e-AWB take-up not fast enough warns IATA

Global electronic-air waybill (e-AWB) penetration is growing, “but not fast enough,” says IATA, which wants the industry to accelerate implementation by focusing on the top 20 e-AWB-enabled airports.
Latest IATA figures for June 2015 show that the number of e-AWBs submitted globally rose to 28.8%, up by just 0.8% from the previous month.
IATA said that, although the positive growth trend continues, the rate of growth is not sufficient to meet the industry target of 45% by the end of 2015.
“The industry adoption needs to grow by at least two percent every month, which means a significant acceleration of e-AWB implementation."

One of the strategies identified by the international airline association is to focus efforts on accelerating implementation at the top 50 priority e-Airports where e-AWB is already enabled.
IATA added: “More collaborative and focused efforts at these e-Airports will help. Offering single process is another winning strategy.
“Experience shows that it can triple the rate of e-AWB adoption, so we encourage all airlines to roll out single process across more locations in their network.”
One of the recent examples of “stellar e-AWB growth”, said IATA, has been in Asia with Sri Lankan Airlines growing almost 44% year-over-year (June 2014 to date) and by 17% in 2015 alone.
“The reasons for this success is attributed to collaborative efforts with business partners, engaging with local stakeholders, providing training, communicating about e-AWB with customers, and all of this was possible thanks to the strong support of senior management to drive the transformation.”