Several parties have made the choice to implement both e-AWB and e-CSD, which is more advantageous since data can be processed automatically, avoiding the inefficiencies of keeping a paper document.
Focus on Implementing the e-AWB
From its very beginning, the e-AWB initiative has been driven as a collaborative project; a workgroup, called the e-AWB advisory Group, gathered airline, freight forwarder, FIATA and IATA representatives and is in charge of making recommendations on how to drive the e-AWB initiative at an industry level. This workgroup pays attention to the legal and technical aspects, business processes, and regulations associated with the e-AWB. It always keeps in mind that the recommended approaches must result in a win-win situation for all involved parties. To this end, business cases have been developed with carriers and freight forwarders to illustrate the benefits of the e-AWB and e-freight. They are available on the IATA website dedicated to e-AWB (see link at the end of the article). IATA and its member airlines interact with authorities in many countries to advocate for the acceptance of the e-AWB and make sure that the new way to operate associated with the e-AWB is implemented in practice. With an average e-AWB penetration rate of 7% at the end of 2012, there is still a lot of work to do, but some remarkable success stories prove that the e-AWB vision can be successfully implemented: Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Emirates, FlyDubai and Singapore Airlines are performing more than 80% of their shipments out of their main hub using e-AWB.
Many other airlines are increasing their usage of e-AWB; they typically develop the capability in their home market first,
and drive adoption there, before rolling out internationally. For 2013, several key cargo hubs have been identified as the priority for the e-AWB, with the target that all e-AWB capable airlines operating at these airports implement it. The first airports to be considered will be Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Amsterdam, and Atlanta. This approach requires that all local stakeholders are on
board, in particular the ground handlers. In this respect, another work group, the Cargo Operation Advisory Group (COAG), which consists of airline and ground handler representatives, was created in 2012 and defined recommendations on the acceptance of cargo in an e-AWB environment, with the target to ensure that common business processes will be used by all parties when implementing the e-AWB. In particular the COAG defines recommendations regarding the exchange of electronic messages associated with the e-AWB between freight forwarders, airlines and ground handlers, allowing better data ownership and streamlining of data exchanges between parties.
Forwarders Prepare Consol
Deliver Freight Receive Information
Ready for carriage
Receive & Send Info.
Ready for carriage
Airlines AWB data
Receive & Send Info.
AWB data
Handling Agents Receive Information
Receive Freight
Freight Acceptance (produce cargo receipt)
The Multilateral e-AWB Agreement: the game-changer
During the March 2013 World Cargo Symposium in Doha (Qatar), the e-AWB received a lot of attention, illustrating the commitment from both airlines and freight forwarders to make the e-AWB initiative happen. In particular a multilateral e-AWB agreement has been agreed by the industry, which will speed up the move to the e-AWB in the future by simplifying the legal aspects of it. This agreement is a game-changer for speeding up implementation of the e-AWB, and will allow project teams of airlines and freight forwarders to focus on the international roll-out of the e-AWB. The move to the e-AWB can be compared to the move to the e-ticket in the passenger business. This is a key step towards the larger e-cargo agenda as it illustrates that the industry can modernise itself working collaboratively involving all air cargo stakeholders including regulators. All airlines, freight forwarders, ground handlers and regulators are invited to join the industry initiative and contribute to achieve 100% e-AWB in 2015. I would like to invite all readers of this article to check the status of their organisation on the e-AWB journey, and to make contact with IATA (
cargo@iata.org) to make sure that they are informed on a regular basis of the evolution of e-AWB in their region. IATA Cargo can also provide freight organisations with all the support they need to move to 100% e-AWB use. More information on e-AWB can be found under:
www.iata.org/e-awb
The author is Jean-Christophe Rossand, Manager, Cargo Business Process & Standards Adoption, in charge of e-AWB project at IATA
April 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
www.asi-mag.com
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