IATA’s ONE-Record data window helps Cathay dip its toes in the ocean
CATHAY CARGO, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Hong Kong airport authority are celebrating a number of mutually beneficial digitalisation milestones, writes Thelma Etim.
The Asian carrier has adopted the worldwide airline association’s pathfinding ONE Record data-sharing system — for intermodal export shipments accepted at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) Logistics Park at Dongguan (Guangdong City).
Via a “standardised and secured” web application programming interface (API), the IATA-sponsored software provides a single-record view of the data status for each individual shipment.
This data transparency is desperately needed to assist in the gradual digitalisation of the supply-chain and transportation industry’s complex, paper-based legacy processes. It enables end-to-end transparency for consignments, logging a shipment’s progress as it passes through multiple links in the supply chain from shipper to agent, to airline, to warehouse and to statutory regulatory authorities such as Customs.
In a latest Cathay Cargo pilot trial, the data software solution covered air cargo shipments specifically received from freight forwarder Yusen Logistics at the Cathay Dongguan Cargo Terminal Dongguan. The shipments — which also passed through the airport authority’s security — were bound for Bangkok, Manila and Tokyo. ONE Record then generated data notices for the bonded shipments prior to their exportation from HKIA and ahead of final collection by consignees.
Throughout the process the forwarder was able to utilise its own in-house digital cargo management system to monitor how the trialled airfreight shipments were progressing. Speaking on behalf of Yusen, Cyrus Chan, manager of the company’s airfreight forwarding division, insists that IATA’s data sharing will substantially help enhance collaboration among supply chain stakeholders, whilst improving shipment status visibility.
‘ONE Record is gaining traction’
“ONE Record is gaining traction,” Chan observes. “It will become the global standard. We are keen to be an early adopter [of it] to align with industry best practice and future developments in air cargo operations,” he states.
Cathay notes that the ONE Record pilot trial marks the first time that data protocols, including security status, have also been made available for sea-to-air shipments — and with cargo acceptance logged outside the origin airport’s cargo terminal.
Tom Owen, director of cargo at the Hong Kong airline, points out: “This latest pilot scheme demonstrates that Cathay Cargo continues to be a trailblazer in terms of digitalising systems ready for the 2026 implementation of ONE Record. It also shows [the programme’s] value in enabling additional services such as Ultra Track — a multi-dimensional tracking system — and other [initiatives] that we are continuing to explore.”
Ultra Track utilises Descartes’ Bluetooth data-loggers and transmitters to monitor the progress of pharmaceuticals, perishables and other vulnerable shipments in near real-time throughout the airport-to-airport leg of the air-cargo journey.
Owen adds: “This pilot also showed ONE Record’s flexibility and world-first ability to accept shipments from an upstream cargo terminal and then log its transit by vessel.”
Max Xie, IATA’s regional vice-president for the north Asian region, insists that the pilot brings ONE Record to a new level — demonstrating the effectiveness of the standard in supporting the transport of intermodal cargo shipments. “When fully implemented it will further strengthen Hong Kong’s status as a key cargo hub,” he insists.
In 2020, Pramod Rao, chief executive of Nexshore, which created the initial ONE Record Server, outlined: “Given our long-standing background in logistics and fintech, [we] recognise that ONE Record does not have to be limited to a platform for just air cargo operations.”
Originally published at https://aircargoeye.com on October 16, 2023.
