce strategy.

That said, from the perspective of advancing sustainability in the organisation, SingPost announced a set of ambitious climate targets: achieving net-zero emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) in our Singapore operations by 2030, and global net-zero emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) by 2050. We are also committed to align our sustainability reporting to recommendations met out by the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures in due course.

Operationally, the cost of meeting our sustainability targets is one of the biggest roadblocks. In the current business climate where we are already seeing rising costs for our operations, the cost for keeping our operations sustainable and environmentally friendly is even higher.

As we work with different partners across the sectors, there may be a lack in alignment in terms of sustainability frameworks and way of conducting business. Players in the supply chain rely on one another in the ecosystem hence there is a need for alignment to maintain sustainability-related policies and procedures. This is challenging as different players may have hurdles of their own when it comes to sustainability matters.

Mindsets also need to shift with this new way of operating businesses. Organisations can implement new policies for their people to follow, but fundamentally, mindsets need to change towards adopting sustainability as the way forward.

This shift in mindset will take time, but it is essential for us to charter into new waters, find new opportunities, and achieve breakthroughs within the sector. We are facing a lot of challenges, changes and even the digitisation of a traditional sector. Many things that we used to do may not work anymore so we must develop new ways of doing business to progress.

4. What opportunities do you see for the region and Singapore?

While we look beyond our shores, Changi will be the bedrock of our eCommerce Hub. Our strategic position between key eCommerce lanes in the Asia Pacific and Australasia region gives us the geographic advantage as the flight frequency and connectivity creeps back close to the pre-covid levels. We have signed an MOU with SATS and a security agency to boost cargo security screening in Changi. Supported by AI technology, the screening will lead us to be the gold standard in securely transporting eCommerce shipments via Changi. This will further boost Changi’s image on air safety and security.

We see tremendous opportunities in the inflow and outflow of eCommerce traffic from Changi in the coming years. We are currently in discussion with key partners in Changi to modernise our hub operations in Changi Airfreight Centre to develop a best in class, state-of-the-art design suited specifically for eCommerce. This is a testament of our affirmation in the growth in Changi.