Cathay Pacific named ‘Best in Future of Connectedness’

Cathay Pacific has been named “Best in Future of Connectedness” at the 2021 IDC Future Enterprise Awards for its development of Ultra Track: a next-generation track-and-trace solution that applies Internet of Things (IoT) technology to monitor shipments.

The IDC Future Enterprise Awards, now in its fifth year, recognises organisations that have made outstanding breakthroughs in adopting digital technologies to drive change in their business models.

Against the backdrop of the global pandemic, this year’s award winners have also been selected for successfully navigating this period of turbulent change and providing leadership in a new digital era.

With more than 1,000 nominees from Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR, the Taiwan region, the Chinese Mainland, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand were considered by regional analysts.

Lawrence Fong, Director Digital & IT at Cathay Pacific, said, “Ultra Track is one of the leading IoT systems in the airline industry, and Cathay Pacific Cargo is among the first batch of airlines leveraging this technology to provide a near-real-time multi-dimensional tracking service for our partners.”

Ultra Track uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) data-loggers to monitor shipments’ GPS location and temperature as standard (vibration, humidity, and light exposure on request) in a near-real-time manner, making it ideal for temperature-sensitive and other special shipments.

Shipment data is sent to readers installed at cargo terminals and mobile phone applications in the airport ramp area using BLE protocols, which relays the information to an IoT framework deployed in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud through the 4G network.

Staff at Cathay Pacific Cargo’s Operations Control Centre (OCC) are able to constantly monitor the shipment’s status, with in-built alerts in case of any temperature excursions, to enable staff to intervene and rectify the situation. Shippers can also track their shipment’s location and temperature through the Cathay Pacific Cargo website.

The launch of Ultra Track was brought forward to meet the unprecedented logistical challenge for the air cargo industry to distribute urgently needed COVID-19 vaccines across the world.

Given the limited supply of vaccines, and the restrictive temperature requirements for their transport and storage, Ultra Track has enhanced the ability to ensure life-saving medications are successfully delivered around the world.

George Edmunds, General Manager Cargo Commercial at Cathay Pacific said: “Ultra Track reflects our commitment to invest in solutions and technology to continually improve the quality of our services to customers, supporting our brand ambition to become the world’s most customer-centric air cargo service brand.

“It has transformed the way pharmaceutical shipments are handled and will continue to accelerate capabilities in handling other cargo products in this IoT/5G era ahead of us.”