China Southern Airlines — China's largest cargo carrier — is set to offer rates, and capacity allowing bookings through the online booking platform, WebCargo.
The deal is the first for an air freight booking platform to enter the Chinese market but half of the world's air cargo capacity is offered on WebCargo.
Some of the airlines already listing their services on WebCargo include the American Airlines Group, Air France-KLM, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Emirates SkyCargo.
The Freightos Group said on December 6 that China Southern will offer real-time rates, capacity and bookings on WebCargo which currently connects to more than 3,500 freight forwarders.
Chengqing Tao, EVP of China Southern Logistics, noted the importance of digitalisation in the airline's operations and goals.
"It is China Southern Cargo's medium and long-term strategy to become a competitive global integrated logistics provider. In order to reach our strategic goal, China Southern Cargo will focus on three key directions — digital transformation, internationalization, and coordinated development of multiple business segments," Tao said, adding that thus, digitalization is "one of the most important pillars," in China Southern Cargo's development.
"We believe digitalization is an accelerator for the coordinated and high-quality development of our four business sectors (air cargo, modern warehousing, supply chain management and e-commerce," the China Southern executive added, noting that the current air cargo ecosystem is "complicated" and the traditional way of data transmission heavily relies on manual entry and paperwork — which is "very time consuming and lacks accuracy."
"E-booking is undoubtedly useful in streamlining the process of information transmission — reducing communication costs, facilitating business transactions, and therefore enhances the overall efficiency of the supply chain," Tao added.
The deal with WebCargo will provide shippers access to freight availability from China Southern, which accounts for about 5% of all tonnage capacity worldwide.
