The current 37.2% electronic air waybill penetration amongst IATA’s member airlines represents a mere 0.8% increase from the December 2015 figures to those of January this year. If this growth rate is to continue, it is likely that the industry will once again miss its end of year target, which this year has been increased to 56% implementation.
Falling short of last year’s 45% industry target has not deterred IATA, however, and the organisation remains confident that this year’s launch of eAWB360 – a market and community driven approach to aligned e-AWB implementation and synchronised market communications – will stimulate progress significantly.
The e-AWB360 initiative will initially encourage nine airports to roll out this community-based approach to e-AWB implementation. IATA already has 17 major airlines committed to the e-AWB360 programme, which launched at Amsterdam airport in January, followed by London and Frankfurt this month, with another six airports due to introduce the programme in March.
