Cathay Cargo first to use IATA's ONE Record data protocol

Hong Kong : Cathay Cargo has become the first carrier to adopt the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) ONE Record data protocol in some of its day-to-day operations with forwarders, according to a release.

The move took place a year ahead of IATA's target date for ONE Record implementation, which is scheduled for January 2026.

In December 2024, three freight forwarders on the Chinese Mainland-Sinotrans Air Freight, WECAN International Freight Forwarding International Logistics, and ALL-LINK Logistics-started exchanging electronic air waybill (eAWB) and shipment status information with Cathay Cargo using an application program interface (API) designed to ONE Record data protocols.

In January 2025, Sinotrans Hong Kong Air Transportation Development became the first Hong Kong forwarder to submit eAWB information and is now able to review shipment information from Cathay Cargo using ONE Record data protocols.

IATA's ONE Record initiative enables end-to-end transparency for consignments, logging progress as they pass through multiple links in the air-cargo chain from shipper to agent, airline, warehouse and statutory authorities such as customs, following IATA's protocols for APIs-the interfaces that enable users to connect to the system and share data in a secure way.

Sinotrans uploaded its eAWB information through ONE Record via a specialized digital interface coordinated, designed and hosted by Cathay Cargo's innovation partner, Global Logistics System (HK) Company Limited (GLS), which also designed other industry-leading digitalization projects for the carrier's commercial and operational settings, including Click and Ship, Cathay Cargo's online booking platform.

This connection enables all stakeholders in the shipment process to extract richer data from ONE Record beyond the standard departure and arrival data derived from CIMP (Cargo Interchange Message Procedure), the standard communication link between airline and forwarder. With ONE Record, multi-dimensional data from Cathay Cargo's next-generation Ultra Track solution, like temperature and geolocation, can be accessed, and the same applies to data from cooltainers with data transmitters, particularly Envirotainer's Releye packaging.