American Airlines Cargo Division to join US e-freight initiative

American Airlines Cargo Division (AA Cargo), a division of American Airlines, has announced its decision to participate in the launch of the United States air cargo industry’s e-freight initiative, which supports a move toward paperless documentation.

The e-freight initiative is an initiative facilitated by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The e-freight programme effectively eliminates the need to send 12 paper documents with air cargo shipments – resulting in streamlining of the processes, improvement in speed and reliability as well as reduction in costs.

The new system, which will be used for the first time on October 24, 2008, on flights in the United States between New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport, is planned to be expanded to other routes and at other major airports in the United States.

The other carriers participating in the e-freight tests in the United States are British Airways, KLM, United Airlines, and DHL.

A press release from the International Air Transport Association explained: “e-freight requires that business, technical and legal frameworks be in place to allow airlines, freight forwarders, customs administrations, and governments to seamlessly exchange electronic information and e-documents instead of paper. In addition, the effort supports the environment by reducing paper-based waste.”

Dave Brooks, president of American Airlines Cargo Division, said in a statement: “The launch in the United States of the e-freight initiative brings us one step closer to a completely paperless environment. The improvement in data quality and timeliness of information will increase the speed of our interactions, yielding more efficient commerce for all of us in the air cargo industry.”

American Airlines Cargo Division, according to Dave Brooks, provides over 100 million pounds of weekly cargo lift capacity to major cities in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia. It also offers one of the largest cargo networks in the world, with cargo terminals and interline connections available across the globe.

American Airlines, American Eagle and the AmericanConnection – which are wholly owned subsidiary of the AMR Corporation, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the United States – serve over 250 cities in over 40 countries with more than 4,000 daily flights. The combined network fleet includes over 1,000 aircraft.