Lufthansa Cargo AG, together with its Global Partner DB Schenker recently despatched the first paperless airfreight shipment from the German market. Right on time, at 17.55 hrs. local time, the item of freight on board Lufthansa Passage's flight LH712 left Frankfurt heading for the South Korean capital of Seoul. As a result, the first e-freight transport started a month earlier than originally planned. 'Lufthansa Cargo has heralded in the e-freight age in Germany and with that, once again confirmed its claim to the leading role within the airfreight industry', according to Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo. 'With paperless freight transport, together with our customers, we move the industry forward, because e-freight not only improves the data quality, but above all, also increases efficiency and, in addition, spares the environment. We would therefore like to quickly acquire as many customers as possible for paperless freight transport."

'This premiere will show our customers how far ahead of the competition we are when it comes to innovation,' says DB Schenker Chairman Norbert Bensel, Member of the Deutsche Bahn Management Board for Transportation and Logistics. 'In the Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Australia and in the United Kingdom DB Schenker has already successfully introduced paperless airfreight handling.'

After the successful maiden flight, which was prepared in close cooperation with the German authorities and customs, the use of e-freight is planned to be gradually increased on the route between Germany and Korea. Furthermore, in the next few months Lufthansa Cargo wants to extend e-freight to further German stations and markets in Asia like Singapore and Hong Kong.

The freight subsidiary of German Lufthansa has made a major contribution to the introduction of e-freight during the last months as the 'Lead Carrier' and project coordinator of the IATA e-freight project for Germany, which involves a number of leading forwarders and airlines. Thanks to this successful Go Live by Lufthansa Cargo and to the significant work performed by this industry group to define how to implement e-freight in Germany, further airlines and forwarding agencies will be able to introduce paperless freight transport to and from Germany in the coming weeks and months.

The IATA 'e-freight' project was initiated in 2004 within the framework of the Association's 'Simplifying the Business' programme and represents a large step in the direction of process simplification for the airfreight industry. Each year the freight papers produced worldwide would fill 39 Boeing 747-400 freighters.