Excitable winners, punching the air with their glass trophies brought to a successful end the Air Cargo Week World Air Cargo Awards. The ballroom at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel heard nine rounds of cheers and applauses for the nine awards presented by corporate sponsors.
In a room of more than 500 industry professionals, BBC producer and director, Nadia Dunn, guided the evening and awards ceremony. Before the awards and the dinner, the audience was treated to urban dancing, an acrobat and a crystal ball juggler. The backdrop to much of the dinner was a live band. The first award of the evening was airfreight forwarder of the year. Sponsored by Swissport, the finalists were, DHL Global Forwarding, Geodis, Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina. The winner was Geodis.
The next two awards were air cargo handling agent of the year and air cargo charter broker of the year. They were sponsored by Etihad Cargo and Saudia Cargo, respectively. The handling agent finalists were Alha Group, Asia Airfreight Terminal, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal (HACTL) and Swissport. The winner was HACTL. The finalists for the air cargo charter broker were, Air Charter Service, Chapman Freeborn, Chartersphere and Swiftport. The winner was Air Charter Service.
The other awards and winners were, airport of the year, Brussels Airport; general sales agent of the year, ECS Group; air cargo industry customer care award, Saudia Cargo; air cargo industry achievement award, Volga-Dnepr Group; and information technology for the air cargo industry award, WebCargoNet. The final award was cargo airline of the year. Sponsored by ATC Aviation, the finalists were, AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Emirates SkyCargo, Etihad Cargo, Qatar Cargo. The winner was Etihad Cargo. While the winners spend the night drinking their fill of German beer, or champagne, the 2016 awards will arrive soon enough.
