E-freight seminar at Schiphol a great success

On Wednesday 27 January a seminar was held at Schiphol on e-freight, the paperless transport of air cargo. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol aims to promote the paperless transport of air cargo in order to increase the number of e-freight shipments transported via Amsterdam.

Saskia van Pelt, Director of Business Development Cargo at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Jan Vreeburg, Director of Process Innovations and Arie Korving, Project Manager at Air France Cargo - KLM Cargo, Ronald de Reus, Project Manager at Rhenus Air and Chris Wolstenholme, Regional Implementation Manager at IATA (International Air Transport Association) presented the advantages of e-freight to more than 100 representatives from the air cargo sector.

E-freight replaces paper documents with electronic messages in the air cargo supply chain. Each international air cargo shipment can consist of up to 30 paper documents. This alone represents around eighty 747 freighters filled with paper annually.

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the European frontrunner in respect of the number of e-freight shipments carried out. Currently 10% of all worldwide e-freight shipments are transported via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Paperless air cargo transport expedites turnaround times, enhances the reliability of the supply chain and is more environmentally friendly. As a result, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol has reinforced its international competitive position in the air cargo sector.

By holding seminars to inform market parties how easy it is to implement e-freight in the air cargo process, the airport is promoting paperless transport in association with IATA, AF-KL Cargo and Rhenus Air. 'Paperless' support is also provided through the information available on the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol website as well as through CargoNEWS, where the latest developments in e-freight can be found.