IATA Board of Governors meets in Istanbul, validates StB targets

The ongoing industry crisis was on everyone's mind at the recently concluded IATA Board meeting. In this context, the Simplifying the Business vision of lower cost and better service became even more relevant to the industry. The Board continued to express strong support for the programme, endorsing current targets for all StB projects. Airline CEOs also congratulated the industry on the move to 100% ET.

IATA e-freight completes Detailed Level Assessments: 11 more locations now ready for implementation

The IATA e-freight project team has now completed Detailed Level Assessments (DLAs) for all locations that passed the High Level Assessments (HLAs).

This marks a major step forward towards the project target of eight additional e-freight locations by the end of this year.

How does the IATA e-freight assessment phase work?
The first step towards becoming an IATA e-freight location is completing an assessment phase. This phase consists of two parts: the High Level Assessment (HLA) and the Detailed Level Assessment (DLA).

The High Level Assessments, completed earlier this year for over 200 countries, investigates a location’s regulatory and customs environment for air freight in four categories.

Once a location passes the HLA, a DLA is conducted. The DLA is a set of over 50 questions that diagnose the readiness of a location and its stakeholders to participate in IATA e-freight from technical, process and regulatory points of view.

If a location fails to meet the DLA criteria then, depending on the issue, an agreed action plan will be developed to close the identified gaps. These actions plans are called Local Action Plans (LAPs). The Lead Airline and local stakeholders will execute this plan with the support of IATA.

Comprehensive information on the assessment process, including the methodology of both the HLA and DLA, is available here.

The Results
As previously announced at the recently concluded IATA AGM, Germany, South Korea and Mauritius have passed the DLA and have kicked off e-freight implementation.

On June 24, IATA was pleased to announce eleven additional locations that have passed the DLA and are ready for IATA e-freight implementation:

Australia                                                         
Denmark                                                  
Dubai  
France
Iceland
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Norway
Spain
Switzerland
USA                                              

Additional locations have yet to finalise the DLA or have plans in place in order to meet DLA requirements.

For the full DLA results, please go to the final DLA report and to the complete DLA questionnaire data by country.

Map the progress of e-freight around the world
IATA has now developed an e-freight interactive map. The map shows countries’ progress towards becoming IATA e-freight locations, from the assessment phase through to implementation.

What’s driving the IATA e-freight project?
Read about the benefits of the project in the latest IATA e-freight vision and mandate.

Keep up to date with project developments
On the IATA e-freight site, project news, events, and helpful materials – like upcoming e-freight events - are updated regularly.

100% ET – 30 days on

The industry has transitioned without incident to 100% ET – an incredible achievement!

In May, on average 96.7% of tickets were electronic – and the IATA ET team estimates that figure for the end of May will be above 97%. These figures surpass IATA's ET forecast. Congratulations to everyone in the industry on this truly remarkable result.

IATA has a new webpage – called ET Post Project Support – that will feature any project news, updates and materials related to the ET deadline. The webpage also features a selection of airline ticket issuance policies for travel agents.

Reminder: MPD reports on the extranet
The miscellaneous passenger documents (MPDs) report will give airlines an idea of which MPDs they are using and help them anticipate how MPD usage might be affected after the deadline. The report indicates an airline’s issuance of each type of MPD (e.g., automated MCO, vMPD, excess baggage ticket) in each of its BSPs over the last three months. Find your report on your airline’s StB Extranet page. A brief guide is also posted on the Extranet landing page to help you understand the report.

Airlines and airports: are your partners BCBP capable?

Airlines and airports are busy organizations – especially these days, as the industry struggles to identify new ways to profitably operate. That’s why on February 14, the BCBP project team came up with an easy way for airlines and airports to work together: the BCBP Matchmaker.

Free of cost, the BCBP Matchmaker allows airlines and airports to plan the move to BCBP across the industry – an initiative that will save over US$ 500 million every year. Here’s how it works:

• Airlines and airports register on the matchmaker at www.iata.org/bcbpmatchmaker
• They can then input where they are BCBP capable (i.e. airport terminals)
• And exchange information with each other on implementation (i.e. timelines)

In just four months, 96 airlines registered and provided information on 938 airports.  The BCBP Matchmaker is an important tool to achieve industry wide implementation. It also provides real time information on the BCBP capability of airlines and airports around the world.

