So near and yet so far: airfreight industry misses e-AWB target

As expected, the air cargo industry fell short of meeting IATA’s end of year target for e-air waybill (e-AWB) market penetration, but the organisation remains optimistic about prospects for 2016.
IATA today announced that the airfreight industry managed to achieve an e-AWB penetration of 36.4%, short of its 45% target for the year.
The month of December saw a one percentage point improvement in useage from the 35.4% achieved in November.
For 2016, IATA has set a new target of 56% penetration for e-AWBs.
IATA Cargo boss Glynn Hughes said the organisation would encourage useage by adopting a community approach.
“As 2015 closed it is anticipated that the industry target of 45 % will not be meet with forecast end of year position being between 36%-37 % which reflects that there is still much to do. 
“For 2016 IATA will launch eAWB360 which is a market and community driven approach to aligned e-AWB implementation and synchronized market communications.
“The IATA board of governors adopted a 56% 2016 e-AWB penetration target during its Dec 2016 meeting; the e-AWB360 programme will target an initial list of nine airports to roll out this community based approach to e-AWB implementation.”
While the industry as a whole failed to meet IATA’s e-AWB ambitions, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways both managed to beat their own targets of 70% and 45% respectively.
Cathay managed to reach 70.3% penetration while Qatar hit 52.3%.