The International Air Cargo Association has named Mammen Tharakan as its next director general, and he takes the seat in August. If you book air freight, tender to forwarders, or sit on the shipper side of rate negotiations, the TIACA director general is the person who carries your sector's position into rooms you are not in: ICAO working groups, customs and security consultations, e-commerce and dangerous goods rulemaking. The job title sounds ceremonial. The output is not.
What Happened
TIACA appointed Tharakan to lead the association on growth, innovation and global engagement. He succeeds Glyn Hughes, who held the post since 2021 and whose resignation was made public in March. Hughes came to TIACA from IATA, where he ran cargo, and spent his term rebuilding the association's profile after the pandemic freight boom faded.
Tharakan inherits a trade body that speaks for airlines, forwarders, ground handlers, airports and shippers at the same time. That mix is the association's strength and its constraint. Every position it takes on capacity, on digital standards, on sustainability funding, has to survive members who compete with each other daily. The handover lands in the middle of the peak season build, so expect his first public priorities to be set out at the association's autumn events rather than in August.
Impact on Freight Rates and Operations
Be clear about what this does and does not do. A leadership change at TIACA will not move your Shanghai to Frankfurt rate next week. Air freight pricing responds to belly capacity, jet fuel, e-commerce volumes out of China and how much ocean cargo is being pushed into the air. None of that is in a director general's control.
What the role does influence is the regulatory cost layer sitting under your rate. Three files matter to your P&L over the next 18 months. Advance cargo screening and pre-loading data rules, which decide how early you must file and how much a late booking costs you. Lithium battery classification, which determines whether a shipment moves as general cargo or as restricted freight at a heavy surcharge. And the digital documentation push behind ONE Record, which decides whether your forwarder keeps rekeying your data or stops. TIACA's voice on all three shapes what your compliance team spends on next year.
What Shippers Should Do
- Ask your forwarder where they sit on ONE Record adoption. If they cannot answer, you will keep paying for manual data entry that competitors have already automated out.
- Audit your lithium battery declarations now. Misclassification is the single most common reason an air shipment gets pulled at the handler, and it costs you days, not hours.
- Check your booking lead times against advance filing windows. Shippers who tender inside the window pay for it in expedited handling fees they never budgeted.
- Recalculate chargeable weight before you accept a quote, not after. Most air freight overspend is volumetric, not tariff-driven, and it is entirely within your control.
Key Takeaway
The name at the top of TIACA changes in August, but your air freight cost still comes down to chargeable weight, correct classification and booking early enough to avoid penalty handling.
Plan Your Shipment: Calculate your costs with our free Chargeable Weight Calculator and Air Freight Calculator.
Source: Air Cargo News