In just five months, Scandinavia’s air freight sector collectively hit IATA’s global 22 percent target for adoption of electronic air waybill (e-AWB) technology in their cargo operations. According to Lloyd’s Loading List, Alexander Kohnen, Lufthansa Cargo’s director for Nordic and Baltic countries, made the announcement during his opening remarks at the Nordic Air Cargo Symposium in Stockholm last week.
Nine IATA member airlines – SAS Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Air France/KLM, Finnair, Korean Air, Cathay pacific, Qatar Airways and Emirates – have taken the lead in the Nordic market to implement the e-AWB for their air freight shipment. IATA’s vision is to see its members go 100 percent paperless by the end of 2017.
At the close of 2014, global e-AWB adoption stood at 24.9 percent. Denmark scored 23 percent, Finland 25 percent, Sweden 15 percent and Norway at 7 percent, which exceeded those countries’ combined goal of 22 percent. The industry total was 23.4 percent for December 2014, which was 2.3 percent more, month over month.
Implementing electronic airway bills involves the World Customs Organization (WCO), ground handlers, freight forwarders and airlines. The implementation is performed locally in each country and the nine lead airlines have agreed to a single process for the forwarders to deliver cargo to the cargo terminals and ground handlers. This process completely eliminates the need for paper.