ICAO highlights e-commerce expectations of modern consumers

The secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Dr. Fang Liu, has said that nearly 90 percent of business-to-consumer (B2C) global e-commerce transactions are delivered by air, and that commercial aircraft are the only shipping mode available which can satisfy the expectations of modern consumers for many same-day or next-day deliveries.
Liu’s points were made during her keynote remarks to the high-level audience of public- and private-sector officials in Beijing for the World Customs Organization’s (WCO’s) First Global Conference on Cross-Border E-Commerce.
She further alluded to the revolution now taking place as aviation integrates new unmanned aircraft, both large and small, into the global airspace.
Liu added that the overall preparedness of countries and regions, whether in terms of levels of ICAO compliance or their infrastructure capacity and airport multimodal connectivity would play a key factor in their ability to leverage growing e-commerce operations to their full economic benefit.
“This explains why governments must have comprehensive aviation and airport development planning in place, and how important it is for those air transport priorities to be strategically integrated into States’ overall national and urban development objectives,” she said.