An air waybill is the transport document that accompanies every air cargo shipment. It is a receipt for the goods, a contract of carriage between the shipper and the carrier, and the reference number by which the consignment is tracked from acceptance to delivery.
It is also non-negotiable, which is the single most important thing to understand about it. Unlike a bill of lading in ocean freight, an air waybill does not represent ownership of the cargo and cannot be traded or transferred to give someone else title to the goods. The words non-negotiable are printed on the face of the document.
The format was designed by IATA and is used for both domestic and international air transport.
What Does an Air Waybill Actually Do?
An air waybill performs three distinct functions at once, and separating them makes the document much easier to understand.
It is a receipt. By issuing the air waybill, the carrier confirms it has accepted the described cargo in apparent good order. This is the point at which responsibility passes from the shipper to the carrier.
It is a contract of carriage. The conditions printed on the reverse set out the terms on which the carrier will move the goods, including liability limits and the procedure for making a claim. The shipper accepts those terms by tendering the cargo.
It is the tracking and handling instruction. The number identifies the consignment across every system it passes through, and the fields carry the routing, the handling requirements, the declared weight and any special instructions.
It also supports customs processes, since the document carries the description and value information that clearance depends on.
How Does the AWB Number Work?
The AWB number is eleven digits, made up of three parts.
| Position | Digits | What it identifies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Three digits | The airline prefix, the carrier’s own code |
| 4 to 10 | Seven digits | The serial number, unique to that shipment for that carrier |
| 11 | One digit | The check digit, calculated from the serial number |
It is usually written as three digits, a hyphen, then the remaining eight, for example 125-12345675.
How the Check Digit Is Calculated?
The check digit is the remainder when the seven-digit serial number is divided by seven.
Take a serial number of 1234567. Divided by seven, that gives 176366 with a remainder of 5, so the check digit is 5 and the full number reads 125-12345675.
The purpose is error detection. A mistyped or transposed digit will usually break the arithmetic, which flags the error before the shipment moves rather than after it goes missing.
House and Master Air Waybills?
When a freight forwarder consolidates several shippers’ cargo into one shipment, two layers of documentation exist for the same physical cargo.
| Master air waybill | House air waybill | |
|---|---|---|
| Issued by | The airline | The freight forwarder |
| Issued to | The freight forwarder | The individual shipper |
| Covers | The whole consolidated shipment | One shipper’s consignment within it |
| Number format | Standard 11-digit AWB number | The forwarder’s own reference format |
| Contract is between | Airline and forwarder | Forwarder and shipper |
The shipper holds a house air waybill and its contract is with the forwarder, not with the airline. The forwarder holds the master air waybill and its contract is with the airline.
This is the source of most tracking confusion in air freight. A shipper entering a house air waybill number into an airline’s tracking system will get nothing back, because the airline has no record of it. The airline only knows the master number.
Where a shipment is not consolidated, only one air waybill exists, issued directly by the carrier or its agent.
Who Can Issue an Air Waybill?
An air waybill is issued by the carrier or by an agent authorised to act on the carrier’s behalf. In practice this means the airline itself, or a freight forwarder holding IATA Cargo Agency Accreditation, which entitles it to hold stocks of air waybills from participating airlines.
A freight forwarder without that accreditation books through an accredited agent or a consolidator, and the air waybill is issued by that party rather than by the forwarder the shipper is dealing with.
Airline and Neutral Air Waybills
Two forms of the document exist.
- Airline air waybills carry a specific carrier’s name, address, logo and pre-printed serial number
- Neutral air waybills use the same layout and fields but carry no pre-printed carrier identity, so the issuing party completes it
Neutral forms exist because agents handling cargo for many carriers would otherwise need to hold separate stationery for each one.
What Information Is on an Air Waybill?
The document carries the details every party in the chain needs to handle the consignment correctly.
- Shipper name and address
- Consignee name and address
- Issuing carrier and agent details, including the agent’s IATA code
- Airport of departure and airport of destination, with routing
- Number of pieces, gross weight and chargeable weight
- Nature and quantity of goods, including dimensions and volume
- Declared value for carriage and for customs
- Handling information and special service requests, including codes such as AVI for live animals or the relevant code for temperature controlled cargo
- Charge details and whether charges are prepaid or collect
- Signature of the shipper or its agent, and of the issuing carrier
Errors in the weight, the handling codes or the goods description are the ones that cause shipments to be stopped at acceptance, since they are the fields the handler checks against the physical cargo.
What Are the Conditions on the Reverse?
The reverse of an air waybill carries the carrier’s conditions of contract, and these are the terms the shipment actually moves under.
Two things matter most.
Liability is limited. Carrier liability for cargo is capped by international convention on a per-kilogram basis rather than by the value of the goods. The Montreal Convention governs most international air carriage today, with the older Warsaw Convention and its amendments still applying in some cases. The per-kilogram limit has been revised more than once, so the current figure should be checked against the applicable convention.
Declaring a higher value changes the position. A shipper can declare a value for carriage above the standard limit, which raises the carrier’s liability and attracts a valuation charge. Where a shipment’s value substantially exceeds the standard liability cap, cargo insurance is usually the more practical route.
The practical point for a shipper is that the standard liability cap on a light, high-value consignment can be a small fraction of what the goods are worth.
What Is an e-AWB?
An e-AWB is an electronic air waybill, replacing the paper document with an electronic record exchanged between the forwarder and the carrier. IATA’s e-AWB programme and its multilateral agreement removed the requirement for a paper air waybill to be issued, which allowed the shift to electronic documentation across the industry.
The benefits are the obvious ones, fewer documents to produce and handle, less data re-keying and fewer transcription errors, and faster processing at acceptance.
The wider industry direction is towards data sharing standards that move beyond the document metaphor entirely, so that shipment information is a shared record rather than a form passed along a chain. The air waybill as a concept is not disappearing, but the paper form largely has.
Questions About Air Waybills
What is an air waybill?
An air waybill is the transport document for an air cargo shipment. It acts as a receipt for the goods, a contract of carriage between the shipper and the carrier, and the reference by which the consignment is tracked.
How many digits is an air waybill number?
Eleven. The first three are the airline prefix, the next seven are the serial number, and the last is a check digit calculated from the serial number.
How is the AWB check digit calculated?
The check digit is the remainder when the seven-digit serial number is divided by seven. A serial of 1234567 divided by seven leaves a remainder of 5, so the check digit is 5.
Is an air waybill negotiable?
No. An air waybill is non-negotiable and is not a document of title. It does not represent ownership of the cargo and cannot be transferred to give someone else title to the goods. This is the main difference from a negotiable bill of lading in ocean freight.
What is the difference between an air waybill and a bill of lading?
An air waybill covers air cargo and is non-negotiable. A bill of lading covers ocean and some surface freight and may be negotiable, in which case it functions as a document of title and can transfer ownership.
What is the difference between a house and a master air waybill?
A master air waybill is issued by the airline to the forwarder and covers a consolidated shipment as a whole. A house air waybill is issued by the forwarder to an individual shipper and covers that shipper’s consignment within the consolidation.
Why does my AWB number not track?
The most common reason is that the number is a house air waybill issued by a forwarder, which the airline’s system has no record of. Airline tracking works on the master air waybill number. Ask the forwarder for the master number, or track through the forwarder’s own system.
Who issues an air waybill?
The carrier, or an agent authorised to act on its behalf. In air cargo this usually means the airline or a freight forwarder holding IATA Cargo Agency Accreditation, which entitles it to hold air waybill stocks from participating airlines.
