Emirates SkyCargo reaches e-freight milestones
Emirates SkyCargo’s status as a leading innovator was confirmed as total shipments of e-freight – paperless cargo consignments – reached the one million kilos a month milestone. It has also passed the 16 million kilo mark in total e-freight shipments.
The carrier, which is an enthusiastic advocate of the IATA initiative and the world’s leading carrier of e-freight, achieved this landmark in just 19 months and is now seeing around 12% of shipments from compliant airports being sent in this way.
Key e-freight stations for Emirates SkyCargo include Singapore, Zaragoza, Mauritius, London Heathrow, Hong Kong, Sydney, New York (JFK), Munich and the carrier’s hub – Dubai.
Earlier this year Emirates SkyCargo launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote the benefits of e-freight throughout the industry. The campaign, which comprised online and print advertisements, direct mailers and a step-by-step instruction manual to e-freight, ran in more than 100 countries.
Ram Menen, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President Cargo, says: “E-freight is the future of our industry, and one we are embracing. Its benefits are enormous, and we encourage our forwarding partners to adopt it.”
E-freight aims to take the paper documentation out of air cargo and to replace it with the exchange of electronic data and messages. A single shipment can involve up to 30 paper documents, and e-freight currently replaces 20 of these with electronic messages. Before the advent of e-freight the air cargo industry used the equivalent of 39 Boeing 747 freighters full of paper documents. In fact, were it not for various Customs authorities still requiring a physical document, all of Emirates SkyCargo’s transactions could be paperless thanks to its fully integrated air cargo management solution SkyChain.
Forwarders who send traffic using e-freight can enjoy the benefits of a faster service through reduced cycle times; greater reliability and accuracy with its one-time electronic data entry at point of origin; better visibility as electronic documentation allows for online track and trace functionality; and Customs benefits as the number of fines are reduced and deposits are no longer required. On top of these benefits, there is the added financial stimulus for Dubai-based customers whereby Customs does not retain the forwarders’ deposits.
IATA estimates that the lower costs of e-freight are resulting in industry savings of up to US$4.9 billion (AED 18 billion) every year.
In November 2008, Emirates SkyCargo started sending e-freight shipments from five airports. Today there are 126 e-freight compliant airports worldwide, 38 of which are within Emirates’ global network. The carrier estimates that more than 50 of its airports will be handling e-freight by the end of 2010.
For further information, visit www.skycargo.com
Published: 12/07/2010
