You are here: Home » Areas of Activity » Cargo » Tracker Newsletter » Cargo Tracker February 2011 » They did it! 100% e-AWB out of Hong Kong

 On 1 January, Cathay Pacific became the first airline operating out of Hong Kong to fully switch to e-AWB, eliminating the need for all paper documents when issuing air waybills – the shipping documents used for the transportation of airfreight. The Cathay Pacific Cargo team worked hard with agents and freight forwarders to ensure readiness for the introduction of the electronic process.

The e-AWB initiative covers all online destinations from Hong Kong to which Cathay Pacific and sister airline Dragonair fly. The airline plans to implement 100% e-AWB from all its overseas stations by the end of 2012. Benefits include shortening the shipping cycle, reduced costs, faster customs clearance, the elimination of problems resulting from lost or misplaced documents, and reduced paper usage.

 e-AWB Advisory Group

Cathay Pacific hosted the e-AWB Advisory Group meeting in Hong Kong on 19 and  20 January.  Representatives from 13 airlines met the local freight forwarder association (HAFFA) to listen to freight forwarder feedback, visited the handling operations in HACTL to understand the new e-AWB operational procedures, listened to the Cathay legal expert from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert and learnt from Cathay Pacific's IT solution provider, GLS Hong Kong.

Following this success in Hong Kong, airlines are committed to implement e-AWB in their home market to improve their customer experience, lower their operational costs and to move towards the ultimate goal: e-freight, the full paper free process.

Inset photo (left to right): Terry Lo (COO of GLSHK), Nick Rhodes (Director Cargo), T S Wong (Manager Cargo Hub Operations HK), Keith Lam (Business Solutions Manager of GLSHK), Jackson Chan (Cargo Services Manager E-freight), Kevin Fung (Cargo Duty Manager)