Germany's Lufthansa Cargo has signed an agreement with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to rapidly enable electronic Air Waybills (eAWB), the company has announced.
According to the Shipping Gazette, the company plans to switch entirely to eAWB by 2015, having already made it the standard for all German stations to all destinations in its global network this year .
Lufthansa Cargo said it has for years spearheaded migration to paperless air freight with more than 60 customers already signed up to using the eAWB.
Following the new IATA multilateral electronic air waybill standard, forwarders need to sign only one agreement with IATA to gain acceptance from multiple carriers for their eAWB.
All signatory airlines are then automatically included in the IATA accord. The agreement spells out rules on the use of the eAWB and "renders complex bilateral eAWB agreements on legal aspects and interfaces between carriers and freight forwarders unnecessary", said the Lufthansa statement.
"This industry-wide agreement is a major milestone on the road towards a completely paperless air cargo transport," said Lufthansa Cargo CEO and chairman Karl Ulrich Garnadt. "Both our customers and we as an airline will profit from easier utilisation of the eAWB as well as from more efficient and faster processes."
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