Electronic-air waybill (e-AWB) usage registered a slight increase in June but still has a long way to go to meet the end of year target set by IATA.
The latest figures from IATA show that e-AWB penetration reached 39.2% in June, up 0.2 percentage points compared with the May level.
However, progress towards IATA’s end of year target of 56% has been slow this year – at the start of this year usage stood at 36.4% meaning there has only been a 2.8 percentage point improvement during the first half of this year.
For the industry to achieve IATA’s end of year target, it would need to achieve a 19.6 percentage point improvement over the full 12 months.
The airline association recently held a webinar that looked at e-AWB usage and a poll held during the asked listeners why they felt there had been a slowdown in penetration growth.
The poll showed 35.1% blamed limitations of supply chain partners, 30.9% said the slow progress was down to a lack of a regulatory push from the industry, 18.6% blamed resources and 15.5% said cost.
The association is hopeful that its 360 programme will help boost penetration.
The 360 programme requires that the majority of operating airlines and ground handling agents at an airport offer an e-AWB as the preferred means to all destinations and that they adopt a single process service and a standard operating procedure.
At the end of June, 13 airports had gone live with the programme with a further nine due to join by the end of the year.