In December 2024, Chinese freight forwarders Sinotrans Air Freight, WECAN International Freight Forwarding Logistics and ALL-LINK Logistics starting exchanging e-AWB and shipment status information with Cathay Cargo using an API designed to ONE Record data protocols.
In January 2025, Sinotrans Hong Kong Air Transportation Development became the first Hong Kong forwarder to submit e-AWB information and is able to review shipment information with Cathay Cargo using ONE Record data protocols.
The achievement is one year ahead of IATA’s target date for ONE Record implementation, which is scheduled for January 2026.
Tom Owen, Director of Cathay Cargo, says, “The technical ease of aligning our key customers’ systems using ONE Record protocols with APIs highlights that there is nothing to fear in making the change and lots to be gained from the operational efficiencies, enhanced security and greater transparency of the overall shipment process.”
ONE Record provides end-to-end transparency for consignments, logging progress as they pass through links in the air cargo supply chain following IATA’s protocols for APIs.
Sinotrans uploaded its e-AWB information through ONE Record via a digital interface from Cathay Cargo’s innovation partner Global Logistics Systems (HK).
The connection enables all stakeholders in the shipment process to extract richer data from ONE Record beyond the standard departure and arrival data derived from CIMP (Cargo Interchange Message Procedure), the standard communication link between airlines and forwarders.
Henk Mulder, Head of Digital Cargo at IATA, says, “All this data is only meaningful when considered together, in the context of one shipment. IATA’s ONE Record data-sharing standard offers an intelligent data infrastructure where data is linked in a vast and decentralised network where stakeholders can access relevant data securely, receiving relevant updates to drive their transport and logistics processes.”