Table of Contents

World Cargo Symposium
Cargo Security
CASS
e-Freight
Cargo 2000

World Cargo Symposium

Get ready for some serious business in Mexico City from 5-8 March, 2007!  At the first IATA World Cargo Symposium over 500 delegates, 160 speakers, 75 vendors and 50 heads of cargo airlines have confirmed their appearance at the event. Need we say more?

Cargo Security

"Global standards and harmonisation will continue to be the focus in 2007. Important progress towards this was made during 2006 but there is a great deal of work still to do. We have significantly increased our effort to work in concert with all key industry associations, especially in the US, where the push to achieving 100% screening of cargo has increased considerably in recent weeks. In Europe, the European Commission continues to chair their Cargo Security Work Group and further progress has been made towards clarifying and simplifying the framework and implementing regulations.

We are working closely with the Air Freight Institute of FIATA to develop and clarify industry positions where required and jointly promote industry participation in the development of air cargo security and customs security regulations. Again global harmonisation of standards is a key objective. In the coming weeks, we will invite other key associations to join us in this effort."

John M. Edwards
Head of Cargo Security, IATA

CASS

CASS Completes a Record Year

2006 set a new benchmark for CASS activity. A record 16.4 million AWBs were processed globally through CASS operations with a combined settlement value in excess of USD $20 billion.  With 12 new countries added to the network, 2006 was the most successful year yet. Now, the new challenge is for 2007 to eclipse these record numbers.

A new IATA CASS programme providing airlines with a global Neutral AWB Management system was officially unveiled at a recent IATA Cargo event in Geneva. The system will enable airlines and forwarders to simplify the neutral AWB number allocation, audit management and request processes using this new feature added to the CASSlink tool. CASSlink has over 13,000 registered users (airlines and forwarders) and covers 57 countries worldwide.

For more information please contact your local area IATA Cargo manager.

CASS Central Europe takes to the skies. The Czech Republic has officially launched CASS with January 2007 transactions being processed through the system. This is another successful step as we head towards the 2007 target of 70 CASS countries.

e-freight

Industry Chairs for Local e-freight Implementation Groups Appointed

IATA's Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani has appointed industry chairs for each of the five e-freight pilot implementation groups in Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands.

At each of the five locations, the home airline's head of cargo will take personal responsibility for driving local e-freight pilot implementation. Each head of cargo has, with the approval of Giovanni Bisignani, proposed the following Chairs for the local e-freight implementation group:

Canada: Mr Mike Morey, Director Cargo Standards and Procedures
Hong Kong: Mr. Albert Lo, Manager Cargo Services
Netherlands: Mr Mattijs Ten Brink, Vice President Worldwide Operations, KLM
Singapore: Mr Chong-Beng Tan, Senior Manager, Industry Affairs and Mail, Singapore Airlines
United Kingdom: Mr Edwin Searancke, General Manager Customer Delivery, British Airways World Cargo

Each local e-freight implementation group will have active participation from the home airline, freight-forward international members, area customs administrations, and the local forwarder association.

Each chair will be directly supported by IATA via the IATA Regional Cargo Director and a newly appointed local e-freight implementation manager.

Message Improvement Programme (MIP)
The IATA e-freight Message Improvement Programme is now underway, with 17 airlines and six freight forwarders on the team. Reports are now being compiled by airlines and sent to IATA for consolidation and for the identification of areas needing improvement in both FHL and FWB messages.
Details of the updated MIP strategy document can be found on the new IATA MIP homepage:

http://www.iata.org/stbsupportportal/efreight/MessageImprovementProgramme-MIP.htm

Cargo 2000

Cargo 2000 Customer Forum, Tokyo 25 January 2007

Cargo 2000, the global quality initiative for the airfreight industry, held its most recent Customer Forum in Tokyo on 25 January. Some 100 shippers joined with local freight forwarders and airline representatives to meet the Cargo 2000 Board and see a presentation on the development of Cargo 2000 and the results now being achieved.

The group’s chairman, Mick Fountain, encouraged those present to lend their support to the programme by asking their suppliers for quality data when responding to tender requests. He also invited shippers to take a more active role in the development of Cargo 2000 by participating in customer workshops. Shippers present requested that Cargo 2000 extend its quality remit to include the physical handling of goods, citing an increase in damage to packaging, which made goods unsalable upon delivery. 

The event also included special guest presentations from Mr. Harry Takahasi, one of Cargo 2000’s founding members who is now Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Tokyo Metropolitan University, as well as a presentation from Mr. Zenkichi Kitajima, Director Japan Regional Logistics, Global Operations & IT for Hewlett Packard. Jointly hosted by Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, and Yusen Air & Sea Service, the session concluded with a buffet reception where shippers were able to find out more from Cargo 2000 members in an informal setting.

For more details about Cargo 2000 and future events click on www.cargo2000.com