Seoul - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) today announced that IATA e-freight is “live” in South Korea, the first new location to do so in 2008.
Led by Korea Customs Service and with Korean Air Cargo and Asiana Cargo, IATA e-freight has been launched on two trade lanes, between South Korea and Singapore, and South Korea and Hong Kong with further expansion to other routes planned.
Also involved in the implementation in South Korea are Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, DHL Global Forwarding, Pantos Logistics, Hanaro Technology Network System (HTNS), MCI Global Logistics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Logitech. Other stakeholders, including Air France/KLM, Air Canada, Emirates and Cosmo Airfreight Consolidators (CAC), are part of the South Korean e-freight group and will soon start operations from South Korea.
IATA e-freight is one of the Simplifying the Business projects being led by IATA to improve service and cut costs. The industry has set a deadline of the end of 2010 for the implementation of e-freight where feasible.
IATA implemented e-freight in six locations in November 2007 (Canada, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and plans to implement another seven locations by the end of 2008.
Notes for Editors :
- IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of international scheduled air traffic.
- IATA e-freight is live in six locations - Canada, Sweden, U.K., Hong Kong, Singapore and the Netherlands.
- E-freight projects have recently been launched in Germany, Mauritius, USA, Dubai, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark and Norway
- IATA plans to have 14 locations operating e-freight by year-end.
- Over the past six months, IATA has assessed the readiness of over 200 locations worldwide. Forty-three countries were found to have the appropriate international treaties and high level customs framework in place to qualify for e-freight.
- For more information on IATA e-freight see www.iata.org/stbsupportportal.