The document discusses the progress of the air cargo industry's initiative to replace paper airway bills (AWB) with electronic airway bills (e-AWB). It notes that while adoption of e-AWB has increased in 2014, full implementation across all stakeholders has been challenging and will require ongoing effort and investment. Airline carriers like Emirates SkyCargo and Cathay Pacific have been pioneers in supporting e-AWB, but differences in countries' regulations and the need for a critical mass of participants has slowed full adoption. Completing the transition to e-AWB will take more time and coordination across the supply chain.

1. AIRPORT6 CARGOTALK DECEMBER 2014
Racing to meet the e-freight target
As the air cargo sector strives
each day to move towards elec-
tronic freight, an initiative that encom-
passes all those involved in this sec-
tor from freight forwarders to end
users (shippers), by replacing the
paper with documents and mes-
sages that can be transmitted elec-
tronically, the need to do away with
the requirement of the paper
airway bills gave way to the concept
of electronic airway bills (e-AWB) that
allow airline carriers, freight for-
warders, ground handlers and ship-
pers to implement paperless freight
transactions from the origin of ship-
ment to its final destination.
Though the execution of the
application of the e-AWB implies
improvement in the speed and secu-
rity of the air freight shipments, a lot
needs to be done towards 100 per
cent implementation of e-AWB, thus,
facilitating total efficiency and
accuracy in the system.
Adopting e-AWB
The adoption of the e-AWB, a
document that is considered vital to
the elimination of numerous paper
documents that accompany every air
freight shipment and enabling confi-
dentiality of the concerned data, is
essential to making the initiative of
e-freight a success.
Emirates SkyCargo, enabled
for both e-freight and e-AWB, is con-
sidered to be one of the pioneers
amongst carriers lending full support
to the initiative taken up, in favour of
e-AWB, by IATA. Enumerating the
reasons behind the fact that all air-
line carriers have not yet been able
to implement the concept of e-
freight, Keki Patel, Cargo Manager
India & Nepal, Emirates SkyCargo
said, “e-freight and the e-AWB are
the future of the air cargo industry
and make the process much faster
by reducing excess documentations
and simplifying other procedures.
While e-AWB proves beneficial
or the industry, it requires full-heart-
ed support and commitment from all
stakeholders like shippers or con-
signees, freight forwarders, carriers,
airport cargo custodians, customs
and ground handlers.” However
Vipan Jain, Regional Manager –
Logistics, South Asia & Middle East,
Lufthansa Cargo echoes a different
belief. Jain points out candidly, “e-
AWB is a part of the e-freight proj-
ect, where not only airline carriers
but also other stakeholders are
expected to participate. As far as
implementation by all is concerned,
every project, particularly of mega
size, like this takes time as we need
all the players on the same platform.
Overall in 2014, the adoption of
e-AWB has been steadily on
the rise, with more industry partici-
pants adopting it.”
Though the introduction and
implementation of the e-AWB
process have enabled simplification
in the air freight process of supply
chain, a lot needs to be done for all
the airline carriers to adopt and
implement the process. All Cathay
Pacific online airports in India have
successfully implemented the use of
e-AWBs, Anand Yedery, Regional
Cargo Manager – South Asia, Middle
East & Africa, Cathay Pacific Airways
elucidates, “The increase in e-freight
validated airports in India is a valid
sign.We at Cathay Pacific Cargo are
convinced that e-AWB and e-freight
are the most efficient procedures for
the cargo industry and that is the way
forward.Therefore, when we began,
we prepared all our countries includ-
ing India, to begin e-AWB and e-
freight process first with our for-
warder customers. However there
were challenges that we faced
as paper documents were being
used to clear export customs
which is not required in e-freight
enabled countries.”
The much desired
initiative
An accelerated rate of increase
in the adoption of e-AWB is expected
as the various participants in the air
cargo sector come forward to sign up
for the bilateral e-AWB agreement
with the carrier. Patel in this regard
explained, “e-AWB can start as soon
as the cargo agent signs up bilater-
ally the e-AWB / e-freight agreement
with the carrier.This is important as
there is no paper AWB and therefore
the contract, conditions of contract,
etc. must be registered with the car-
rier; the agreement is assigned a
numeric code and appears on all
shipments tendered for carriage.”
Stressing on what it would take for all
those involved to come together and
implement e-freight in full, Patel
expressed, “Adopting e-AWB
by the industry would very much
depend on the initiatives and the
readiness of all air cargo stakehold-
ers to implement this cost effective
and paperless process.”
But despite the benefits that e-
AWB has to offer, the transition to
complete adoption of e-AWB would
require investment of time and this
necessitates the understanding of
the entire supply chain on this proj-
ect.Yedery emphasises, “The Indian
government and customs are now
beginning to support and prepare to
adopt full e-freight paper free
process.Airlines and forwarders and
airports are already working closely
with IATA to implement this project in
India. This project cannot be
successful if only few airlines
and forwarders participate. There
has to be a critical mass to influence
all countries to adopt the future
e-freight process.”
The multilateral e-AWB agree-
ment was launched by IATA as a
widely appreciated initiative to get rid
of the paper documents that follow
every air freight shipment.Patel elab-
orated, “For large national and
multinational forwarders IATA has
come up with a single multilateral
agreement once signed, between
forwarder and IATA, it is applicable to
all participating carriers and all
branches of the agent.”
As the Single Process
approach comes with two benefits
that are crucial to the freight for-
warders and airlines, Jain highlights,
“Pursuant to the IATA-FIATA joint
communiqué in 2013, we appeal to
our customers to sign the multilateral
e-AWB agreement (MeA) as the first
CT BUREAU
The pace of implementation of e-AWB has been exceptional in the year 2014 with many airline carriers signing up
for the execution of the electronic version of the airway bill. But, will the Indian air cargo sector be able to do away
with its habit of submitting paper documents for its air freight shipments remains to be seen.
Keki Patel
Cargo Manager India & Nepal
Emirates SkyCargo
Vipan Jain
Regional Manager – Logistics, South Asia &
Middle East, Lufthansa Cargo
Anand Yedery
Regional Cargo Manager – South Asia,
MiddleEast & Africa, Cathay Pacific Airways
Contd. on page 18