Swiss WorldCargo has begun offering the electronic air waybill (e-AWB) single process, which it hopes will accelerate the adoption of the e-AWB throughout its network.
The airline said that following a four month trial it now accepts single process e-AWB shipments in Zurich, Montreal, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Copenhagen.
The facility will be further extended to as many as eight more stations by the end of this year, and to the further suitable airports in the Swiss WorldCargo network in the course of 2016.
Manager Transportation Processes and e-AWB Project Lead Paolo Tuzzi said: “Our adoption of the e-AWB Single Process at Swiss WorldCargo is thanks to the collaborative efforts of our ground handling partners Cargologic, Swissport and Lufthansa Handling and – during the pilot phase – our customers Panalpina, Brinks, Unitrans, Schenker and Malca Amit.”
IATA said that for some routes, e-AWB cannot be used and paper air waybills (AWBs) have to be issued due to regulatory, operational, or other reasons.
This was found to be one of the challenges for e-AWB adoption by freight forwarders as they need to determine whether a paper AWB has to be generated, and have to maintain two parallel processes, for electronic and paper.
“To release freight forwarders from this complexity, it is recommended that airlines offer a ‘single process’ to the freight forwarders,” the airline organisation said.
“Under the single process, a freight forwarder always sends electronic data to the airline and never delivers a paper AWB with the cargo.
“The airline determines when a paper AWB needs to be produced. When needed, the airline prints the paper AWB, with the conditions of contract on the reverse, on behalf of the freight forwarder, using the exchanged electronic data.”
IATA has set the target of 45% penetration of e-AWB by the end of the year.
However, in its July progress update the industry had only achieved 29.2% penetration and IATA was not optimistic it would hit its target.
“The growth is still slower than expected and not sufficient to meet the industry target of 45% by the end of 2015,” said IATA in its regular e-AWB update.
