IATA-FIATA Joint Statement on Multilateral e-AWB Agreement
27-Mar-2013 The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have announced that the Multilateral electronic Air Waybill (e-AWB) standard has been approved, removing the need for bilateral e-AWB agreements between airlines and freight forwarders. Airlines will have a single agreement with IATA that enables them to accept e-AWBs from all participating freight forwarders, while freight forwarders will have a single agreement that will allow them to tender e-AWB shipments to multiple airlines at numerous airports worldwide.
Collaborating closely, IATA and FIATA, together with some of their members, developed and tested the multilateral e-AWB standard in 2012. Trials in October 2012 confirmed the value of the new agreement, which was endorsed by the IATA/FIATA Consultative Council in February 2013. Final consent was reached with the approval by the IATA Cargo Services Conference of the Multilateral e-AWB as the new IATA Resolution 672 in March.
Des Vertannes, IATA's Global Head of Cargo, said:
"The approval of the multilateral e-AWB agreement is the most important new cargo standard developed in the last two decades. It gives us critical momentum to achieving the e-freight vision of a paperless cargo system."
Rudi Sagel, FIATA's Chairman of the Air Freight Institute, said:
"Freight forwarders and airlines were looking forward to greater simplification when they looked at the e-AWB agreement; now this new multilateral e-AWB agreement allows forwarders to sign only once to connect to all signatory airlines. It means significant progress as joining the multilateral e-AWB agreement provides the legal framework to transmit AWB data electronically to the carrier for AWB completion."
FIATA and IATA expect the multilateral e-AWB agreement to be well received by the airline and freight forwarding communities, and will play a major role in increasing take-up of the e-AWB to reach the industry target of 100% penetration by 2015.
Joining the multilateral e-AWB agreement has been made a simple as possible. Detailed information is available on the IATA and FIATA websites:
www.iata.org/e-AWB
www.fiata.com