Hong Kong airport CEO Stanley Hui Hon-chung had a powerful message for the industry in his keynote speech at the Air Freight Asia conference. "Air freight is a potent economic force, creating millions of jobs in the global economy," he said. "Air freight is indisputably one of the world's most important industries."

The conference is for the first time part of Asian Aerospace, and Hui told delegates the air cargo industry was worth $3 trillion a year with annual growth of around 6%, much of it generated by China. Air freight offers "an even more promising future by delivering lower costs and enabling the world industry's 'just-in-time' philosophy" Hui says.

Saying that the freight industry has to continue to optimise costs and cash flow in order to deliver an increasingly cost-effective and reliable service, Hui went on to describe the delegates' businesses as being an integral part of the globalisation of trade.

"China will be a 30 million tonne freight market by 2020 and with the infrastructure investment that's going on in airports and elsewhere, that growth is bound to continue." Hong Kong's position in close proximity to the Chinese industrial power-house of the Pearl river delta (PRD) is important for all the cargo and logistics companies in the country – not least because of the integrated transport facilities in the special administrative region (SAR).

Hui explained that it wasn't only trucks that forwarded freight onwards from Hong Kong airport's cargo terminals – but also barges travelling between the 17 ports in the PRD region and the growing number of road/rail links being developed through investment in bridges and tunnels. Transportation integration is key.

With Chinese economic growth looking likely to take the country into third position in the list of strongest economic powers, ahead of Germany and behind only the US and Japan, it's not surprising that the outlook for the air freight business in Hong Kong, and the region as a whole - is optimistic and positive.