The Airforwarders Association (AfA) has named Steve Smith, the former president and chief executive of humanitarian logistics organisation Airlink, as its new chief executive. He succeeds Brandon Fried, who has led the US freight-forwarding trade association for 21 years and will remain in place during the transition period.

Smith arrives with a resume that spans both the non-profit logistics sector and the aerospace industry. He spent 13 years at the helm of Airlink, where he built partnerships between airlines, logistics providers and aid organisations — experience that maps directly onto the AfA's core function of representing air freight forwarders before regulators and lawmakers in Washington.

Before Airlink, Smith held a senior commercial role at Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace. That background gives him direct familiarity with the OEM side of the air cargo supply chain, a perspective the association's membership — dominated by forwarders rather than carriers or manufacturers — has rarely had at the top of the organisation.

Fried's departure closes one of the longest tenures among Washington-based aviation trade association leaders. Over 21 years he shaped the AfA's advocacy on issues central to the forwarding community, and his decision to stay through the handover signals an attempt to preserve institutional continuity rather than force an abrupt change in the association's policy positions.

The leadership change comes as the air freight forwarding sector confronts a demanding operating environment. Forwarders have spent the past several years absorbing capacity shocks, volatile rate cycles and tightening security and compliance requirements — all areas where the AfA lobbies on behalf of its members.

Smith's Airlink experience is particularly relevant here. Airlink's model depends on mobilising airline capacity and logistics expertise for disaster response, work that requires sustained coordination with carriers, freight forwarders and humanitarian agencies. Translating that coalition-building skill to a trade-association context — where the task is uniting member companies with often divergent commercial interests behind common advocacy goals — will be his immediate test.

The appointment also raises questions about the direction the association will take. A chief executive with a Rolls-Royce commercial background and humanitarian logistics credentials may push the AfA toward closer engagement with carriers and OEMs on capacity and operational issues, complementing its traditional regulatory focus.

For now, the association has confirmed only the essentials: Smith takes the chief executive role, Fried departs after two decades at the top, and a transition period is under way. Smith's policy priorities, staffing decisions and any restructuring of the association's advocacy agenda have yet to be announced.

The transition's completion — and the first substantive signals of Smith's agenda — will come as the association engages its members on the regulatory and capacity issues that define the forwarding sector's operating conditions.