The following is excerpted from 3 April 2013 article by Canadian Transportation & Logistics.
The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have approved the standard for a Multilateral electronic Air Waybill (e-AWB), removing the need for bilateral e-AWB agreements between airlines and freight forwarders.
Airlines will have a single agreement with IATA that enables them to accept e-AWBs from all participating freight forwarders, while freight forwarders will have a single agreement that will allow them to tender e-AWB shipments to multiple airlines at numerous airports worldwide, said the associations in a release…
FIATA and IATA said they expect the multilateral e-AWB agreement to play a major role in increasing take-up of the e-AWB to reach the industry target of 100% penetration by 2015.
This article is available in its entirety at: http://www.ctl.ca/news/iata-fiata-approve-multilateral-e-air-waybill/1002199409/.