At air cargo China in Shanghai, Reji John, Editor of The STAT Trade Times, moderated a panel on "Sustainability, costs, and industry margins: Navigating the air cargo reset." Speakers were Bettina Petzold, Head of Corporate Responsibility, Lufthansa Cargo; Stefanie Pauly, Chief Information & Technology Officer, Jettainer; and Betelhem Abel, Director Global Cargo Sales & Services, Ethiopian Airlines.

Demand from e-commerce, pharma and high-value freight remains strong, yet profitability is squeezed by high SAF costs, fleet delays, volatile expenses and tightening carbon rules. The panel asked how airlines can decarbonise in a low-margin world and turn compliance into competitive advantage.

Key themes included the compliance trap, where regulation is outpacing SAF supply, with biogenic SAF costing three to five times conventional kerosene and covering only about 0.2% of global fuel needs in 2023. The panel also discussed the cost-sharing gap, since sustainability cannot be a single-carrier burden and multi-year SAF framework agreements are emerging as a viable but thinly adopted model. On Africa, thin margins leave little room for green premiums, risking a two-tier industry without global access to SAF and green finance.

Digitalisation emerged as the invisible decarboniser, with ULD optimisation, network load balancing and fuel analytics cutting emissions without a fuel transition. Finally, speakers stressed margin discipline as strategy: durable sustainability positions come from fixing cost structures first and treating green investment as a commercial decision.

AirCargoSAFSustainabilityAirCargoChinaLogisticsDecarbonisationAviationGlobalTradeFreighterstechnologyhacks

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