Lufthansa Cargo now flies only with electronic air waybills (eAWBs), as part of IATA’s 2020 goal for the industry to achieve 100 AWB digitalization by 2022. Starting with the summer schedule, all shipments will be carried with an electronic air waybill, where feasible.
On Thursday (February 17, 2022), Lufthansa Cargo announced that the company will now only fly with electronic air waybills (eAWBs). The transition is part of IATA’s industry goal to achieve 100 percent eAWB by the end of 2022. To meet this goal and continue to lead the way in digitizing the air cargo industry, Lufthansa Cargo is now taking the next major step towards completely paperless shipments. Starting with the summer schedule on March 27, 2022, all shipments, where feasible, will be carried with an electronic air waybill. Lufthansa Cargo is introducing a ‘paper-to-AWB’ service through which remaining paper AWBs will be digitized at shipment acceptance.
In Thursday’s announcement, Lufthansa Cargo’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ashwin Bhat, said,
“Over the past few years, we have driven many digitization initiatives in the air cargo industry. In fact, eliminating paper AWBs in the future could be one of the most important steps. A majority of our customers already use eAWB exclusively. With the new service, we can now easily take all customers with us on our digitization journey and enable them to take the step towards paperless transports as well.”
Also commenting on the digital transformation, Lufthansa Cargo’s Vice President of Global Fulfillment Management, Dr. Jan-Wilhelm Breithaupt, said,
“Our goal is to make communication with our customers easier, faster and better with the help of our digital services. We have implemented the eAWB process as an industry standard of IATA continuously and worldwide at Lufthansa Cargo since 2014. A five-year data quality initiative that effectively de-cluttered the data interface between customers and Lufthansa Cargo was, among other things, an important cornerstone that enabled sustainable eAWB penetration and consistent top positions in global rankings. We are very pleased to have achieved our goal of transporting paperless shipments and avoiding unnecessary printouts along the process chains together with our customers and partners.”
The new service is mandatory, where feasible, for all forwarding companies that do not currently use electronic air waybills. Routes that are eAWB feasible are those which the regulatory framework for the use of electronic air waybills is already in place. If local regulations require the presentation of a paper AWB, Lufthansa Cargo will reproduce the AWB and it will accompany the shipment on the flight.
With revenue of €2.8 billion and 6.5 billion revenue ton-kilometers in 2020, Lufthansa Cargo is one of the world’s leading air freight companies, employing approximately 4,400 team members worldwide. The cargo carrier serves around 300 destinations in over 100 countries with a dedicated fleet of freighters, as well as belly-hold cargo capacity of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa German Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings Discover and SunExpress. Lufthansa Cargo also operates an extensive road feeder service network. Lufthansa Cargo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and is the Group’s logistics specialist.
Source: Lufthansa Cargo/Mynewsdesk