The Operational Excellence Tools Series | #56: From Seaport to Sky: Westwell Brings AI-Native Logistics to Air Cargo

Welcome to the unique weekend article for the Loyal Fan subscribers-only edition.

This is the #56 article of The Operational Excellence Tools Series.

Outlines and Key Takeaways

Part 1 – Official Announcement

Part 2 – Background and Meaning

Part 3 – Analysis Through the Lens of Operational Excellence

Part 4 – Lessons for Businesses

Part 5 – Conclusion

PART 1: OFFICIAL INFORMATION

On June 12, 2026, in Hong Kong, Westwell, a global artificial intelligence (AI) company specializing in smart and green container logistics solutions, officially announced the application of its core strategy named “AI + New Energy,” abbreviated as Ainergy, to the field of airport operations. According to the announcement, as global air cargo hubs confront three major pressures simultaneously—surging e-commerce demand, labour shortages, and carbon decarbonisation targets—Westwell is extending its AI-Native capabilities from seaports into the aviation field. As of the time of the announcement, Westwell serves over 200 customers across more than 30 economies, with a solution scope spanning five domains: air cargo, seaport, rail, road transport, and smart factories.

Westwell was founded in 2015 in Shanghai, beginning as an AI technology firm specializing in a container number recognition system named WellOcean, deployed at many seaports across China. From its initial image-recognition foundation, the company grew into a full-stack solution provider, meaning it delivers the complete package from hardware (autonomous vehicles, equipment) to software (the AI operating platform), for planning and managing complex operations at seaports, railway hubs, dry ports, airports and factories. Westwell’s most famous product is the Q-Truck, a fully autonomous electric heavy-duty container truck, introduced as capable of reducing up to 50 tonnes of carbon emissions per year per vehicle. Westwell has also brought its autonomous trucks to the international market, notably delivering batches of Q-Trucks to the Port of Felixstowe, the largest in the United Kingdom, part of the Hutchison Ports system, the first port in Europe to adopt the company’s autonomous trucks.

The technological focus of this announcement is a dual-AI architecture. Within this architecture, “Physical AI“ handles frontline autonomous execution, that is, controlling vehicles and equipment to perform physical work; while “Operational AI“ handles intelligent decision-making, that is, coordinating, planning and optimizing the entire workflow. This is a clear division of roles between the execution layer and the operating layer, a design feature that allows the system to do both manual work and cognitive work within a single platform.

The flagship product Westwell brings into the airport environment is the Q-Tractor, specifically the Q-Tractor P40 model, a type of autonomous electric tractor designed specifically for the harsh conditions of the apron (airside). The Q-Tractor is operated by the Q-Pilot autonomous driving platform that Westwell developed in-house, integrating BEV (Bird’s Eye View) environmental perception and end-to-end models based on the Transformer architecture, which is the foundational architecture of modern AI models. Westwell emphasizes that the system has a redundant safety architecture ensuring 24/7 operational reliability in all weather and visibility conditions. A notable technical point is the ability to automatically couple and uncouple trailers with centimetre-level precision, validated across multiple airport deployments, which the company describes as “closing the last gap in unmanned logistics,” allowing the cargo loading and unloading process to be fully automated. Thanks to a pure electric drive, the Q-Tractor achieves zero emissions in core operations.

In terms of real-world deployment scope, Westwell’s solutions are being applied at many key air cargo hubs, including Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl), Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Ezhou Huahu International Airport, and newly secured projects at Fuzhou Changle International Airport and Xiamen Xiang’an International Airport. In particular, in 2025, Westwell officially received approval to deploy new-energy autonomous tractors at Hactl, the largest independent air cargo handler in Hong Kong. There, Westwell’s Q-Tractors carry out unmanned cargo transport operations, both enhancing productivity and accelerating Hactl’s smart and green transformation.

Not stopping at cargo transport, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport Westwell is also extending its AI applications into the field of airport safety operations. The company is developing an intelligent runway inspection solution described as industry-leading, named “AI + Autonomous Driving + FOD Detection.” This solution combines autonomous vehicles, radar systems and AI recognition algorithms to support safe flight operations, by detecting Foreign Object Debris on the runway, which is one of the serious risks to aviation safety.

Summing up its vision, Westwell affirms that as airports continue to balance efficiency, resilience and sustainability targets, AI-Native operational systems will play an increasingly strategic role in the development of air cargo infrastructure. More importantly, the company emphasizes that the future of airport logistics lies not simply in automation, but in building collaborative ecosystems where humans, intelligent vehicles and AI systems work together more safely, more efficiently and more sustainably.