SEA at the FIATA World Congress with the Milan AirCargo Community: digitalization serving the cargo supply chain
SEA Milan Airports is participating in the FIATA World Congress 2026 in Milan (October 6–8) alongside three partners from the Milan AirCargo Community: ALHA and BCUBE Air Cargo—Malpensa’s leading cargo handling operators—and Cargo Start, a key technology partner for the development of the airport’s Cargo Community System.
Promoted and coordinated by SEA, the Milan AirCargo Community was established to represent Malpensa’s cargo sector as a unified ecosystem and to strengthen its position in international markets. The Community serves as a forum where the airport operator, handlers, freight forwarders, road haulers, and technology partners can share objectives and operational rules, aiming to make services more reliable, consistent, and measurable.
At this edition marking FIATA’s centenary, SEA is showcasing a collaborative model to the international freight forwarding community that combines airport infrastructure, handling services, and digital technologies. The joint participation with ALHA, BCUBE Air Cargo, and Cargo Start embodies this vision: integrating operational capabilities and digital tools into shared, standardized processes geared toward verifiable service levels designed around the needs of the operators.
Reliability, standardization, and measurable quality
The competitiveness of a cargo hub depends not only on infrastructure capacity or the availability of individual technological solutions but also on the continuity and predictability of the entire operational chain. For this reason, the Community aims to foster common process standards, clearly defined responsibilities among the various stakeholders, and shared indicators to measure service timing, quality, and reliability.
Performance measurement makes it possible to identify critical issues, compare results over time, and implement improvement actions based on objective data.
From this perspective, the cargo airport must function as an integrated system: the level of service perceived by freight forwarders and airlines is, in fact, the result of interaction among multiple operators. The Milan AirCargo Community was established partly to create this stable link, transforming collaboration between different stakeholders into a shared operational model.
Digitalization as shared infrastructure
For freight forwarders, access to timely and reliable information is essential for organizing deliveries and pickups, coordinating transport, and managing any irregularities. However, data availability is only effective if integrated into shared processes and used to measure operational performance across the entire airport supply chain. SEA’s digital development program focuses on these needs through the evolution of the Malpensa Cargo Community System—an ecosystem of digital services that facilitates data exchange and coordination among freight forwarders, ground handlers, and road haulers. Digitalization complements infrastructure development. Pairing investments in new infrastructure with improved process organization allows for the optimization of available capacity, reducing unproductive downtime and enabling more effective use of space, vehicles, and resources.
The initiative therefore aims to make information available prior to the physical arrival of goods, improve visibility regarding shipment status, and progressively link planning with operational activities. Integration with operators' corporate systems also helps minimize data entry duplication and ensures seamless information exchange. Collaboration with handling agents and Cargo Start guides the definition and development of new services, ensuring that solutions align with real supply chain processes and can be progressively adopted by the community. The goal is to align technology and operations around more standardized procedures, comparable data, and shared KPIs, thereby making airport service quality more transparent and capable of continuous improvement.
The digital development program
A key element of this initiative is the Export Module—already operational—which allows freight forwarders or their agents to transmit information regarding cargo, customs formalities, security, and transport prior to delivery at the airport. This gives handling agents access to data in advance, facilitating checks and speeding up document acceptance procedures upon the cargo's arrival. The digitalization program is evolving with the development of the Import Module and the Slot Booking system. For freight forwarders, these developments aim to make...