What is the e-AWB (electronic air waybill)?

The air waybill it replaces

The air waybill (AWB) is the foundational document of air cargo: it is the contract of carriage between the shipper (in practice, the freight forwarder) and the carrier (the airline). Every AWB carries a unique 11-digit number — a 3-digit airline prefix followed by an 8-digit serial, where the final digit is a modulus-7 check digit (the 7-digit sequence divided by 7, remainder 0–6). For example, 020-58717481 belongs to prefix 020, Lufthansa Cargo.

Two layers matter for what follows:

• The Master Air Waybill (MAWB) is issued by or on behalf of the airline to the forwarder and covers the whole shipment, airport to airport.
• The House Air Waybill (HAWB) is issued by the forwarder to each underlying shipper inside a consolidation. One MAWB can cover many HAWBs.

The e-AWB is what happens when that master contract stops being a piece of paper.

What makes it “electronic”

An e-AWB is “formed between two parties having signed an e-AWB agreement … and is materialised with the exchange of an IATA standard (X)FWB message.” In other words, instead of a printed master air waybill, the contract is concluded and conveyed as an electronic message: the FWB (“Air Waybill Data”) in Cargo-IMP, or its XFWB equivalent in Cargo-XML. House-waybill detail is carried by the FHL message. There is no paper to print, hand off, or archive.

The Multilateral e-AWB Agreement (Resolution 672)

Before 2010, going paperless meant signing a separate bilateral agreement with each partner — unworkable at scale. IATA’s Multilateral e-AWB Agreement, defined in Resolution 672, fixed that: an airline or forwarder signs once with IATA and can then do e-AWB with every other party to the agreement, location by location, as each pair is mutually activated. It is the legal backbone that made the e-AWB practical industry-wide.

Note on a common myth: there is no IATA resolution that “defines the e-AWB single process.” The single process is an operating guideline run under Resolution 672. (Resolution 833, sometimes cited here, is actually “Ready for Carriage (Consignments)” — a different thing.)

Default since 2019 — but not strictly mandatory

Effective 1 January 2019, the e-AWB became the default contract of carriage for air cargo on enabled trade lanes. “Default” is the key word: a paper AWB can still be required where international treaties, national law, or a bilateral agreement demand it. The e-AWB was first introduced by IATA in 2010 and the default milestone in 2019 was the tipping point for the industry.

The special handling codes

Because some shipments still travel with accompanying paperwork, two pairs of codes signal what is — and isn’t — needed:

Code	Set by	Meaning
EAW	Forwarder	e-AWB shipment without accompanying documents and without a pouch
EAP	Forwarder	e-AWB shipment with accompanying documents or a pouch
ECC	Carrier	A paper AWB is not required
ECP	Carrier	A paper AWB must be printed to comply with applicable legislation

The forwarder code and carrier code combine — for example EAW + ECC is the fully paperless case.

When the contract is concluded

Under the multilateral agreement, the electronic contract of carriage is concluded when the carrier sends the FSU/RCS status — RCS being “Ready for Carriage.” That status message, not a signature on paper, is the legal trigger that the cargo has been accepted under the e-AWB.

The e-AWB and ONE Record

The e-AWB began as a way to send the air waybill as a message instead of as paper. IATA ONE Record takes the next step: the waybill becomes shared data — a Logistics Object that authorised parties read and update directly — rather than a message volleyed back and forth. The waybill can always be re-created from that data when a document is genuinely needed.

How Flaks handles the e-AWB

Flaks issues and validates AWB numbers from your own stock, generates the FWB/XFWB so your shipments are e-AWB from the first booking, and exchanges the Cargo-IMP and Cargo-XML messages your partners already send. Because it is also ONE Record–native, the same waybill is available as modern shared data to partners who want it — no separate e-AWB project required.