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This week saw air cargo professionals from around the world gather in Hong Kong for IATA’s World Cargo Symposium. Among the many insightful discussions and presentations, CHAMP had the honor of participating in the Digitalization Stream, a panel focusing on the current state and future of ONE Record adoption in the air cargo industry.
Moderated by Zeta Loo, Head of Commercial Operations for APAC at CHAMP, the panel delved into the transformative potential of ONE Record, a standard that aims to revolutionize data sharing and digitalization in air cargo operations.
“ONE Record is crucial in ‘creating the foundation for airlines, their partners, and service providers to develop and leverage digital automated services.” - Zeta Loo
Decoding ONE Record: insights from industry experts on their approach
The first question panelists were asked was how they would characterize their approach to ONE Record.
Nicholas Xenocostas, CHAMP’s Chief Commercial Officer, stated that for the air cargo industry to fully benefit from ONE Record, there needs to be critical mass adoption at scale. To do this, the focus should be on the highest ROI (return on investment) use cases, in addition to identifying new areas or operational “black holes” in the market where ONE Record adoption can be leveraged to drive growth.
He also highlighted we have already seen the shift from pilot projects to real-use production cases, citing successful implementations with key industry players like Cathay Cargo, Swissport, and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).
“We all have to embrace the paradigm from document-centric to data-centric,” said Nicholas. “The way ONE Record data is orchestrated is completely different than what we are used to.
How the air cargo industry stands to benefit from ONE Record adoption
When asked what opportunities ONE Record will offer, Nicholas affirmed the potential to significantly increase the competitiveness of the air cargo industry, scaling visibility, transparency, collaboration, and improving overall efficiency.
“In ONE Record, you go, and you fetch data right from the source. So, by definition, the data quality is better, there are fewer errors, more consistency, and a reduction in duplication of data.”
Nicholas explained that ONE Record would provide a level of futureproofing to the air cargo industry, and referenced possible use cases for the future, such as allowing customs to directly request data as opposed to receiving it or enabling data exchange across modes of transport.
For example, you don’t take an AWB and decompose it … "the data set is by definition at a granular level that allows you to pull the data elements needed via APIs (URLs) to build what you want – like a Lego!”
Navigating challenges: panelists delve into potential adoption hurdles for the air cargo industry
Change management was identified as a potential key challenge in the adoption of ONE Record. Despite the 2026 deadline set by IATA, Nicholas explained that “the reality is that we will have to support multiple means of doing the same thing. We will have paper, CIMP, XML, and ONE Record, so the reality is that we will have to maintain parallel systems."
Other concerns included data security and privacy, as Nicholas observed that we will most likely be sharing more and more sensitive cargo and business-related data across multiple platforms and entities which may introduce security and privacy risks. Therefore, ensuring that the ONE Record platform is secure and compliant with relevant data protection regulations is essential.
Inclusivity is another area that the industry as a whole will have to address as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may face challenges in participating fully due to limited resources or technical capabilities.
“Not everyone is going to be able to move at the same pace or has access to the same resources, so we need to consider how we can bring them on the journey. ONE Record is not a sprint - it’s a marathon. So, we need to be realistic with each other and provide some ‘bridges' … that support existing systems for the next few years.”
In doing so, this would make ONE Record more accessible and easier to adopt for air cargo businesses at every level.
Ensuring success: strategies shared by panelists to avoid failure in ONE Record adoption
Close collaboration amongst the first implementers and stress testing is critical to seamlessly adopting ONE Record. Nicholas spoke to the need to not only invest in the tech but to invest in the people who will help make ONE Record successful within organizations and the industry.
“Organizations need to put dedicated people in place who can look at the impact of ONE Record… We need to be able to bring people along, excite them, and get them to see the benefits. Once people see the benefits, they can move forward and focus on use cases.”
CHAMP pioneers early adoption of ONE Record: driving business benefits through innovative use cases and initiatives
1Neo-Connect service is a new Supernode offered by CHAMP where all participants (Freight Forwarders, Airlines, and GHAs) can make use of a simplified API connection that will allow them easy access to ONE Record services.
This aligns with CHAMP's commitment to evolving its global API infrastructure for ONE Record, leveraging insights gained from handling 250 million API calls annually.
CHAMP is dedicated to driving the early adoption of ONE Record by reducing complexity, providing low-level entry points for those who want to start at their own pace, and offering a consistent approach across our community that reduces interoperability issues.
If you would like to hear more about CHAMP’s ONE Record initiatives and partnerships, don't hesitate to contact our team.
