Belli at CAPA Airline Leader Summit Australia Pacific 2026
Belli builds cargo software for the world's fastest airlines. As part of our ongoing presence at global aviation events, Founder Jeff Pan joined industry leaders in Adelaide to lead a key discussion on where regional air freight is headed next.
About CAPA
CAPA – Centre for Aviation brings together senior executives, operators, and decision-makers from across the Asia-Pacific region. Its summits serve as a focal point for analyzing market shifts, regulatory developments, and emerging technologies in global supply chains.
Driving the air freight conversation
Jeff moderated the panel session "Overcoming Challenges and Driving Innovation in Australasia's Air Freight Industry." Joining him were senior leaders from Cathay Pacific Airways, Tasman Cargo Airlines, and Texel Air Limited.
Together, the group tackled key issues facing regional carriers today, from airport capacity constraints and workforce shortages to how modern cargo software is replacing legacy systems to build resilient, transparent air supply chains.
In this session, moderator Jeff Pan (Belli) was joined by panelists Nigel Chynoweth (Cathay Cargo), Kim Rasmussen (Tasman Cargo Airlines), and Mariëtte Ebersöhn (Texel Air) to tackle the operational realities of regional supply chains today. The panel explored the unique complexities of handling specialized cargo, ranging from live breeding horses and SeaWorld polar bears to time-sensitive local perishables, while navigating persistent airport bottlenecks and strict terminal cutoffs.
Jeff Pan: "Maybe since most of the people in the audience are probably familiar with passenger operations but not necessarily cargo, maybe what are some of the craziest things that you've shipped at Cathay?"
Nigel Chynoweth: "When I was asked this question by Jeff, this one came directly to mind and it was Henry the polar bear who was at SeaWorld... they wanted to keep him in the breeding program... In the end, we don't fly a freighter to Vancouver, but we did fly a freighter to Vancouver to make sure that Henry got to where he needed to go... As he left, he was on his back and he had this big tub of yogurt that he was eating..."
Kim Rasmussen: "Last year we moved more than 2,000 horses... one noteworthy item is that when we load horses, you never load male horses behind female horses, ever."
Mariëtte Ebersöhn: "At Texel Air, we move horses to smaller places... we did a horse charter to Tahiti out of Auckland, and it was the first breeding stock that they got in five years after COVID, which was quite special as well."
The speakers also discussed how the industry is addressing fleet shortages and wide-body conversion delays, alongside a major industry-wide push to modernize legacy paper and EDI processes through 100% online bookings, real-time tracking, and AI-driven predictive tools.
Jeff Pan: "Cargo is probably about 25 years behind the passenger side... How do you actually see cargo changing over the next 5 years?"
Nigel Chynoweth: "100% of our bookings are online bookings. We don't take anything over the phone now. 99% of our shipments are lodged with e-documentation... A lot of the shift in terms of what our resources used to do, they've moved... now they're checkers and they're now becoming educators... AI to me is not the big issue. It's the fact that our staff have to change to accommodate the AI."
Mariëtte Ebersöhn: "For us, on-time performance is absolutely key. So we've actually used our own data quite effectively using some AI tools to do some predictive forecasting on what spares we need to keep, what type of maintenance... that was something that was positive."
Kim Rasmussen: "Track and traceability for the agents, for people to be able to follow up, I think can be improved for the general freight... Sustainability was flogged to death yesterday and today, but it's high... TCA is one of 3 airlines in Australia that are part of the Corsia program... and we do take this very, very seriously."