Airports: we’re here to help you
IATA is committed to helping airports benefit from the IATA BCBP mandate. While we have already been talking to approximately 400 large airports, we’ve now collected the contact details for over 2,000 small and medium size airports. During the coming months, IATA will reach out to these airports, raising awareness about the mandate and offering information on the actions airports can take to prepare for 100% BCBP. For more information visit the BCBP airport page.

BCBP Implementation Guide now available online
Published by IATA to provide technical guidance on how to implement BCBP, the third edition of the BCBP Implementation Guide is now exclusively available for airlines and airports on the extranet. The guide is publicly available at the IATA online store. It covers the latest developments of the BCBP standard, including 2D barcodes on mobile phones. The document is for airline and airport project managers involved in BCBP projects. Topics include how to implement a BCBP project, information on critical IT infrastructure, and StB preferred partners.

Baggage Improvement Programme (BIP) begins at Santiago, Dubai

BIP seeks to address the industry’s US$ 3.8 billion annual baggage mishandling price tag. The programme will do this by improving handling processes and introducing new technologies – which will also enhance customer service.

The StB baggage go-team visited LAN, Emirates and airport representatives in June to kickoff pilot projects at Santiago and Dubai. The team held workshops at each location that identified the most pressing baggage mishandling issues. As a next step, the IATA team will offer solutions to address these issues – and will work together with the airlines and airports to implement them.

As participants in the pilot phase, LAN and Emirates benefit from the latest techniques in baggage management and the opportunity to select one or more projects to reduce mishandling.

CUSS makes inroads in the Middle East

CUSS – the common-use self-service kiosk - has been slow to progress in the Middle East.  Over the last few months, Paul Behan, IATA’s Fast Travel Programme Manager, visited the region to work with airlines and airports to create momentum for 2008 and beyond.

The slow progress is due to misconceptions and uncertainty that we’ve previously seen in other regions that are now making progress:

• “I’m not sure how CUSS adds value.”
• “Passengers won’t know how to use it.”
• “It only works with no baggage.”
• “Kiosks are being taken over by web check-in.”
• “We’re different and therefore it isn’t suitable for our market.”

In 2008 alone, IATA met with 10 airlines and airports in the Middle East. During these meetings, both airlines and airports found CUSS attractive when we discussed its potential as more than just a check-in kiosk – but rather a platform from which a number of self-services could be offered, like passport scanning and baggage tagging.

The Bahrain BCBP & CUSS Workshop in May was a great success from this perspective, resulting in many discussions with airports and airlines on how to develop a comprehensive self-strategy offering across several channels.

We see evidence of self-service already taking hold in the region. For example, Dubai International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is centered on the self-service concept. Traditional check-in desks will serve as supplemental processing points, even for premium travel classes. This is a major change and is taking place around the region: in 2008, we expect to see Bahrain, Dammam and Riyadh airports all offering CUSS facilities.

Regional airlines, like Emirates and Saudi Arabian Airlines, are also looking extend their CUSS offerings outside of their hub airports – taking advantage of online stations that already have CUSS available.

Across the industry, a 40% CUSS market penetration will generate annual savings of US$ 1 billion. The IATA team is available to help you implement CUSS. For more information, visit the CUSS homepage.

Fast Travel Programme confirms 2008 pilots

The Fast Travel programme will enable passengers to manage their journey through a range of self-service options, reducing cost and enhancing customer service. Six projects currently make-up the Fast Travel programme: Check-in, Bags-ready-to-go, Document scanning, Flight re-booking (IRROPS), Self-boarding and Baggage recovery (lost bag registration).

Development of the Fast Travel programme is in the pilot stage. IATA is working with at least two carriers in each of the project areas to develop detailed business cases by the end of 2008. Details of the Fast Travel pilots can be found here.

Contact us to share your comments, questions and ideas!

The StB Global Team