About

Who's behind this

Who I am

I'm Ken Chan, an air cargo professional based in Hong Kong. Over the past seven years I've worked across multiple sides of the industry — at scheduled carriers, at a GSA representing airlines to the trade, and at an international freight forwarder. That trajectory has given me a 360-degree view of how cargo actually moves: from the booking sheet to the ramp, from the GSA mailbox to the procurement table.

My background spans:

  • Carrier-side cargo sales — managing routes, capacity, and customer relationships at the airline
  • GSA operations — representing airlines to the trade across Asia
  • Charter coordination — putting together ad-hoc lift when scheduled capacity doesn't fit the need
  • Freight forwarding — the customer side, where everything you learned at the carrier and the GSA gets tested daily

Through capacity crunches, fuel volatility, geopolitical shocks, and the structural shifts reshaping this business, what I've found is that the most useful market view doesn't come from any single trade publication. It comes from triangulating across sources, languages, and disciplines. That instinct is what this site is built on.

Find me on LinkedIn ↗.

About this site

Belly Hold is a daily news briefing for people who think about how the world moves — by air, by sea, and across borders. Each morning at 06:00 Hong Kong time, an editorial pipeline I built reads 77 sources across nine languages and assembles a single-page brief covering eight desks:

  • Air freight and aviation — carriers, airports, cargo policy, SAF, network changes
  • Logistics — maritime, surface, warehousing, last-mile
  • World — diplomacy, conflict, breaking news that touches supply chains
  • Macro and markets — central banks, trade balances, commodity prices, FX
  • Technology and AI — semiconductors, cloud, what's reshaping pricing power
  • Trade and e-commerce — cross-border flows, brands, retail demand
  • Hong Kong — local political and economic developments
  • Lifestyle — health, food, travel, the consumer end of the cargo

Each issue also includes a Deep Dive — one story examined in 400 words, drawing connections that the headlines don't show. The whole thing reads in about eight minutes.

Deep Investigations

Beyond the daily news, I'm building a small library of Deep Investigations ↗ — long-form trackers on the policies and structural shifts that take more than a morning brief to understand. Currently watching: US Section 301 tariff evolution and EU/US de minimis reform. These pages are updated as developments warrant, not on a fixed schedule.

Why I do this

I started Belly Hold because the reading I do every morning to stay close to the market wasn't easy to share with peers and the wider industry. Turning it into a public publication means more people can benefit from the same source diversity, and — more selfishly — I can learn from anyone who reads it and pushes back.

The publication isn't perfect. Some days the Deep Dive doesn't land, some days a desk has too little material, some days a translation reads stiff. But the goal isn't to be perfect — it's to be useful. If even one item per issue helps you see your trade lane, your customer, or your market a little differently, it's done its job. And if you've spotted something I got wrong, please tell me.

Let's talk

I'm genuinely open to meeting people in or around the aviation industry — airline cargo teams, freight forwarders, airport authorities, ground handlers, lessors, GSAs, charter brokers, ULD specialists, fuel and SAF folks, regulators, and analysts. Whether you want to:

  • Compare notes on a market, lane, or trend
  • Explore a commercial collaboration — GSA, charter, or otherwise
  • Co-author a Deep Investigation on a topic you know well
  • Share data or context that might inform future coverage
  • Just say hi and make a friend in the industry

— please reach out. The best conversations in this business happen offline, and I'd love to hear from you.

Contact

Email: chanken990@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kenchan852 ↗

Fair use, attribution, and a note on independence

Personal project. Belly Hold is a personal publishing project. Views expressed are mine alone and do not represent any employer or affiliated organisation.

Fair use. Belly Hold curates and links to news from external publishers. Each story carries the original source name and a direct link to the publisher's website. Each summary is kept under 25 Chinese characters — well within fair-use boundaries. We do not reproduce full articles or images. All copyright remains with the original publishers. Readers are encouraged — and structurally directed — to click through and read at the source.

For rights holders. If you are a rights holder and wish to discuss any item on this site, please email the address above and I will respond promptly.

No tracking, no ads. This site does not run advertising, does not track readers, and does not require email signup. It exists because the work is worth sharing, not because it earns anything.