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  Volume: XX, Issue No. 02 September 1-15, 2010  
     
 
  CARGO & SHIPPING
  Emirates SkyCargo sees e-freight climb above one million kilos a month

Dubai : Emirates Sky-Cargo's status as a leading innovator was confirmed this week as total shipments of e-freight- paperless cargo consignments - reached the one million kilos a month milestone. It also passed the 16 million kilo mark in total e-freight shipments this week, says a press release.

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 per cent of shipments from compliant airports being sent in this way.

Key e-freight stations for Emirates SkyCargo include Singapore, Zaragoza, Mau-ritius, 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 B747 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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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