"Air cargo is carrying about $6tr worth of goods, so air cargo's an integral part of the growth of the economy," he said. "I've no doubt that we'll see a resumption of growth in air cargo in line with the growth of the global economy."

Herdman's remarks came during a recent visit to Washington, D.C., where he met with the Transportation Security Administration on cargo security, and the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of State on political issues.

"There's tremendous pressure to deploy new equipment, so you see airlines ordering and putting into service new freighters and conversely, people are retiring older generation of aircraft, including older freighters and particularly converted freighters," he said. "That's changing the dynamics of fleet makeup to custom-built freighters as opposed to the traditional route of using converted passenger aircraft."

Herdman said air cargo spends most of its time on the ground, so in order to improve efficiency; the industry must address ground delays by shifting to paperless cargo.

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