IN Brief:
- Mammen Tharakan becomes TIACA director general during August.
- His experience spans airlines, airports, handling, ecommerce, and infrastructure.
- Digitalisation, capacity, sustainability, and disrupted trade will dominate his tenure.
The International Air Cargo Association has appointed Mammen Tharakan as its next director general, with the aviation executive due to succeed Glyn Hughes during August 2026.
An international search led by TIACA’s executive committee and board concluded with Tharakan’s unanimous selection. Hughes, who has led the organisation since 2021, will support a planned handover before retiring from the role.
Tharakan brings more than 25 years of experience across airlines, airports, ground handling, ecommerce, route development, infrastructure, tourism, and investment attraction. His previous positions have included senior roles with Air France-KLM, Edmonton International Airport, and King Salman International Airport in Riyadh.
As director general, he will lead TIACA’s secretariat and work with its board on membership, policy, research, events, standards, and industry collaboration. The association represents organisations across the air-cargo chain, including shippers, forwarders, handlers, airports, airlines, manufacturers, and technology providers.
“Air cargo is critical to global trade and economic development, but its greatest impact is human,” Tharakan said. His initial priorities include increasing membership, improving the value delivered to existing members, and strengthening TIACA’s visibility across regions where airfreight capacity and supporting infrastructure are expanding.
During Hughes’ tenure, the organisation broadened its membership, increased research activity, developed sustainability programmes, and strengthened its financial position. Engagement has extended beyond airlines and forwarders as ecommerce businesses, software providers, specialist handlers, airports, and infrastructure investors have assumed larger roles in international cargo movements.
The leadership transition arrives while air-cargo networks are absorbing several structural changes simultaneously. Ecommerce continues to produce high-volume demand for rapid international delivery, while pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, aerospace components, perishables, and other specialist cargo require more controlled handling, security, traceability, and environmental management.
Digital capability remains uneven between organisations and locations, because airlines, handlers, customs authorities, airports, road carriers, and forwarders frequently work through systems built around different standards and levels of automation. Repeated data entry and incomplete milestone information still delay decisions after a shipment begins to deviate from plan.
More operational information is consequently being connected to physical cargo handling. Kalé Logistics and e-Smart Networks are integrating cargo visibility with airport and handling workflows, moving beyond isolated tracking portals towards shared execution data. Wider adoption will depend on interoperability across trade lanes rather than another layer of software requiring manual reconciliation.
Capacity investment is also changing the balance between established and emerging cargo hubs. Hyderabad Airport’s second cargo terminal has added specialist handling in a market shaped by pharmaceutical manufacturing, engineering exports, perishables, and growing international connectivity.
Comparable investment across India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America is creating additional routing options while intensifying competition between airports. Cargo owners increasingly assess the whole gateway proposition — customs performance, handling quality, road access, warehouse capacity, digital systems, specialist facilities, and available airline connections — rather than runway capacity alone.
Sustainability presents another cross-industry challenge, because progress depends on fuel production, airline purchasing, airport infrastructure, shipper demand, and credible emissions accounting. Sustainable aviation fuel can reduce lifecycle emissions, but limited supply and price premiums continue to restrict adoption beyond selected routes and contractual programmes.
Security has similarly expanded beyond physical screening. Cargo systems contain commercial data, customs information, shipment instructions, and access credentials whose compromise can interrupt operations or redirect goods. Digitalisation therefore has to advance alongside cybersecurity, identity control, and dependable manual contingency procedures.
Changes in tariffs, sanctions, customs rules, de minimis thresholds, and access to airspace have made trade flows more volatile. Airfreight often absorbs the most urgent consequences, as manufacturers and retailers shift time-sensitive cargo away from congested ports, delayed ocean services, or disrupted surface routes.
That role creates demand without guaranteeing predictable returns. Carriers and forwarders must position capacity before complete volume information is available, while airports commit to infrastructure with long development cycles. Shippers seek assured access during disruption without permanently paying for capacity that may remain unused during quieter periods.
Tharakan’s background in airports and route development gives him direct experience of those competing interests. TIACA’s broader membership provides a platform for aligning standards, digital processes, sustainability evidence, and infrastructure priorities, although progress will depend on converting industry discussion into arrangements that work consistently across organisational and national boundaries.
The association enters the transition with greater reach than it held five years ago. Its next phase will be judged by the quality of the handovers it helps improve — between systems, airports, modes, regulators, and companies — because air cargo rarely fails within a single organisation.
