Changes led by increased use of the e-air waybill will impact the air cargo industry this year, IATA representatives said as they outlined the initiatives the organization is taking this coming year in support of the sector.

The international trade body has a variety of ongoing initiatives to support the air cargo sector which will run, some with additions, throughout the course of 2017. Looming large are e-cargo and trade facilitation, but issues such as business simplification as well as ULD safety are also set to play a role.

Use of the e-AWB in October this year stood at 44.1% of all shipments on flights operating between two countries which have ratified the Montreal Convention which facilitates paper-free air cargo. The goal for 2017 is 62%.

“It will require a bit of effort,” Glyn Hughes, IATA’s global head of cargo, said. That figure was chosen deliberately to force the pace of change. This effort, he later told Asia Cargo News, would be needed “everywhere.”

It is an effort relevant to Asian carriers and airports who might see what is a competitive advantage eroded. “Europe and the Americas are actually lagging a little bit behind,” explained Hughes.

Asia-Pacific has an e-AWB rate of 45%, fractionally above the global average with some 167 of 346 legal trade lanes using e-AWBs. This is substantially lower than North Asia, where it is 59%, Africa 58% and the Middle East, which is the top of the class with 68%. The laggards are the Americas at 40% and Europe at 34%.

A fuller picture emerges when looking at the volumes moved by airports and airlines.

The top five airports for using an e-AWB are all in Asia: Hong Kong (70.6%), Pudong (45.1%), Changi (72.6%), Incheon (44.3%) and Chiang Kai Shek in Taipei (56.4%). By contrast, London’s Heathrow comes in at 32.5%.

Among airlines, the pattern is a bit more varied but no less revealing. Cathay Pacific tops out at 78%, followed by Air France-KLM (61.9%), Emirates (39.9%), Singapore Airlines (70.8%) and Qatar Airways (73.0%).

The only American company on either index is Delta, which landed on the airlines list, managing to carry 71% of their volumes using an e-AWB.

IATA is aware moving the process along is not going to be easy, and acknowledges a number of problems. These include regulatory constraints, lack of harmonization and technological limitations. “Some of the messages are incompatible with each other,” noted Hughes.

The association’s response is multi-pronged. It starts with such basics as and airport standard operating procedures. Moving up the value chain is the eAWBLink, which Hughes calls “a simple desktop tool for small and medium freight forwarders.”

The tool has potential as a desktop solution designed to enable freight forwarders to create, send and manage electronic shipment data. It is a single window to over 120 carriers, is easy to use and is affordable. More importantly it tackles the issue of message incompatibility as it uses IATA standard Cargo-XML and Cargo-IMP messages.

“We are trying to bring technology to those who are not connected,” said Hughes.

Other accelerators will be the e-freight trade lanes which IATA is currently identifying.

“e-freight trade lanes are those which meet the same criteria as described for e-AWB-feasible trade lanes with an extra condition, which is that customs allows for cargo clearance to be effected based on electronic versions of accompanying documentation. This means there is no legal or operational requirement for paper to be transported,” Hughes told Asia Cargo News.

Next year looks likely to see the eAWB360 campaign rolled out to more airports, along with its community-based approach emphasizing standard procedures and communications.

In the frame are Narita, Incheon and Delhi in Asia-Pacific; San Francisco, Houston Intercontinental and Seattle in the Americas; Jeddah in the Middle East; and Cape Town in Africa. Brussels, Munich and Madrid are Europe’s candidates, and assessment is still underway in North Asia. IATA points out this list is not final, as some officials said Miami, important for trade to South American countries, is also considering leading an eAWB360.

Also ongoing in 2017 will be IATA’s ULD campaign. This started in March 2016 and quickly saw information about how to safeguard ULD s localized into Chinese and Hindi.

Helpful as these initiatives will be, what they are up against is a world trade regime that already refers back to previous, more staid eras. It takes 30 pages of paperwork to move an iPhone, IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said, adding, “it’s stupid.”

By Michael Mackey

Correspondent | Geneva