Resources · Glossary
The air cargo glossary
Clear, current definitions of the standards, messages, and acronyms that run airline cargo — written by the team building a modern, API-first cargo platform.
Standards
- IATA ONE Record IATA ONE Record is an air cargo data-sharing standard that replaces dozens of separate EDI messages (Cargo-IMP and Cargo-XML) with a single shared digital record of each shipment, which every authorised party reads and updates through a secure web API. Since 1 January 2026 it has been IATA's preferred — though still voluntary — method for exchanging air cargo data.
- Cargo-IMP Cargo-IMP (Cargo Interchange Message Procedures) is IATA's long-standing standard for exchanging air cargo data between airlines, forwarders, and ground handlers using short Type B EDI text messages — such as the FWB (air waybill data), FFM (flight manifest), and FSU (status update). Its 34th edition, effective 1 January 2015, is the final one: IATA has frozen Cargo-IMP and steers the industry toward Cargo-XML and ONE Record.
- FSU The FSU (Status Update) is the Cargo-IMP message airlines and ground handlers send to report a shipment's operational milestones — booked, received, departed, arrived, delivered — each identified by a three-letter status code such as RCS, DEP, ARR, or DLV. It is the message behind every air cargo track-and-trace screen.
- FWB FWB = Air Waybill Data — the Cargo-IMP message carrying the full (master) air waybill electronically between forwarders, airlines, and handlers; it is the message that carries the e-AWB.
- FFM FFM = Airline Flight Manifest — the Cargo-IMP message listing every consignment loaded on a flight, sent ahead so downline stations and handlers know what is arriving.
- FHL vs FZB FHL is the Consolidation List — the summary manifest of house waybills under a master AWB. FZB is House Waybill Data — the full detail of one house waybill. Calling FHL "house waybill data" is one of air cargo's most common mix-ups.