IAG out in front with e-AWBs

IAG Cargo claims that it has the highest e-air waybill (e-AWB) penetration in Europe.
As of January, its e-AWB penetration was 34 per cent, well above the industry average of 25 per cent, said the freight arm of British Airways and Iberia.
IAG Cargo has made e-AWBs available in more than 160 of its stations, nearly all of its network where e-AWBs are legally recognised. The carrier now has multi- or bilateral agreements in place with over 100 forwarders and has completed data quality assessments on 2,400 branches.
The head of IT at IAG Cargo, Angel Cabeza Rivas, is convinced that e-AWB is gathering significant momentum across the world, adding: “We believe e-AWB will do for the cargo industry what digital ticketing has done for the passenger industry: delivering customers a more cost effective, efficient and environmentally friendly way of shipping cargo.”
IATA’s regional cargo manager, Stephane Noll, said: “IAG Cargo has done an amazing job in Europe and in the world in accelerating modernisation. It had been instrumental in driving the e-AWB agenda by taking an active leadership in many airports.
“On many trade lanes out of Europe, North America and North Asia, IAG Cargo e-AWB penetration is above market performance. Additionally, during 2014, IAG Cargo also successfully rolled out the e-CSD across its global network, reaching more than 80 per cent penetration (excluding Madrid- and Heathrow-originating shipments) in one year, through iagcargo.com.
“This has materially reduced offloads due to losing CSDs, improving the customer experience.”