Steve Smith has taken over as head of the Airforwarders Association, following the decision by long-serving executive director Brandon Fried to step down from the role.

The change places Smith in charge of the Washington-facing trade body that represents airfreight forwarders — the intermediaries that consolidate and move the bulk of the world's air cargo — at a moment when the sector is digesting capacity shifts, security rulemaking and tariff-driven volatility in transpacific and transatlantic flows.

Fried led the association for years and became one of the most recognisable industry voices on air-cargo security policy, screening technology and forwarder-regulator relations in the United States. His departure removes a familiar figure from the debates around cargo-security rulemaking that have shaped forwarder economics since the air-cargo security regimes were tightened over the past two decades.

For forwarders, association leadership matters in practical terms. The Airforwarders Association lobbies on issues that carry direct cost consequences: security-programme compliance, screening requirements, customs modernisation and liability rules. The tone and priorities set by its leadership influence how effectively small and mid-sized forwarders — which lack the government-relations budgets of the global integrators — are represented before regulators such as the TSA and CBP.

Smith now inherits an agenda shaped by the structural changes in the air-cargo market. Belly-capacity recovery on passenger networks, the expansion of dedicated freighter operations by e-commerce-driven demand, and continued regulatory attention to supply-chain security all bear on the membership's margins and operating models.

Details of the transition timeline and Smith's prior role were not disclosed in the announcement. The association has not yet outlined its policy priorities under the new leadership.

The handover signals a generational change at one of the airfreight sector's main US trade bodies, and member firms will be watching how quickly Smith establishes his footing on the security and customs files that defined Fried's tenure.