Sydney - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) today announced that IATA e-freight is “live” in New Zealand and Australia, the fourth and fifth new locations respectively to deliver paper free cargo in 2008.
The New Zealand e-freight went “live” on 14 October 2008 on 2 trade lanes: New Zealand-Singapore, and New Zealand-Hong Kong. The New Zealand IATA e-freight implementation was led by New Zealand Customs and supported by Singapore airlines, Cathay Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding, Mainfreight International and MAF Biosecurity of New Zealand.
The Australia e-freight became operational today on 3 trade lanes: Australia-Singapore, Australia-New Zealand and Australia-the Netherlands. QANTAS led the Australia IATA e-freight implementation. Also involved in the implementation were Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, DHL Global Forwarding, Schenker, Fracht Australia, Australian Customs, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, the Australian Federation of International Forwarders and the Customers Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia.
IATA e-freight is one of five Simplifying the Business projects being led by IATA to improve service and cut costs. It requires that business, technical and legal frameworks are in place to allow airlines, freight forwarders, customs administrations and governments to seamlessly exchange electronic information and e-documents instead of paper. IATA e-freight effectively eliminates the need to send 13 paper documents with air cargo shipments streamlining processes, improving speed and reliability and cutting costs.
Over the past year IATA has assessed the readiness of 209 locations worldwide in addition to the original 6 e-freight sites. Of these, 46 countries, representing approximately 60% of global air-freight volumes, have the appropriate international treaties and high level customs framework in place to qualify for IATA e-freight.
IATA e-freight is also operational in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The industry has set a deadline of the end of 2010 for the implementation of e-freight where feasible.